The Industry

I’ve tried to watch HBO’s Wall Street drama series. “The Industry” a few times now. I may have written about this before, I can’t remember. The premiere episode was good. There was a scene where one of the newbie salespeople is simultaneously getting yelled at by the trader sitting directly across from her, her sales manager standing over her and the client on the other end of the phone. I thought, “Oh yes, finally they got it down, this is going to be good!” Unfortunately, from that point on the show devolved into another annoying, unrealistic take on Wall Street with the usual cartoon-like characters delivering a zillion iterations of, “Coffee is for closers.”, the brilliant young person with the hard-scrabble background who figures everything out her first 3 weeks on the job etc. Maybe it’s a good drama, it’s on its third season now so somebody likes it, just not me.

Anywhoo, watching a bit of the show did jar a great Wall Street memory for me that happened on a hot August day in 2007. I sat next to this funny old curmudgeon Bob on the trading desk, and it was our turn to let one of the summer interns sit with us and watch us “ply our craft”. She was a beautiful girl, probably a junior in college and she sat between us with a notepad. Most of the morning was uneventful, a trade here and there but nothing to write home about. Then around 10:30 my biggest account called up with a HUGE ORDER…….for Shake Shack. Back then I think there was only the one Shake Shack in Madison Square Park, so it was an effort to get this guy probably 60 burgers, fries, shakes….etc. So, I sprang into action, using all my skills to get every junior person within 25 yards of me to help go to the park (with the promise to buy them lunch) and get the goods whilst reserving a car to whisk the burgers uptown to the client. I needed all the kids because Shake Shack had just implemented a new 6 burger per customer rule…serious logistical stuff!

I looked over at the intern in the middle of my D-Day like planning and, maybe I was projecting but I felt like she was looking at me with disdain. Here was a 40-year-old man, somewhat of a player in this game that was looked upon with a sense of awe by her and her peers, essentially being a glorified errand boy. Bob picked up on it as well as he turned to her and said,

”So, you thought that we sat here and figured out important stuff didn’t ya.” And then I chimed in, “Nope, this is it! Now get your shoes on and get over to the park with the rest!”

I hope the intern learned from this and went into medicine or environmental law.