What Counts

A friend once invited me to visit his workplace on Wall Street, New York City.

Inside were three round tables with twleve persons at each round table. In front of each person was a computer. On the walls were clocks with the times of all the time zones around the world. I was looking at international currency trading in high gear!

The trade at each of the thirty-six computer stations started at $25 million!

How can the average person beat this kind of round-the-clock sophistication?

My host surprised me.

He said, "You know, I was good at this; I could have everything I wanted. And it was killing me. I woke up on the floor one morning two years ago; I said to myself, 'If I keep this up, I am going to kill myself. What should I do?' A voice in my head said, 'Be a priest.' I have waited for two years to see if this in fact was my vocation. I am entering the seminary in the fall." This was August.

I said to him, "You realize for many or most business students this would be heaven on earth."

Yet, he was walking away from it - without condemnation in the process. I shall never forget this event. I learned some valuable lessons that day about what counts.