You Can be Better

Hello all, my name is Anders, and I want to know one thing. Are you happy with your life? Now when I say happy I mean happy. I am not asking if you are proud of your life, I am not asking if you are pleased with your accomplishments, I am asking if you are truly happy. It is not a question to be taken lightly, the point of this piece is to open up a discussion about this subject. I have been asking myself this question for years, and I knew what the answer was, I was just afraid to admit it. This posting is as much about helping myself ( hey times are hard I can’t afford therapy anymore ), as it is about helping others.

I don’t want to bore you, but I feel I need to give you some background on me. I am a 35 year old male, married, father of three ( 10 year old boy, 7 year old twin girls ). I am your average guy, I like sports, I like movies, and I like a good steak. When I was 22 years old I went to work for my uncle on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. It was an exciting time, I grew up in a household that couldn’t really afford the finer things in life, and I idolized my uncle growing up. This was my chance to make a lot of money, to have the life I always dreamed of. I was going to Wall Street, and I was going to be rich. At the time it was a family business, a mom and pop firm on the floor of the NYSE. It was myself, my uncle, my cousin, and my uncle’s son in law(Mark). Truth be told I was nervous, and the one reservation I had was working with my uncle’s son in law ( I had known him since I was 16, and he always kind of gave me the impression that he thought he was better than everyone else). I ignored my gut feeling ( not the first time), and I went to work at the financial capital of the world. About three days in, I realized I had made a mistake. Mark was basically in charge of me, and as I suspected, not a good guy. I stuck it out though because the money ended up being so good. I got married, had kids, bought a house and I was generally living the American dream.