Wisdom Story
Matthew Ryan Fischer
“Some people were born into it, some people buy their way into it,
and some people take it at the tip of their danger.”
Humphrey and Hugo Harper did come from a family of riches. Their father was not a wealthy man. Orville Harper only had his conventional
wisdom and funny metaphors to pass down to his sons as he tried to prepare them
for their adult lives. He wasn’t telling
his sons to become criminals. He didn’t
mean for them to literally pick up a dagger and go out and steal their
future. He was trying to explain to them
that not everyone got lucky in life. Some
people were born without luck. And if
that were the case then those people would have to make their own. Humphrey and Hugo were two of those people.
Hugo took his father’s words literally. He set about trying to apply them to his
daily practices, making himself a better person, a better worker, striving for
excellence. He believed that you made
your own luck by working hard and putting yourself in a position for good
things to happen to you.
Humphrey took his father’s words as a challenge. He set about trying to work outside the
system and think outside the box. He
took chances. He took risks. He believed that success was just a concept
and like all concepts, it was just floating around out there almost like it was
in another dimension and all he had to do was figure out a way to reach out and
pluck it out of space for himself.
The brothers worked separately with very different results.
Hugo worked a full time job and was always looking for ways to
make money on the side. He uses his
evenings to study classes online. He
educated himself in business management, then civil engineering, and then
communications. He spent the rest of his
days wisely and frugally, bettering himself and learning more. Always learning. His weekends were for craft projects. He sold them in his spare time. He went to networking events. He attended seminars. He never watched television and rarely
drank. When he had spare time, he had a
book in his hand.
Humphrey was good at meeting people. He drank.
He partied. He was fun. He attracted people, men and women. He always had an aura of life about him and
people responded to it and wanted to be part of it. He slept in late and didn’t know a thing
about saving money, but he loved ideas and knew how to talk people into
investing in them. Humphrey didn’t worry
too much about what the future held, he was relaxed and knew how to go with the
flow. He was willing to take chances and
unafraid of change or the future.
Hugo had money and he saved it.
He trusted the financial institutions and had faith that sound
investment would pay healthy dividends and his life would be secure.
Humphrey took out loans and bought into real-estate and business often. Many made money. Many more failed. He was always in and out of debt and his life
was always chaotic.
Just as a technology startup Humphrey had invested in was
beginning to turn a profit, Hugo’s investments were being wiped out due to maleficence
on the part of his financial advisor.
“Some people are lucky, and some people make their own luck.”
Hugo could not forget his father’s words.
This set back would begin a chain of unlucky events and decisions
that would just result in further disasters.
Hugo would lose his job, his house and his life savings. He developed a gambling problem, always
trying to get back whatever he had lost in one grand gamble.
“…Some people make their own luck.”
Some people did, but not Hugo.
He never had the cards. The game
was always against him. He made mistake
after mistake after mistake until he had nothing left.
“…at the tip of their dagger.”
Hugo remembered his father’s other words. He remembered his brother’s success. He remembered he had enough money to purchase
a weapon and had nothing else left to live for.
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