Like their respective parents, John Durham and his wife Alice worked on the on the Wall Street stock market & as an accountant respectively. They had one son, Andy, who lived nearby and was studying Art at university.
The Durhams lived well. They had an expensive house and 2 luxury cars. They awoke at 4.30am in order to get to work on time. They would both arrive home at around 7pm. Their weekends were spent networking with Johns colleagues, finding out information, trends and predictions while other friends would ask Alice for tax advice. Their lives revolved around money.
As if this wasn’t enough, John had a gambling problem. Each Friday night he would tell Alice he had a meeting to attend. He was actually gambling at the Casino. It had been going on for years.
One night John overstepped the mark. He placed $90,000 on 1 hand at blackjack. The croupier called for his supervisor due to the amount. The supervisor let John proceed as he had been a regular & loyal customer.
John lost the hand.
He arrived home & told Alice straight away. Alice told him he was to be out of the house first thing in the morning.
John had nowhere to go except his sons, Andy. Andy welcomed him in. The house had art equipment everywhere and reeked of cannabis. As Andy cleared a seat for John, John commented on it. “You can get used to it or leave, Dad,” said Andy. John put the TV on and John told him the full story. “There’s always a bed here, Dad. Not ideal, I know but it’s here.” John thanked him.
The following week a letter from the bank arrived for John. It was on behalf of Alice requesting she be re-paid half of their savings forthwith. $45,000. Johns head started spinning. How could he raise that sort of money fast? A month to be exact.
He ran the letter past Andy. His creative mindset came up with an instant but illegal solution. “How well do you know your friends & how much do you trust them, Dad?” he asked. John replied that he only knew them professionally but trusted most of them. Andy continued, “Find out which ones are into insider trading & stick to them.” John said, “Insider trading! Are you crazy?” Andy replied, “You’re looking at jail as it is, Dad. I’d try anything if I was you.”
John continued at work and attending his weekend meetings where he hooked up with 2 inside traders. He trusted them. He had to. He raised the $45,000 within a month and hand delivered a cheque to Alice. “How did you get that?” she said sternly. “Gambling?” John said nothing and left.
He stopped insider trading after the money was raised. He had enough money left over to set himself up in his own apartment near Andy who he visited frequently but not enough to check up on him. He cut back working to 3 days a week. He didn’t need that much money any more.
He began to dress more casually. When he first visited Andy in the presence of his friends they thought he was cool as he passed no comment about the fact they were smoking cannabis.
John was no longer governed by money.
