It was a crisp December night in New York City. A fresh layer of snow was turning to slush and Christmas was in the air.
The year was 1998 and I was 2 weeks from graduating with a shiny, new finance degree from THE University of Texas at Austin.
My future investment banking coworkers and I pulled up to Smith & Wollensky’s for my big steak dinner as the capstone to my interview process.
(2 weeks later I’d get my offer letter and immediately burned the 36 rejection letters from the other banks that had arrived before it. But that’s another story for another day.)
We were jammed into a taxi and I was sitting in the back seat on the left side.
The taxi pulled up on the right side of 3rd Ave and everyone spilled out.
As I swung my door open street-side, I heard a loud THUNK and somebody scream.
I looked up to trace the sound just in time to see a bike messenger flying through the air with his front bike wheel wedged under the car door.
“Oh my God, are you okay!?!?” I yelled.
The guy was a pro and as he dusted himself off (with no busted teeth), he said “Yeah, I’m just great.” He flipped me off, grabbed his bike, and rode off.
As the cab pulled away, the 4 guys I was with were laughing their faces off.
I forced a chuckle myself and then Ed patted me on the back, winked and said, “Don’t worry, kid. Everyone opens the street-side door without looking until something like that happens. But I bet you’ll never do that again! Ha!”
And he’s right. For the last 25 years I have never ever opened a car door street-side without looking over my shoulder first.
A good financial planner (like Financial Zen) will teach you to look over your shoulder financially, so YOU don’t have to learn that lesson the hard way.
So find a good financial planner.
Bike messengers everywhere will thank you.
