What’s it take to sit in your seat?

It was New Year's Eve in Iceland. I was in the capital, Reykjavík, out to dinner with some family.

We started to get into a conversation about money. It was my dad, my aunt (his sister), my two cousins, and me.

One of my cousins asked my dad how he was investing his money? Did he go to a money manager? Wealth advisor?

My Dad said he was taking meetings but no one was standing out to him. He said they all seem to follow the same cookiecutter template. And most get paid regardless of how they perform.

He said if he had the time he could do almost everything they were offering to do for him.

My cousin asked how would he know what to do?

My dad told a story that I may have heard before, but it didn’t hit me like it did this time.

When he was in his 30s he got his Series 6 and 66 license. I was young at the time so I wasn’t aware of this. At that time I also wouldn’t have known what it meant.

He said he started meeting with wealth advisors and managers in his late 20s - early 30s. One guy he met was super arrogant.

My Dad felt the guy was talking down to him and wasn’t giving specific answers to his questions.

At one point, my Dad had enough and asked: “What’s it take to sit in your seat?”

The guy was shook. He had a blank stare on his face and asked my Dad what he meant.

My Dad repeated, “You heard me. I want to know what I would have to do to sit in the seat you’re sitting in right now.”

The guy listed out the steps one would have to take. My Dad said, “That’s what I’m going to do.” And walked out the room.

He started studying for the SIE and the NASAA Uniform Combined State Law Exam (I think I got those names right?) every night. Took it. And passed.

When he did this, he had a Civil Engineering degree from Penn State and was a full time employee as an engineer. He was also taking care of two young kids. My sister and I were likely in elementary school at that time.

Everyday he’d go to his full time job during the day. Take care of his husband and dad duties after work. And at night, while we slept, he studied for the exams.

He passed on his first try and signed a few clients as a side hustle. He also made some investments for his family. One of them ended up making my pop-pop a few thousand a year for a while.

After a little while he realized that wasn’t something he wanted to do long term, and he eventually stopped.

His next side hustle was starting his own engineering business. He’s been successfully running that for years. While still managing everything that comes with his full time job.

I used to think my Dad and I weren’t much alike. Growing up I was a competitive soccer player. Played at a high level. I had every expectation that I’d play soccer professionally.

When that didn’t pan out, I dove into entrepreneurship.

My dad was never really into competitive sports growing up. He’s much more of a handyman. Building cars, fixing anything and everything around the house. Things I still know nothing about.

Our interests just didn’t seem to align.

And when I was younger, I always saw my Dad as an employee. Not in a negative way.

He found a job that he was good at, paid him well, and he liked it enough to stay there. Just wasn’t something I wanted to do.

But over the years I realized that’s far from the truth. And we’re more alike than I thought.

Hearing the “What’s it take to sit in your seat?” story was another reminder of that.

I was a bit amped after hearing the story, and felt inspired.

Sometimes you can do it yourself.

And sometimes, even though you can, doesn’t mean you should… or you that have to.

But it might be worth asking more often…. What’s it take to sit in your seat?

Pics of my dad and me in Iceland