REAL WORLD
Perseverance, Luck, And A Little Chutzpah Can Go A Long Way
Dow 1000
by Edwin Polokoff
There are many ways to succeed in this world, and help can come from an unlikely source.
A long time ago, I received a telephone call from a friend and teaching colleague. "Buy a copy of The Saturday Evening Post and read the story about Merrill Lynch," he said. "I think you should get a job there." In no great hurry, I eventually did get around to reading about the "thundering herd of Wall Street." My reaction was immediate. This was for me. So began my love affair with Merrill Lynch.
The challenge was to secure a job offer, no simple matter for a teaching fellow steeped in academia and unsophisticated in Wall Street culture. I had doubts about giving up a teaching career in favor of pursuing a far-fetched fantasy world consisting of wealthy clients seeking my advice, big income, and lengthy vacations to exotic parts of the world. Nonetheless, I plowed ahead with a barrage of personal calls on E. Howard H. Roth, the resident managing partner of the Buffalo office.
Figure 1: The downturn in 1962 had many market participants scrambling.
Roth's reaction to my overtures was polite, but negative. He was blunt in explaining his theory that teachers were not good candidates for brokerage or money management positions. On six separate occasions over several months, I jockeyed with him, but his attitude changed little.
He did allow me to take the aptitude tests, customary for job applicants. My scores on the psychological testing section presented me as religious, pedantic, idealistic - hardly my true makeup. Roth was satisfied with his negative appraisal of my suitability.
I did score one success when I came up with a response he liked to one of his questions.
"What's the stock market going to do, Mr. Polokoff?" he asked. "From your background, you must have some good ideas."
At that moment, I remembered something I had read somewhere: "The market will either go up or go down. In the absence of either of those movements, prices will remain the same."
Roth beamed. I had given the right answer! "I've been in the business for over 30 years, and I never met anyone who knew what the hell the market was ever going to do," he said. Finally, I was making some progress.
By the sixth interview (and by the way, he liked my persistence), Roth was still feeling me out. "If I decided to take a chance on you, how much money would you want to make in five years?" he asked.
My salary at the university was $3,600 per year. After a moment, I replied, "$25,000." His eyes lit up. The meeting ended on an upbeat note. Two days later, I was offered a menial job at the local office.
...Continued in the October 2001 issue of Technical Analysis of STOCKS & COMMODITIES
Edwin Polokoff is a retired first vice president of Merrill Lynch residing in Florida.
Excerpted from an article originally published in the October 2001 issue of Technical Analysis of STOCKS & COMMODITIES magazine. All rights reserved. © Copyright 2001, Technical Analysis, Inc.