How To Be A Jedi Knight

In 2005 I was going to go out of business (again) with my hedge fund. My biggest investor had lost all his money. He had a nervous twitch and whenever I ran into him he was constantly twitching, “I need my money back,” he told me.

But I didn’t have it. I had invested it. It would be a year before I could legally give it to him. So I didn’t know what to do. He once threw a chair at me he was so angry.

So I did what any normal 37 year old man in the fund of hedge funds business would do.

I bought the book, “The Tao of Star Wars”. Because I knew deep down if I just surrendered to The Force then my business would be ok.

I read the book every night before I went to sleep. I had confidence that it would save my business.

And it did. Or I did. Or something did. My business didn’t go under. That wouldn’t happen for another year or so.

A few weeks ago Cheryl Richardson, author of the book, “The Art of Extreme Self-Care” asked me and a bunch of people what movies impacted us the most. I jumped right out there, “Star Wars”! because I believe in The Force. I think someone else said “Schindler’s List”.

I saw Star Wars when I was seven years old and it changed my life. I’ve seen it over 40 times since then. Claudia and my kids refuse to see it. Damn them!

I tried to explain the story to my dad and he gave me wise advice, “I can never follow when someone tries to tell me a story”. I now repeat that sentence almost every day to people who try to tell me boring stories.

Nobody knows what’s true and what’s fake. We all have faith in something: usually a mixture of some personal beliefs with modern science. I am not like that. Mostly I just believe in what personally has worked for me.

The Force works for me. I admit it.

Here’s how to be a Jedi Knight:

A) Rest when you have nothing to do.

When Qui-Gon is fighting Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace a transparent door closes, dividing them. Darth Maul paces back and forth and Qui-Gon simply sits and rests and seems to be doing nothing.