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"Legend of the Bald Eagle’s Nest"
 Once upon a time, in the city of brotherly love, lived a boy with a
dream named Steve. Every night his mother told him that he could be
what ever he wanted to be when he grew up. It was difficult for him
in elementary school because he had a short haircut covering what
looked like a turtle shaped head. The kids nicknamed him Turtlehead.
Academically challenged because his mom put him in kindergarten at
age 4, he still believed in his dreams and was smart enough to
believe his mom. After all, moms know everything.
As his hair grew to cover his turtle shaped head, his confidence
grew. By senior year in college he could stand on his own two feet
and decided to leave his nest in Philadelphia to live in Honolulu,
Hawaii, a land of which he had dreamed. Little did he know there was
a beautiful redhead named Cindy that frequented a piano bar named
“The Eagle’s Nest” high atop a high rise near a beach called Magic
Island. After their eyes met several times on that Magic Island
beach they fell in love and were married.
Flying in the pension trade winds of change, Steve led the Hawaiian
people into the 401(k) promise land. Cindy flew with him in the
trade winds of change, leading the women’s athletic program at the
University of Hawaii through the valley of Title IX. They produced a
401(k) educational video that never made any money, documenting
Steve’s 401(k) dreams and his receding hairline. With little money,
a big night out was a bowl of saimin at Chinese restaurant named
McCully Chop Suey.
Saving and investing through the years took most of the hair from
Steve’s head. He believed Trigon Healthcare would eventually be
acquired (and it was) but he sold the stock too soon. He believed
Warner Lambert’s drug Lipitor would become a billion dollar pill. He
sold the stock too soon, making only a little over one million
dollars missing out on a $4 million gain after Pfizer acquired them.
He never owned AOL stock for more that 10 days and made close to a
million dollars. The big pay off came when he, as CFO, sold his
family mattress business at just the right time. Nationwide Discount
Sleep Centers was sold in the spring of 1999, before the Bush/Gore
presidential election, at a market peak. He didn’t sell too soon or
too late. Timing was perfect. The metamorphosis of a turtlehead kid
from Media, Pennsylvania to a bald eagle was quantified.
As their funds grew, so did
the budget for the dream home. Five years of planning and three
architects later, the house stands: 190 tons of rock, brick and
slate. It is French country style build on an American dream in a
land of democracy. Steve and Cindy named it The Bald Eagle’s Nest
and they live happily ever after.
Return to Mazda Columns
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