THE NARRATIVE ARC
An Investment Gamble Built My Future and Taught Me Regret
A single stock purchase provided life lessons about wealth, choices, and letting go
“You really think I should invest in a biotech company? I barely have enough money to buy dinner.”
We were seated around the dining table at my parents’ house. I was inhaling my mother’s famous roast lamb. I was a struggling university student whose most significant investment was a case of beer, so my father’s advice was surprising. As I wolfed down what would be my only decent meal that week, my father looked at me seriously.
“First, Ash, chew before you swallow, or you’ll choke. But yes, I strongly urge you to buy some shares in this IPO.”
The year was 1994, and that dinner conversation would alter the course of my life in ways I couldn’t imagine — both wonderful and painful.
My father worked in some corporate job in the city — I never really knew what he did there, just that it bored him to tears. But he’d come alive every evening when he opened the newspaper’s financial pages. That’s where his real passion was — the stock market. He had friends in finance who’d trade tips, and I’d watch him light up talking about shares and IPOs like a kid discussing…
