My kids say the same thing. I was always tough on them because I knew the real world wouldn't be easy.
But I'd say you are in the upper echelon. You've got a degree, a car, and no debt. I can't name 10 others that have this distinction. I know several as that's my kids age bracket. I get these same type of diatribe emails often from the youngest.
Give yourself a pat on the back. Then put on your big boy pants and face the world.
I also got 35k in cash. But the big thing is I dont know what to do. No job entices me, the ones that do want work related experience. How the hell can i get work experience if no job ever hires me? It's a catch 22. And now with a 4 year gap since college finished, jobs are going to wonder what the hell I was doing in those 4 years cause the jobs I worked were for the most part under the table.Originally Posted by moses
Go back to school for a couple years and get the accounting courses you need to qualify to sit for the CPA exam. Then pass the exam and get hired by a CPA firm. Sounds like you have the analytical skills to succeed in this profession. The market for young incoming CPAs is very hot and will stay that way for the next several years. Nobody will care about the gap in your work experience - just tell them that the light bulb went on when you found out that your business degree wasn't worth the dust to blow it to hell with.
You'll be a good CPA - maybe a great one! And when you get to travel to that CPE conference in Las Vegas (or any major city), you'll know what to do in your spare time while your buddies are all losing money at the craps table.
The thought of school and forking over more money after the 4 year bachelors hasnt worked out is not something im thinking about or looking forward to. Last thing I need is losing all the cash I have and going into debt with uncertainty ill even get hired after passing the CPA exam. Im just sick of school and all the promises they give you. To me it's just one big scam. The only time it's not a scam is if you go to a top tier school and major in something 'specific', otherwise you will never stand out. The market is saturated with people with degrees, let alone 'business' degrees. Luckily my parents helped pay for my business degree, if they didnt, I think I would've been smart enough to not go straight in right away at the premature age of 19 and probably take a couple years off. You got to love how high school and the media put so much pressure on kids at 19 and expect them to know what they want to do with their lives and if you dont go to school, you're a loser. It's one big scam and pathetic at the same time. First two years are everything you learned in high school and depending on tuition you're already deep in the hole just learning things you learned in high school.
DigDaddy had a great suggestion. One of my siblings is an accountant and has so much money there isn't enough time to spend it. The accounting firm that this sibling started is one of the leaders in that field of accounting in the country. My sister in-law is also an accountant and makes so much money my brother is a stay at home Dad to 3 children.All you need is for someone to hire you. Then you show them you are worth more than anyone they have seen in a long time and negotiate your salary and benefits. Every company is hungry for people that excel at tasks that few can do well. Every employer I ever had appreciated my abilities and had no problem compensating me appropriately when asked to do so. If anyone complained the boss would dare them to be as valuable as I am to the company and tell them, if they can be that valuable they will get the same compensation and benefits.
Maybe there is a way to use all this blackjack knowledge that I have gained over the years to a job that will appreciate it and see that as a benefit prior to hiring me? ANy ideas to which jobs would see professional blackjack as a desirable trait? I mean it shows the ability to be analytical, dedication, discipline, etc. This also brings up the much debated topic of should you put being an AP on your CV/Resume? Ive long debated that because in the real world, it's a hit or miss. It can show you some indirect attributes but also to the uneducated, you can be seen as a degenerate and not trustworthy.
Your trouble is you present yourself as someone that is untrainable. Everyone tells you that you are wrong but you won't take direction. This trait will be your stumbling block if you can't get beyond it.
It is likely why you quit being an AP. You told me you didn't care about the heat or the backs but when the backs came you weren't prepared with a plan of what to do next. You lost your convenient store that you had the most success at and decided that was the last straw to break your AP career's back. At your age I wouldn't recommend AP as your primary focus. Look at it as a fallback. I think listening to KJ talk about playing 100 hours a year screwed you up. I don't know how many a full time AP plays but my bet is a third of that or maybe half that. You need to spread you play pretty thin to keep your exposure low enough if you play 1000 hours a year. In Vegas you have enough stores at hand to do that but the games suck. If you focus on quality of opportunities rather than quantity you will do better with less exposure. All that mantra about playing more to make the same with an easier approach causes you to play too much. That is fine if you are okay with the BO's that come with the added exposure. It is a shame that you envied KJ so much and did what would cause you issues despite everyone's warnings on the site. It is about a balance between exposure and amount won. The more you win the worse the exposure is to get the win in general.
You need a strategy that controls losing runs and makes hitting your win tolerance goal in a short time relatively likely. You need to be happy with a smaller win or a loss if your play exposes you too much. You can't decide you don't like that deal and overexpose yourself without being prepared to do what is necessary when you get the BO you made sure was coming, the only question was how soon. Tarzan would have been one to model your approach after. I am not talking about using the Tarzan Count. I am talking about his way of balancing amount won with exposure at the tables. The simpler your approach the more you have to expose yourself to execute it. That means a simpler approach will generally allow less playing time not more, less EV and more severe losing and winning runs just to maintain the same longevity. Most of the count debate is about EV but I use a complex approach so I can win what I want and the casino is comfortable with my approach. That way I can get in get the money and get out faster with an approach that they are comfortable not acting against me. This allows you to play fewer hours per year and still get the money. Think about all the times you got up 5 to 10 max bets only to play a long day which overexposed you and left with a smaller win or even a loss. And what happened the times you won more. The heat ramped up at that casino. It is about amount won and exposure. It is that simple. If you want to play more or win more you need to play more stores. In your area you can easily visit 3 to 6 stores in one day.
Well Norm. Everyone worries about the upside. Few seem concerned about minimize downside volatility.
In biz or production, we call it bottlenecking. It not something you can put in a SIM. You just recognize and take advantage. It becomes second nature to a point I don't even realize I'm doing it.
Lone wolf. I will say this, blackjack is the most difficult biz challenge in my life...and I've taken on some doozies. My kids get pissed because I won't teach them. They say I make it look so easy. It's not. Just a mind that's constantly churning.
I remember my first job out of college as an accountant. I really felt I was worth $1200 a month. They said it wasn't in the companies budget and I wouldn't find that kind of money anywhere. So everyday I started putting out resumes during my,lunch break. I was at 3845. A couple days later I walk into 4001, an enormous luxurious building. The owner was a multi millionaire who'd started with nothing. I walked into his office for my interview and it was full of basketball trophies. I'd knew I'd found home.
So 1 Peter 5.7. He taught me more than i would've ever got out of a book or a classroom. I was very blessed to have crossed his path.
Last edited by moses; 08-13-2016 at 07:42 PM.
It would sound better if you took it in context instead of truncating the sentence it was in.
The second half of the conjunction is the part being focused on. The need to control losing runs is to balance it with the more modest wins. Exposure is the main point of it all. You want to limit exposure by not showing your spread as much in a visit. Hitting a more modest win goal far more frequently allows you to leave with a sizable yet tolerable win and little exposure. Large losses are troubling if you don't win as much and they also expose you too much. Like I said it is about balancing winning and exposure. That is the key to longevity and allowing the suits to look the other way without fear of retribution from their superiors.
I will not post my records but if you could see it you would understand what I am talking about. Few large daily losses. Rarely consecutive losing days and close to a 3:1 winning day to losing day ratio and far more frequent and higher magnitude winning days than large losing days. Remember a day may contain visits to many casinos. At each casino you balance your winning amount with your exposure. Usually a moderate loss exposes you enough. But sometimes days just don't present many opportunities. And sometimes you lose a lot quickly.
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