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Podcast Host
HubSpot is a success story, partner. Now think about listening to this podcast. Right now you are probably multitasking. You are probably catching maybe 70 to 80% of what I'm saying. Now flip that and imagine catching only 20%. It's not a good use of your time. That'd be insane, right? But this is the reality for most businesses. Most businesses only use 20% of their data. That's like reading a book with 80% of the pages torn out. You are making decisions with a fraction of the picture. All the important details that get buried in the call logs and the emails and the transcripts and the chat messages and it's just floating around doing nothing for you. Unless you use HubSpot. Their customer platform brings all that unstructured data together and turns it into insights that actually help you grow your business. Because when you know more, you grow more. And when you're running a business on a hundred percent of your data instead of 20, the decisions get a lot easier. Visit HubSpot.com to get the full picture today in this lessons episode, explore the difference between short term financial wins and building lasting wealth. Discover why hype driven investing often leads to costly mistakes. Understand how strong career foundations create long term security. And uncover why patience, discipline and learning from failure matter more than chasing quick success. Well, that's what I'm so curious about because like now I see these people selling investment courses and day trading on YouTube and all.
Experienced Trader
I just.
Podcast Host
No, no, I know, but this is like, this is the shit that you're dealing with now.
Experienced Trader
And none of them have the experience that I have. And the people on the trading floor and you know when they're like, well, you know, you have to remember you had a 15 year period that every time the market came off, it bounced.
Podcast Host
Yeah.
Experienced Trader
So everybody's like. And I would teach in my class, guys, it doesn't have to bounce. So when they had the whole AMC thing and all the other things were like, oh, buy the dip, buy the dip. I had this one trade, I call it my Publix pharmacy trade. I would walk in and my Publix pharmacist would go, I got diamond hands. What does that mean? We're never letting go, we're never selling. I go, what are you never selling? He goes, AMC and GameStop. So I'm like, okay, good. I go to my E Trade account, I sell like 3,000 GameStop. He's like, what are you doing? He goes, you can't go short. That's illegal. I go, no, it's not. Illegal number one. I go, one, I'm not going short to bury the company. I'm going short because you're telling me I should buy it. I go short, market comes off, buy it back, you know, comes in the next day. Oh, you know, and it bounced after I bought it back. So he goes, told ya, diamond hands, diamond hands. I'm sell it again. You know, I mean, I made a lot of money off my pharmacist because I said, where are you getting this information? And he's like, oh, the guy in the produce, you know, he knows his stuff because he's following some guy on YouTube. He goes, Buy every dip. And let me tell you something, you buy every dip. And it's a great way to blow yourself out. And so many people got hurt in the stock market sell off of the past two years. Because what happens is that nobody I teach in my training classes and my investing classes that you always take some profit. I love when people say, I don't want to take profit. I want to pay the taxes. And then I call them up and go, well, now you got less taxes, you know, so, you know, nobody knows the art of, you know, managing your money within a position. So they buy, buy, buy on the way up, and they buy, buy buying the way bye, bye, bye here, and then hit the top of the triangle and you buy, buy, buy here. Now you're down on this, and you're down on this. So when people said stock market was down 20% the other year, people are down 40% on some stuff because they dollar cost averaged and didn't work their way. And as I said, there's a difference between adding to a position and adding to a bad position. And it's never taught the right way. And people go in and they just screw themselves over. So you got all these people online that, no offense to them, I mean, I'll go against my trading and my statistics any day against some of these people.
Podcast Host
But I think it's also because you have these communities pop up from crypto trading.
Experienced Trader
Oh, yeah.
Podcast Host
And then everyone's an expert overnight.
Experienced Trader
Oh, everybody. I was on Clubhouse one night and it was 1200 people in the room. And this guy says, bitcoin's going to 250,000. And I just went, why? And didn't say anything else. It was silence in the room. And he's like, what? I'm like, why? Well, there's only 23 million. That's not true anymore. He's like, what do you mean that's not true? I said, well, Derivatives and now they're trading on the CME and now they're trading against other currencies. As a trader, I know the way these things work now. You have a natural push on the market. It's not just the one way market anymore. And the guy just like, but it's going to 250. I know it. I'm like okay. That's when it went from 60 down to. And people got crushed on that wherever it is now. Yeah, it's 30 something. But so you got, you know, the Internet and Instagram and everything while it's. Can do a lot of good, can do a lot of harm.
Podcast Host
Yeah.
Experienced Trader
And you have some people out there that are telling some very young generation people some things that I think that are going to really hurt them as time goes on. And I've been deprogramming some of my friends, kids from this.
Podcast Host
I think you have to, I mean so to give you an example of what I see now, I see people that have meme, meme, Coin Telegram groups, right. Where as a group they buy together because they think that somebody's going to shill and pump. I'm pretty sure. Upwork is a success story, partner. Now one of the biggest lessons I learned building businesses is that you don't have to do it all yourself. The fastest growing companies, they are not working harder, they're delegating smarter. And that's where upwork comes in. Upwork is a one stop platform to find, hire and pay expert freelancers across web and software development and data and analytics and marketing and business operations and more. We're talking over 125 categories of specialized talent. So wherever the skill gap is, you can fill it fast without weeks of recruiting or committing to a full time hire. You can browse profiles, review past work and get help scoping the role before you ever spend a dollar. And with business plus you get access to the top 1% of talent on Upwork. And with AI powered shortlisting that matches you to the right person in under six hours, contracts, payments, all handled in one place, it's free. To sign up. Job posting is super easy. Visit Upwork.com right now and post your job for free. That is Upwork.com to connect with top talent ready to grow your business. That's up w o r k.com upwork.com LinkedIn Ads is a success story, partner. Now have you ever spent money on something that you were sure was going to be worth it and it just wasn't? Because we've all been there I've done it more times than I like to admit. And marketers do the same thing. You spend on ads. The impressions look great, the reach looks great. But then nothing turns into revenue. And now you have to explain it to your Boss or your CFO or your CEO. LinkedIn calls this bullspend. Now here's what's worth knowing. LinkedIn Ads generates the highest ROAS return on ad spend 121% of of all major ad networks. And you can target by company industry job title so you're actually reaching buyers, not just eyeballs. Cut the bull. Spend, advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 on your first campaign on LinkedIn ads and get a $250 credit for the next one. Just go to LinkedIn.com ScottClary that's LinkedIn.com ScottClary Terms and conditions apply. Framer is a success story partner. Now you could be a solopreneur, you could be an entrepreneur. You could be somebody just sitting at home who's trying to start a business out of their house. But you know the drill. You need good design to create a website to get your business off the ground. But good design is expensive and you can't afford to hire a designer for every single landing page social post. But you also can't afford to look amateur. And I've been there. You need to move fast, you need to look professional. But you also need to not blow your budget on five different tools. Framer already built the fastest way to publish beautiful production ready websites. And it's now redefining how we design for the web with the recent launch of design pages. A free canvas based design tool. Framer is more than a site builder. It's a true all in one design platform. From social assets to campaign visuals to vectors and icons, all the way to a live site. Framer is where ideas go live, start to finish. And the best part is it's actually free. Not a trial free. I'm talking unlimited projects, real vector tools, 3D transformations, everything you need without the nickel and diming. So if you're ready to design, iterate and publish all in one tool, start creating for free@framer.com design and make sure you use code success story for a free month of framer pro. That's framer.com design and use promo code success story framer.com design promo code success story Rules and restrictions may apply. That's illegal, right? Already?
Experienced Trader
Well yeah, it's like pump and dump.
Podcast Host
Yeah, but I mean like there's like groups set up for this shit. And they're advertising to come join my group.
Experienced Trader
Yeah. Guess what? And the guy that says, come join my group is selling to everybody that's buying it.
Podcast Host
Yeah.
Experienced Trader
So when that thing starts popping up, he has the original number.
Podcast Host
Yeah.
Experienced Trader
Right. And. But.
Podcast Host
But that's. That's, like, malicious. There's a lot of, like, idiots that aren't malicious as well, right?
Experienced Trader
Yeah, no, no, there's just some idiots that are just trading stuff that. Because they think it's going to work. But my question is, and this is something that the younger generation is just not getting. Listen to me carefully. Just not getting. The question is, it might work now, but what's going to work for the next 20 or 30 years? Okay. Because everybody's earning potential, and their powerful earning years do not last as long as they think they do. I know mine did it. I know, I know. I know some really wealthy people, and at some given point, unless you happen to have the right product that, you know is ongoing and, you know you can do it. But so many of these young, what they call these entrepreneurs are not really entrepreneurs. They're just getting lucky. And what happens in their 30s when they have a mortgage and a house and two kids and they need to go to college and they're unhirable. And that's what I think that's destructive in the concept of today, thinking that everybody should be an entrepreneur. I believe that you can be an entrepreneur in somebody else's business. It's very simple. My son wants to open up a fund one day. So what does he do? He ends up going to a college that made him go to that he didn't want to go to. It's another story in itself. He ends up getting a job for this guy, Howard Lutnick, who's a CEO of Kenner Fitzgerald. He works for him for three years. Then he goes and goes to NYU to get his master's. Then he picked. He got offered some five banks. Credit Suisse. Not the right bank to pick, but it's been a good experience. But he's getting that experience. And I said to him, finally, he's 28 years old now. And I said, oh, so maybe when you're 35, you'll open up a fund. He goes, no, I'll wait till I'm 40. I got a lot more to learn. Because what I teach these kids is build a foundation that you can lean back on for the rest of your life. My daughter, she was a photographer. She graduated Newhouse up in Syracuse. Great photographer, great editing she's like, I'm never gonna, this will not be sustainable for the rest of my life. Because she saw very quickly that people could edit on their phones and this, that or whatever. So she ended up getting a law degree. So, and the way that I kind of got her into the mindset of the law degree, cause she's really an artist. I said, I'm partners of a restaurant called Hunt and Fish Club in New York City. Wild, A great restaurant. And the waiters, there are waiters to pay for their acting career. So I said to my daughter, your photographer who happens to be a lawyer that's paying for your passion. So you have all these people, like, what's the big thing? Go for your passion. Well, guess what? Your passion might not be able to make enough to sustain you for the rest of your life. So sometimes you actually have to get a job to cover your life and your passion. And that's something that I think a lot of people are mixing up. And the question is on this 20 year old and 30 year old generation, what's going to happen when they're 40 and 50? Because you know what, I just turned 59. You got a little more tired. You don't have the energy. You might have the wisdom, but you don't have the energy. So the question that I put to some of these people that are doing this, okay, it's great, you're having a blast now. You're living your truth, all those key words that are thrown all over the place. But what are you going to do when the real responsibility kicks in, when it's not just you? And I hope that people will have good relationships and they'll have partners and they'll have wives or husbands or whatever works for them. And then they'll have families and they'll experience all the greatest things that I did with my kids growing up, which is really where the real rush comes in. But the question is that no one's thinking further in the future now. They're all thinking just immediate money now. Am I happy today? You know what the greatest thing that ever happened to me. You talk about my career. So two of the greatest things ever happened to me. My first two weeks of being on the trading floors in Chicago, my first thing was I went to this guy who is, you know, the guy I was going to be working for, turned out to be a real mafia guy. You know, I went there the first day, they got to come back in two weeks, they found his friend in the ditch. Okay, like real, real mafia, like real mafia Stuff. So. So I walk into his office and I say to him, you know what? I'm going to be the best broker you've ever seen. I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this and this. And he's like, david, just sit down and shut the fuck up. You could talk to people back then like that without them running out of the room being, you know, oh, look what he said. So he says, shut the fuck up. You know, And I'm like. He goes, you see that trading floor out there? Like, yeah. He goes, you see how exciting it is? You see the rush that it is? Yeah. He goes, one day it's going to be a job. He goes, one day you're going to walk in and you're not going to want to get spit on and you're not going to want to get knocked on the head and you're not going to want to deal with the pressure and you're not going to be feeling well and you are not going to want to do this. He says, but this will afford you and your family a quite interesting lifestyle. And if you're good at it, you can do a lot of things with this. So if you look at the long term and realize that everything turns into a job, very few people skip their way to work every day. I am envious of the people that do. A lot of musicians do, a lot of artists, I love that. If you could do it, great. But the problem is that the majority of the people don't have that, you know, so he gave me that advice. The other piece of advice I got was there was a guy there, he would look like Rip Van Winkle, you know, I mean, great, you know, red, crazy hair, looked like he'd been there forever, you know, And I was, you know, 20 something year old kid, so this guy might have been younger than me now, but who knows, right? So he looks at me and he goes, I know who you are. Because I went very quietly because my father was on the board of the other exchanges in New York. So I wouldn't, you know, just do my own thing because I know who you are. He goes, listen to me. He goes, you're going to have the chance to get into the ring one day because when you get into the ring, no one's going to care about who your father is. No one's going to care about where you went to school. They're just going to try to rip your throat out, because that's what we do here. He goes, I will never have the Chance to get into the ring. He goes, I've been working there for 30 years. I've been a clerk for 30 years. I'll always be a clerk for 30 years. He goes, so I'm going to give you some advice. He goes, watch everything. He goes, watch the people's faces, watch the people's, how they breathe. Watch how the runner, you know, runs from the desk to the pit. Is he running quickly? Is he running? When the broker grabs a piece of paper, look at his eyebrow, you know, look to see if that broker is looking at the girl. Did he sleep with her last night? What's going on? You know, I mean, he goes, look at everything and take it in every day. And you'll be a great trader because you'll be able to learn how to process the information. And from that day on, all through life, I look at everything. And that's why we could talk about it too. When I went blind in my right eye and had my world disappear, that really screwed me up. So what would happen is I would put in these interns in New York and I would put them in the middle of the training floor for two weeks. I wouldn't talk to them and I would get a call from either them or their parents. My kid's not learning things, really. And I would give this kid the same speech that this guy gave me and all of a sudden it opened up his eyes. Because if you start looking at life and you start looking at the world, literally everything, every moving part, and you take it all in, you're going to be quicker than everybody. You're going to understand what's where it's coming. You're going to be able to react faster. You know, I was one of 17 traders that was brought down to Quantico to get drilled by the generals because they wanted to know how he thought so quickly. With our own money, with that kind of pressure and being able to screw up. I have a whole class on screwing up. You know, people don't realize maybe 60% of our trades, 50 to 60 to 70, we're losers every day. But if you were upset with your screw ups, you never could do anything. So I talk about that. But those were the two things that this guy says to me. Get used to it. It's going to be a job. And by the end of it, I was like, I don't want to do this anymore. But you did it. But I still to this day think about that. If I could find that guy with the Rip Van Winkle guy and just thank him for that piece of advice. That was life changing.
Podcast Host
Thanks for tuning in. If you found this valuable, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode. And if you want to dive deeper into this conversation, check out the links in the description to watch the full episode. See you in the next one.
Episode: Lessons - What 25 Years on a Trading Floor Taught Me About Online Gurus
Guest: David Greenberg (Former NYMEX Board Member & CNBC Contributor)
Release Date: May 3, 2026
In this Lessons episode, Scott D. Clary sits down with David Greenberg, a trading veteran with over 25 years of experience, to uncover hard-earned truths about making money, investing, and the dark side of today’s online financial gurus. Through candid stories and practical insights, David contrasts short-term hype-driven financial trends with sustainable approaches to wealth and life. He also unpacks the real value of building a solid career foundation, learning from mistakes, and thinking long-term.
Theme: Dismantling the myths of quick success in trading, exposing the dangers of online gurus, and championing enduring, disciplined approaches to wealth and career.
Debunking Day Trading Advice
Why “Buy the Dip” Is Dangerous
The Pitfalls of Dollar Cost Averaging Without Discipline
Influencers & The Echo Chamber
The Dangers of Online Trading Groups
Thinking Beyond Quick Money
Laying a Career Foundation
The Myth of “Follow Your Passion”
Early Career, Mafia Encounters & Humbling Lessons
The Clerk’s Advice: Watch Everything
Teaching the Next Generation to Embrace Lifelong Learning & Mistakes
David describes his practice of dropping interns in the middle of the floor and letting them acclimate.
The importance of learning to process information rapidly, handle mistakes, and always adapt.
[15:48] “Maybe 60% of our trades…were losers every day. But if you were upset with your screw-ups, you never could do anything…I talk about that.”
David’s Reflection: [16:10] “If I could find that guy with the Rip Van Winkle…just thank him for that piece of advice. That was life-changing.”
On Meme Stocks Mentality:
[02:10] “I made a lot of money off my pharmacist, because I said, ‘Where are you getting this information?’ and he’s like, ‘The guy in the produce, you know, he knows his stuff because he’s following some guy on YouTube.’” – David Greenberg
On Speculative Fads:
[03:55] “Bitcoin’s going to 250,000. And I just went: Why? And didn’t say anything else. It was silence in the room.” – David Greenberg
On Building for the Long Haul:
[09:08] “It might work now, but what's going to work for the next 20 or 30 years?” – David Greenberg
On Passion vs. Practicality:
[11:15] “Your passion might not be able to make enough to sustain you...sometimes you actually have to get a job to cover your life and your passion.” – David Greenberg
On Adapting to Failure:
[15:48] “If you were upset with your screw-ups, you never could do anything.” – David Greenberg
This episode of Success Story delivers a frank, often funny, but always practical look at what’s missing in today’s “get rich quick” culture. David Greenberg draws on his colorful decades on the trading floor to show that true success is built patiently—by thinking long-term, learning from failure, and never trusting hype over hard-earned wisdom.
Big takeaway: Behind every overnight financial “guru” there’s usually a lot more luck than expertise—and nothing beats the grit of building real knowledge over time.