Two stories about celebrities.
Johnny Manziel, two days after turning 20, was at the top of his game. As a rookie quarterback, still one year from reaching the legal drinking-age, Johnny Manziel set conference records and knocked Alabama off their pedestal in 2012. He won college football’s crown jewel, The Heisman Trophy, that same year.
Many critics had predicted that Manziel’s sophomore slump would be severe. However, the Texas A&M legend finished the 2013 season with 4,114 passing yardage and was a finalist for the Heisman Award. He also declared himself eligible for the NFL Draft.
The Cleveland Browns, despite questionable scouting information, traded up and selected Manziel as the 22nd overall pick. Manziel had texted Dowell Loggains at the time that he was the quarterbacks’ coach to say he wanted ” to wreck the league in Cleveland.”
Illustrious collegiate career. Heisman Trophy Winner First-round draft pick. Likely franchise quarterback. 21-year-old Johnny Manziel made it. He won the match.
That was the best I could do.
Johnny was fined by the NFL $12,000 for spitting on the Washington Redskins during his first preseason as a Cleveland Brown. Then, he lost the quarterback competition to his teammate Brian Hoyer who was named starter for week 1. Manziel started only one game during his rookie year, in which he failed to throw any touchdowns against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Manziel was questioned by dozens of Browns employees about his work ethic going into his second season. An anonymous teammate called his rookie year a “100% joke.” He missed the majority of the preseason due to an elbow injury, and he barely played in the regular-season. But an injury to a starter in November provided him with one last chance… and it appeared that he took advantage of it. Manziel, who threw for 372 yard against the Steelers in the first game of the season, was named starter for the remainder of the year.
He blew it.
Manziel was demoted just one week later to the 3rd team after videos of him drinking in Texas during his bye week surfaced. After suffering a concussion the quarterback missed the last game of the year. He then skipped mandatory team activities on Friday and flew to Vegas for the weekend.
Manziel’s bad luck continued in February 2016, when he was under investigation for domestic violence involving his girlfriend. A month later at only 23 years old, Manziel was out of the league.
George Clooney, unlike Johnny Manziel who dominated the football world at 19 years old, didn’t become famous until his 30s.
Clooney’s first acting role was as an extra in the 1978 mini-series Centennial. The next 16 years were spent in a whirlwind of supporting roles, one-offs, and guest appearances on shows like The Facts of Life and Roseanne. Clooney’s big break came in 1994 when he was 33 years old, playing Dr. Doug Ross on the NBC medical drama ER.
Clooney was ER’sprotagonist for six years, and he has never looked back. Clooney has been a star in Hollywood for over 20 years. He’s won four Golden Globes and two Academy Awards, had hit movies like Oceans, produced, directed and starred in his own TV series Catch-22. He also befriended Barack Obama and co-founded a $700M brand of tequila.
Clooney has at different points in the last few years attributed his success in Hollywood to his failure in his youth.
Clooney stated in a piece from the Guardian of 2019 that ” When ER went off, I was 34, so I was older… So, I am lucky to understand how little fame has to do me.
Clooney reiterated the same idea in a 2021 Times article about his near-fatal motorcycle crash, saying he was “lucky that I became famous at 33 and not 23.” If I had been 23, given money and success, I would have shot crack in my forehead. “You have to have failed many times before you can trust success.”
Johnny Manziel was the most dynamic football player for two years. He was out of the NFL at 23. George Clooney was the most famous face in Hollywood but he didn’t really get started until 33.
This is a very interesting contrast.
This ” young star burns out or goes bankrupt after a few year” is seen all the time in sports, music, and media. Clooney’s second quotation contains the answer: If you have failed many times, you will never believe in success.
It’s interesting to see how people react when they are successful or unsuccessful, because it is difficult for them to be explained. You have to experience them to understand.
It is particularly true when it comes to money.
can’t teach how it feels to lose money. You can certainly show someone how markets have fallen by 30, 40%, or 50% before. You can tell stories about home flippers that made millions and lost them in the Great Financial Crisis, and about day traders who saw their paper fortunes disappear when the Dot Com bubble burst.
Risk and loss are only understood by those who have experienced them.
It’s important to learn from failure. The stakes are lower when you’re starting out. You’ll have minimal financial losses, a limited fallout, and you can learn from your mistakes and try again.
What if you’ve only known success since a young age? You don’t see risk as real. It’s an abstraction. Imagine two day traders caught up in 2020 and 2021’s market mania. Both traders started with $10,000 and after reading Wall Street Bets about a hotstock, the first decided to buy some call options. The stock does not go “to space”, he loses $6000, and decides to stop. “The risks aren’t worth the money,”he believes.
The other day trader turned his $10,000 into $20,000 Next $50,000. Then $50,000. Next, $250,000. Then $250,000. He is a genius. Every move on the market is predictable. He’s certain that $1,000,000 will be coming soon.
What is the risk? He could make a mistake here and there, but nothing serious. He’s got this game figured out.
The thing about risk, however, is that it can happen very quickly. The magnitude of the first loss is directly proportional to how long it takes to happen.
After the second “investor’s” trading has lasted for several years, one day, market conditions will change. He believes it is a temporary aberration. A blip. He doubles his bet, but the market does not recover. He doesn’t understand risk management because of his two years of winning non-stop. The $100,000 then goes back to the $10,000 it was when it began.
The first investor who lost $6,000 in his first trade has quietly built his portfolio over the past two years, unaware of the chaos that his counterpart experienced.
We have read many stories of “retail traders” that made it big at GameStop or Tesla. They then lost thousands and even millions because they refused cash out.
They did not understand the concept of risk.
The same thing happens to the athlete who becomes bankrupt when he is 28 years old, the child actor who spirals out of control as they grow up and the day trader that blows generations’ worth.
Early L’s instill a healthy respect of risk. As you advance financially and professionally, it’s more likely that you will avoid or acknowledge risk. What if you start off with only success? This can be disastrous.
