When John Mack Saw A Trader Crying

From New York Magazine: Back when Mack started as a bond trader at Morgan Stanley, in 1972, things were a little different. “There were only 350 people,” he says. “They had $6 million in capital. Any time we priced a deal, every partner at the firm came to the meeting.” is first brush with disaster came during the 1987 stock-market crash. He was running the fixed-income desk, where he found one of his team members crying. “What’s wrong with you?” Mack asked. “He said, ‘I’m going to lose everything I made.’ I said, ‘Well, let me ask you a question: What did you start with?’ He said, ‘I started with nothing.’ ” Mack pauses for dramatic effect. “I said to him, ‘Well, then, make it back….”

http://nymag.com/news/business/themoney/john-mack-2012-4/index1.html