Push It Real Good

The story that I’m about to share is a trading urban legend dating back to circa 2000.

It was a dreary morning and one of the clerks was braving the rain to get to work. He was just walking out of the parking garage when the CEO of the company pulled up in his Porsche.

“Hey, I’m running late. Park my car and bring the keys down to me on the floor.”

And so the CEO jumped out of his car and headed into the Merc, leaving the clerk to park his Porsche. Having no choice, the clerk slid into the driver’s seat, and Salt N’Pepa’s “Push It” immediately hit his eardrums. The song was blaring. Thinking it was the radio, the clerk went to change the station. But it was not the radio. No friends, it was a CD (remember this was back in the dark ages before iPods).

Yes, the CEO, a white guy in his mid thirties, had been rolling around Chicago pumping some serious jams. Push it, push it real good!

After hearing this story, I was no longer intimidated by my boss. Sure, he might yell sometimes, and he understood trading at a level that I could never hope to come close to, but at the end of the day, we were really the same. We both liked Salt N’Pepa.