Hero Worship
Since 1996 I have seen an absolute ton of hero worship in the investing space. It always strikes me odd to see people blindly follow along cult style to people who play the part. Thinking about that tonight I recalled a passage from the TV series “King of the Hill” that did not make my TurtleTrader book.
In the episode a washed up former Dallas Cowboy football player moves into Hank’s neighborhood. The football player who was never that good to begin with, but to weekend warriors like Hank and his buddies, it does not matter. He was a former pro football player - he was a god to be worshiped - that is until the guys found out the real story of ‘Big Willie’:
BIG WILLIE: Hey, you guys wanna see some stuff from my career? Hank, you’ve seen this. It’s the football from that kick I blocked. Oh, and here’s a picture from that kick I blocked…and that’s how I blocked that kick.
HANK: That story gets better every time you tell it.
But later, as Hank’s son points out, Big Willie is not that impressive a football legend.
BOBBY: You know, for a guy who was a pro athlete, Willie’s drunk a lot.
Finally, Hank’s neighbor Kahn, who knows little about football, gets tired of Big Willie’s beer bashes that are keeping his family up at all hours of the night. He senses that Willie is a loser hanging onto an unimpressive past:
KAHN: I don’t sleep. My career is going in the toilet. My little girl can’t study. And all because some fat jock slob play a little football and “block a kick.” I don’t even know what it means, to block a kick, but if you can do it, then any idiot can do it!
Quotes from “New Cowboy on the Block”
Written by Dean Young
Directed by Cyndi Tang-Loveland
