What Growing Up at the Horse Racetrack Taught Me About Investing
There is a certain resilience that comes from growing up around horses.
My dad has raced horses for about 40 years. Growing up, our mornings started before sunrise. The real work happened long before anyone was watching you. Alarm blaring at 5 a.m., Dad downstairs shuffling around the kitchen, and the rich smell of a strong dark coffee. Sometimes it cold, the kind where your breath hung in the air and the ground cracked beneath your boots. Some days I would wash up for school in a horse stall sink because there simply was no time for anything else and change out of muck boots into sneakers before running to class, carrying the smell of hay and leather with me.
There were no shortcuts, no guarantees, and no amount of emotion that could replace preparation, discipline, and grit. Horses do not care about next week’s headlines. Trainers do not get to skip the process because they woke up feeling lucky.
The routine matters. In horse racing and investing.