A WEEK ON WALL STREET

"If it feels good, it has to be right...!" A mantra fairly common in recent America. Then there's this motto from an earlier America: "If it feels tough, it has to be right....!" Neither morality has a monopoly on the truth of life, but each certainly reflect its own particular America.

There was a time when play-through-the-pain was what authority figures advised you. From coaches to bosses to top sergeants to marriage counselors. Sweat, even some tough-it-out suffering, was esteemed. In today's focus on self-esteem, the advice is frequently just the opposite. Under-performing players, workers and GIs are more likely to be given counseling than the old kick-in-the-butt.

Who is to say which advice is better?

So much is so relative. At one time society tended to admire the stick-it-out-for-40-years-and-get your-gold-watch employee. Today, that sort of endurance gets more jeers than cheers. At one time stock brokers told you to hang-on-till-it-comes-back. Today, hanging on to anything too long is not perseverance, it's passe'. At one time if a TV show got off to a slow start, the networks stuck with it. Today, you either make it in the first four episodes or you're on the late-night-reruns.

It can said that today's national impatience is a good thing. It demands from us the best. And so today's Americans are programmed for quick-results-or-you're-gone expectations. Of their presidents, members of congress, teachers, celebrities, pastors, and rabbis; along with government policies, new reforms, and old wars. In a faster, gratification-conscious culture, results are what count. Don't tell me how hard it is, just do it...!

You have to wonder is there any way to measure the relative merits of playing-through-the-pain or playing-it-cool? One recent week with the cool-playing Wall Street players, and the choice stands out for you with startling clarity. The cabbie who brings the players to their steel&glass towers probably sees his world like the long-distance-runner. Endurance not speed is what wins in the end. "I'm the tortoise to your hare, hotshot; I help people get to where they're going while you help people lose their money."

The Wall Street player...? Well, when you spend some time with them, you sorta know what they think about the cabbie. "You're driving a hack day after day thinking you're a hard worker; but what you don't know is that America wasn't built by hard workers, but by smart workers."

Fact check: America is no longer the post-WWII superpower holding all the aces. It's now operating in a global economy with far more power-players at the table than 60 years ago. Given the new rules of the game, who will survive better: The broker or the cabbie? Depends on how you define "survive." Sixty years ago, you'd probably find more Americans answering: "The hard-working little guys may never get rich, but they'll usually sleep better at night than the profit-hustling big guys."

These days, that answer may sound naive. So maybe the real question all comes down to this: How valuable is a good night's sleep compared to a good day's winning?