A breed of such men tends to find success nearly anywhere they settle.
You know the kind I am talking about.
They could have been a successful lawyer, but they never had the patience to finish school. They are wheeler-dealers. Maybe they own a company – or used to. And they would be the salesman of the year at any company you stuck them at. They are hustlers and traders, creating wealth out of where others only dream.
They are nearly always a success, but they thrive and grow in large cities of a certain kind. New York, Los Angeles, Paris, London, Moscow, Buenos Aires, and Jerusalem are great examples.
The line about promoters and moguls reminded me of legendary Hollywood agent and producer Jerry Weintraub. Serendipitously, Jerry Weintraub is also from Brooklyn.
The same author, Rich Cohen, profiled him in When I Stop Talking You’ll Know I’m Dead.
A breed of such men thrive in Los Angeles, brokers, lawyers, entertainers, entertaining lawyers, promoters, moguls, former furriers, distributors, importers, exporters, self-promoters, men of leisure. They fled Brooklyn thirty-five, forty years ago and have shed as many outward signs of their heritage as would be shed, yet still retain something of the old world, a final, fleeting glimpse of what their fathers must have been. Their faces are concentrated, their talk full of warnings, premonitions of things to come, of time repeating itself, of good men stripped of all worldly goods and left to fight again with nothing but instinct.
-Rich Cohen, Tough Jews
