John and the North Fork team gave us a chance. And Herman was a great teacher and partner. He always told me that if I didn't take the firm further than he did, he would consider it failure. I think he'd be proud.

We were paying attention to the $500 million and $1 billion companies 10 years ago, so when they grow up, we're still there.

It's always bittersweet to sell your client. But hopefully you're never really selling the business, you're investing in its future.

That was their last chance to go through our traditional process for getting reservations for this calendar year.

I have one life and one chance to make it count for something . . . I'm free to choose what that something is, and the something I've chosen is my faith. Now, my faith goes beyond theology and religion and requires considerable work and effort. My faith demands -- this is not optional -- my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference.

They outscrapped us, and they outhustled us. They wanted it a little more than we did. We have a chance to move one game within the wild card, and we didn't do it.