Harvey Guillén

His classmates were the sons of CEOs, heirs to enormous fortunes, the original Nepo babies.

Meanwhile, Joe's father was a storefront psychologist, and his mother disappeared when he was in high school.

Well, sometime after she called Joe the Antichrist at a seance.

So, at school, Joe always felt like a tourist.

like he didn't belong.

But being that close to real wealth showed him it didn't have to be a fantasy.

It could one day be his.

So he studied, he worked, he apparently read the dictionary for three hours every night, all because, as one former classmate put it, he wanted to prove he was better and smarter than the rich kids.

And he was.

The real start to Joe's upward trajectory actually happens by accident when he bumps into two former prep school classmates on the street, Dean Carney and Ben Dosti.

And Joe takes advantage of the chance encounter by inviting them to a movie on him, which is both an honest invitation to catch up and a way for Joe to showcase how well he's doing, how impressive he is.

And that's important because Dean and Ben are both those rich kids we talked about earlier.

Their families have a lot of money, money that could one day come in handy for Joe.

So Joe turns that movie night into multiple lunches, into regular hangs, which eventually turns into Joe being invited to stay at Dean's family estate in the Hollywood Hills.

for free.

Because Dean's parents think Joe is a good influence on their son.

And before long, Joe's long-term plan works out.

He gets a seat as a trader on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and he convinces Dean's parents to give him a bunch of money to invest.

He raises half a million dollars and ships off to Chicago.

The plan is obviously to take the money and make it multiply.