My name is Jason Napodano. In 2014, I made $559,000, and life was good. I moved into a new house in arguably one of the most prestigious communities in south Charlotte, NC. My neighbors were CEOs, surgeons, real estate developers, and professional athletes from the NFL, NBA, and MLB. In fact, I lived right next door to a professional baseball player for the Colorado Rockies. He made $2.5 million, but I didn't feel inadequate. My income still put me in the 99.6 percentile.
I was comfortably the 1%. I drove luxury cars and took all-inclusive vacations. My wife wore the latest fashion and I was reasonably sure my kids would never want for anything. Although it never really helped my game, I bought various golf clubs on a monthly basis. The ad said this new technology would add 10 yards to my drive; side note, it didn't. Nevertheless, there was little financial that concerned me.
2015 and 2016 were also good years. Cumulatively, between 2014 and 2016, I made $1.45 million. Again, comfortably the 1%. I was proud of myself; but, I was also bored. Being bored and immensely successful is a dangerous combination. Money consumes you. It tricks you into thinking you are invincible and seduces you into taking unnecessary risks.
I had a down year in 2017. For reasons I will get into shortly, I only made $273,000. But the bottom was far from in. The bottom came when I reported to federal prison. My crime - insider trading. My sentence - four months. I got lucky. The judge went easy on me because it was a first-time offense and I led, "An otherwise exemplary life." Thank God he said that. The government prosecutor threatened 18 months.
There are 185,000 Americans serving time in U.S. federal prisons. That's 0.06% of the population. In four short years, I went from the 99.6 percentile to the 0.06 percentile. How was I going to survive? Would my family be okay while I am gone? What would my kids do without their dad around on a daily basis? The fall was hard - over 99% to be exact.
