Luck and Lessons Learned with Peter Costa

Are you ready for a conversation about creating your own luck, how to spin mistakes and failures into lessons and golden nuggets of wisdom?  Well, I've got the perfect guest. I'm bringing on Powerhouse Peter Costa for this episode.

Peter P. Costa is a former Governor with the New York Stock Exchange, President of Empire Executions, Inc. (a boutique trading firm on the floor of the NYSE), a CNBC Market Analyst and head of the Costa Family Office

Peter is also a  sought-after keynote speaker for numerous industry conferences and national business schools and he supports many philanthropic organizations, particularly St. Judes and The Robinhood Foundation.

That's just scratching the surface. There are many more layers to Peter’s greatness in which you're going to learn about in this episode.

Follow Peter P. Costa on Twitter at @PeterPCosta 

Subscribe to Costa’s Corner Blog  https://petercosta.substack.com/

Contact Costa on his website

For media inquiries and bookings please contact as@peterpcosta.com.

Transcript

Theresa Cesare: 0:06

Hey guys. Welcome to Heart to Talk the podcast. I am your host, Theresa Cesare, and you are listening to episode 60. No one is going to know or care about your failures, and neither should you. All you have to do is learn from them and those around you. All that matters in business is that you get it right once, then everyone can tell you how lucky you are. Mark Cuban. Are you ready for a conversation about creating your own luck? How to spin mistakes and failures into lessons and golden nuggets of wisdom? Well, I've got the perfect guest here to do that. I'm bringing on powerhouse Peter Costa. Now a little bit about Peter, if you don't know him already. Peter p Costa is a former governor with the New York Stock Exchange President of Empire Execution Zinc, a boutique trading firm on the floor of the N Y C E A C N B C market analyst and head of the Costa family. Peter is also a sought out after keynote speaker for numerous industry conferences and national business schools. He supports many philanthropic organizations, particularly st. Jude's and the Robinhood Foundation, and that's just scratching the surface. There are many layers to Peter's greatness and what you're gonna learn about in this episode, so friends, let's get started. Welcome I'm so excited to share you with this audience.

Peter Costa: 1:43

Well, there I'm actually honored to be here. I've listened to your podcast, uh, since I met you, and I've really found them very interesting and very uplifting. So I'm, I'm excited to be here.

Theresa Cesare: 1:53

We met a few months ago. You were visiting here in Tucson, from New York through our beautiful friend Natalie Fernandez, who's owner of Meridian Wealth Management. So that was just awesome, that connection that we made, I came in sat by you and the minute I heard you speak, I thought, this energy has to be on my podcast. You have lots of wisdom to share in your experience and you have this awesome humor about it. So let's start with who you are.

Peter Costa: 2:20

I'm Peter Costa. I, live in Long Island right now. I've been here for 60 some odd years. I went to the University of Tennessee, I have a degree in forestry and people wonder how I ended up on Wall Street and, the fact was I was a terrible. Maybe one of the worst in the country as far as forestry goes. And I couldn't get a job anywhere. I had a lot of friends that worked down on the trading floor, the New York Stock Exchange, and they all said, you should come down here. You have the personality for it, so I said, you know what? That's, I'm gonna give it a shot. And the minute I went down there, I knew I was never gonna leave. When I was on the trading floor, I was, I had started out as a clerk which is basically the connection between customers, around the. and we'd call the trading floor to execute orders. And in New York, stock Exchange listed stocks like IBM M General Electric. Raytheon, and as I learned that trade, I became, I pretty good at it. And I became a broker in 1991. You know, in the, in the heyday of Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange. We were extremely busy. And I used intuition and instinct more than, Probably any of my partners. I've always relied on the feelings, you know, a gut feeling, not so much the intelligence there are a lot of brokers on the trading floor that would, trade and they would be like a bull in a China shop, meaning that if they had an order, they would just ram through and get the order done. And that was not the way I traded, I was more about doing the right thing for the client. And even if it took a little bit longer and just Gail, I guess that's, that's what I did really well and the clients enjoyed that. they knew that, that every time our firm, but especially me, when I had an order, it would take a little bit longer, but they would know that, I'm gonna do the best I can to get the best prices for them and not just, execute the order because we want the revenue. So that was my thing, is I wanted the clients to come back and there were times where decisions that I made were, maybe not in the best interest of our company as far as, revenue wise. But it was in the best interest of the client. And my boss at the time was, he was sensitive to the needs of the paying the bills, but he also knew that at the end of the day they were gonna keep coming back because I did what I thought was the right thing. A lot of, my personality and a lot of things. developed from working on the trading floor, I learned a lot of things and coming along I ended up becoming a mentor. And I think that's one of the key things that. I can get outta my career is that I helped other people, and not even on the training floor, but I mean just in life it was exciting. It was a lot of fun. It was crazy people, very, very high energy. But you know, I'm retired now as a governor of the New York Stock Exchange. and I've been retired for four years. So those four years I've been. Working on a lot of different things. I'm affiliated with, uh, Natalie Fernandez and Meridian. I'm on the board of advisors, the business advisors in Tucson. I have a very deep connection to Tucson and I love going there every time I go there. I just have such a great time and I meet such great people. Theresa being one of them. And I've been working with my old partners from one of my firms that I work for, we're working on a movie and, uh, it's, it's about the trading floor. We can get into that later if you want. And. two kids divorced, that's still very good friends with my ex-wife And regardless of where I am in my life, if my kids are doing well, I'm doing well. So that's pretty much my story.

Theresa Cesare: 5:55

I love that. And you said something really powerful, I led by intuition. Would you say that your successes and how you became good at this, what did you call it? Luck or intuition, or both?

Peter Costa: 6:07

Well, I, I think that, people don't want. Credit luck because they want to credit themselves and mm-hmm. I don't believe that. Mm-hmm. I think that sometimes you are just lucky, you could catch something in the right spot at the right time. A lot of things it, it's about timing. my old expression, which, my old boss hated it. The fact was I'd rather be lucky than good because when you were lucky things happened, in the positive, in the net positive. So, but I think there was some luck involved. I absolutely do. I think that, you make your own luck sometimes as well, everything is is about a confluence of, of events, right? I mean, that's just the way the world works. And it could be that micro. Confluence on the trading floor, or it could be the big macro confluence of you meeting someone who ends up being, something special. You never look at gift horse in the mouth when you are involved in something and. you have that skill, and you have the ability to recognize when you are in a lucky position and you take advantage of it. A lot of times people don't recognize when they're in that position. fortunately I did. I've bought houses at the right time, you know, I mean, I've just been very, very fortunate.

Theresa Cesare: 7:21

I'm with you. I always feel lucky. Even if a circumstance isn't going my way, I still know that I'm lucky. I've always felt that way and then you attract more of it.

Peter Costa: 7:28

It does, it, it feeds on itself, I don't think there's any way that any psychologist, psychiatrist, human behavioralist can. they can't explain it, but the fact is that, sometimes you're lucky and you don't even know it. And then you look back and you say, if you're driving a car you and 30 seconds later there was a car accident right behind you, you don't recognize the luck at that point, but you do realize you were lucky that you weren't in that spot 30 seconds ago. So there is something to be said for it. I don't think they'll ever be, be able to truly explain it. Just be grateful that you were lucky you know, regarding whatever, could be anything could be. You could have went to the store and had a coupon and that that day had double Q. You know what I mean? There's things that mm-hmm. you don't even realize that you're, you're fortunate. And that's, one thing that a lot of people don't recognize is they're being fortunate. a lot of people worry about or complain about the negative, but, there's a lot of things that are positive that you should, be very grateful for.

Theresa Cesare: 8:30

Okay, we're all going to say, I am lucky. I'm gonna find all the luck. It could almost be a synonym for blessings.

Peter Costa: 8:38

You know, like I had said before, I mean, if you make a mistake and you own up to your mistake and you learn from it, you become a better, whatever it is. Better person, better employee, better athlete, better whatever. You can't. Put the blame on someone else. Sometimes the blame is on someone else, but you still have to own your participation in it, right? Mm-hmm. when you start realizing that you've made this mistake and you don't make it again, now you're creating your own luck actually, because you've recognized your failure at something and you recognized the next route. Is a better route. So you are gonna get the positive results from a negative action, so, oh, I love that. Yeah. You look at the world and it's, like the yin and yang or the pendulum, it swings both ways. You have to, put out positive energy and even if there's a negative situation, try to make a positive out of it, and eventually it will become,

Theresa Cesare: 9:37

what would you say would be a moment or an experience, a choice or something that, you felt regretful of and were you able to forgive yourself and turn it into, like you said, a lesson and realize you're lucky?

Peter Costa: 9:52

Well, without going into a lot of detail about, I would say my divorce and what precipitated it. I think that was the thing I regretted most of my life. I don't really have a lot of regrets. I'm actually reading a book, the Midnight Library, and it's about regrets. I would say I learned a lot from him and I learned about relationships, I learned about, pain and sorrow and, that's something that I still live with today. And it's, it's been. 20 years, I do think I've learned, I think I do think at this point in my life, I'm a much better person for it. I think I'm a better man, a better friend and hopefully a better father, so you learn from something you regret that happened in, in the way. Carried yourself in what you, what you've done. And to me I think that, that I did learn. So I, you know, doesn't change what happened in the past, you know, you have to live in the president and try to make the future as good as you can. So that's what I'm doing. That's good.

Theresa Cesare: 10:47

That's good advice. I know a lot of people, feel consumed by their regrets. Mm-hmm. and so being able to release that and. just move on. Do better, be better. Easy. Right. It's not easy and it takes a long time. And the thing is you have to first address your role in whatever it is you regret.

Peter Costa: 11:07

But if you realize that something that you re, you know, an act that you regret doing, and you take responsibility for your role in it, I think that helps start moving you past it and you may never get past it, but you will at least be able to, understand and deal with it in a better way.

Theresa Cesare: 11:25

Thank you for sharing that. I know that was a little vulnerable moment, but I think, it gives us strength when we can be vulnerable with each other and Yeah. Especially coming from you, Peter, on the floor, by the way, that's your nickname, Peter on the floor, right? everyone. That's his nickname. Okay. You also have a blog. Yes. A really cool blog. Yes. How so? Uh,

Peter Costa: 11:44

it's called Costas Corner, and it's on, substack which is a writer's platform. Monday is a business because, you know, a lot of people still ask me questions about the market, about the economy, so on and so. Wednesday is, is more about politics 15 years ago, half the people didn't even care about politics. You know? Alright, Obama's gonna get elected. Okay. That was about it. now it's like two sides is like, north and south of a magnet. So, I write that and obviously, that's brought a lot of attention to my blog because, I have certain opinions and sometimes I may seem a little more, forward thinking as far as certain political events, and people will respond. and I really appreciate when I get feedback because, I'm 65, but I can still learn, and I still have an open mind, to politics too, pretty much anything. And then on Friday is more about music, and that's where my mind closes a little bit because, I'm old school, so there's a lot of things that I listen to and I bring up a lot of different ideas. About different types of music that I like and certain songs that people probably haven't heard in 30 years. So that's what I write on, and it's fun. Gives me an outlet. And I think that some of the things, business wise, I think a lot of people appreciate it because, I look at things from. A very practical and almost simplistic standpoint, which is something that a lot of business writers don't do. They'll go into these complex situations and I'd say that unless you're, have a master's in finance, a lot of the things you read are just. Unreadable where I try to make it as simple as possible, and to me, everything can be boiled down very simply.

Theresa Cesare: 13:29

That's what I love about your work actually. It's so simple and to the point. And you're so intriguing.

Peter Costa: 13:34

thank you very much for that because, I enjoy it, I do like writing. One of my daughters is a, an excellent writer. I mean, fantastic writer. And when she reads my stuff, she cracks up because I read like I talk except for the accent and I do try to get the sentences a little longer. But, it's a personal note from me and I don't wanna write as like I'm reporting something I wanna write cuz it's an opinion piece. It's worked so far and you know, I'm looking to get more subscribers. I'm not gonna ever charge, even though that's the whole purpose of the platform is that if you get to a certain point, you can physically charge people. I'm not gonna do that. I mean, I'm, first of all, I'm not that consistent. So, you know, if you're gonna do something like that, you know people, yeah. If they're writing Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, they write every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Well maybe, you know, sometimes I just don't have anything to say, so I won't. which you don't force it, right? Don't you let the inspiration come? I mean, if I don't have anything to say or if there's nothing really intriguing to write about, why would I repeat everything you're watching on CN b c or Fox Business? I just don't, the point of that. I mean, you can get that anywhere. What I'm trying to do is I'm trying to build up something, where people can. Feel comfortable reading it. And then if they disagree, which I've had people disagree on a couple occasions, and I actually learned, I can't even tell you how much I learned when I wrote a piece about a year and a half ago, I had about seven different people all come back with the same response. Mm-hmm. And I really learned that I was wrong, and I, I was so happy to learn something new because I always thought of something as, Well, it wasn't because, I'm always looking at a very simple, you know, keep it simple. Stupid kiss. I love that, love that, right? Mm-hmm. and the way I explained it was very simplistic. And they came back and, I mean, I learned a lot. I'm just gonna say that. And what happens with CK is that their re replies show up in the. so people can see what the replies were to that particular column. And I think that was, that was probably the one I got the most feedback from and I learned the most. So to me, you know, it's well worth the time spent if I learn something.

Theresa Cesare: 15:43

That's what makes you so admirable that you like can take it and be like, oh wow, okay. And grow from there. And yeah, I'm not always right. I have an opinion. Uh, I don't think anybody's opinion is right or.

Peter Costa: 15:53

But if you present, a specific case of something as a fact and somebody comes back to you and say, no, it doesn't work that way. Well good. I learned something and now, I won't reach into something that I probably didn't have enough information or experience or intelligence. Every day I wake up and wanna learn something. It doesn't matter. Makes it worthwhile. You get up, you learn something, man, you know, it was worth getting outta bed today.

Theresa Cesare: 16:16

Ooh, I love that. You're so awesome. so what is the biggest mission, with the work that you are putting out in the world?

Peter Costa: 16:24

That's a good question. If I can give people a different perspective on something, Whatever it might be, or enlighten them. If I come in with a different opinion and it, and it. Registers with them and they look at it and say, Hmm, I never thought of it that way. To me, that's a success, you know? another thing that I, I've always done, and I still do it now because I'm on, the University of Tennessee's, New York City chapter of the alumni, group or whatever they call it. It's got like nine different names. But, I mentor students There's a lot of things in that they need to understand and know going out into the workforce. And, and that's one of the things I do, I, I teach French students, which I don't know where it came from, but I, I teach, uh, for some French business school and they come to New York and I, and I have like 50 students every spring. And I, I teach'em whatever the course is. I have two courses I teach, which are fun. But in those courses, I, I try to teach these kids the reality of the world when you get outta school you have a degree in management. Well, you know what, that just gives you the foundation. Wherever you go, you're gonna, how to do what that company, whoever you work for is going to teach you. You're not gonna be 100% pre prepared and a lot of kids. Don't want to hear that because they think, well, I just spent four years of college. Now I'm gonna start learning it again. Yeah, you are. College prepares you to learn. That's all it really does. Mm-hmm. So I, that's what I try to teach. The thing is, it's also about giving them confidence because a kid may get a job at Morgan Stanley and he's like, he doesn't understand 90% of the things people are talking about. So you don't have to, I mean, you just got outta college. This is what the reason you're there. If they expect you to know this. then there's something wrong with them yeah. Basic, management skills, finance skills, you know what a p and l is. You know what certain things are in business. But there are things that they'll be dealing with that they, they only saw case studies and in real world case studies, that case studies could be from six years ago and the laws are changed. Rules are. Participants, everything's changed. So I try to give them that, understanding that it's gonna be like that, you know, for the first minimum of six months. And, I think it's been very successful

Theresa Cesare: 18:40

I love that okay, so that being said, what one or two tips, do you have for us?

Peter Costa: 18:47

Well, I, I think there's two things, and I think this, this can go for anybody in life. Number one is that, it's okay to make a mistake, it's okay to fail at something, failure is just the foundation for success. Mm-hmm. if you know how to use it. So to me, I think that if you make a mistake, own up to it right away.

Theresa Cesare: 19:06

Because everything, anytime, any mistake is, and it's not dealt with immediately. It snowballs into something much larger. So it's better to get it out there, you know, in a relationship at work, whatever. And most people, most times, not that they'll forgive, but they will believe that you have a much higher, uh, standard.

Peter Costa: 19:29

You know, you want to do better. You are gonna learn from this and you're gonna move on. That's the first thing. And the second thing I think is, which I wish I would've known years ago, but, communication, being able to communicate, I think is vital. You have to be able to talk to someone and, and listen. communication is not only about talking, it's about listening. So I think that's, that's a big thing. Everyone should. a better listener, and, I have to say I'm, I'm getting better at it, but I don't think I'm there yet. I may never be there, but I, I do think that, being able to listen and being able to communicate in every aspect you have to be able to, in a relationship and business and work, and no matter what you're doing, you have to be able to communicate and communicate properly.

Theresa Cesare: 20:13

Oh, I love that. And just being intentional. Oh my gosh. So awesome. I can talk to you forever. So I'm gonna go ahead and wrap it up with my three ending questions. Okay per tradition. And, Peter, the first question, what is your favorite quote?

Peter Costa: 20:28

All right, well, it has to do with hard work, and I'm gonna read it to you because this always stuck in my head. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard. I can explain that cuz that is actually how my whole career was cuz I never felt that I was the most talented at anything. But I did work hard, you know? And I think that at the end of the day, that hard work paid off. Whereas I work with some talented people who didn't work hard and it always showed that they were not hardworking. So to me, I would rather. have a day worth of hard work and go to bed at night tired and not rely on some talent that I didn't work hard to get.

Theresa Cesare: 21:12

I love that quote. I'm with you. I'll write in the next question.

Peter Costa: 21:16

What is your favorite book? Well, I, I, I'd have to say my favorite book is The Overstory by Richard Powers. It's short stories, but they will all Mel together towards the end of the book. And it's so well written and it's beautifully written and it's about trees. Now. I have a degree in forestry and I love trees. So it's, it's basically the human relationship in a, in a nutshell, it's a human relationship between trees and humanity, but it's an individual vignettes and I, it's just. Incredible book. I read it once. I'm gonna read it again, and I never read a book a second time. I will read that book a, a second time. I highly recommend it.

Theresa Cesare: 21:57

Thank you for that. Oh my gosh. So good. the last question, what is one of the biggest lessons life has taught you?

Peter Costa: 22:05

Hmm. Well, I, I'd say that your word is your. you know, prior to working on wall, I never really thought about that. You grow up on Long Island, you have a bunch of friends and if you said you were gonna do something, you were gonna do it, whatever it was. So, you know, that was just the way I grew up. And then when I started working on the trading floor, That was the key element of working on the floor because everything that was done on the trading floor up until 2002 was by verbal communication. So if I said I was going to do something or if I said, this is what I was gonna do, I was gonna do that, and that was set in the stone, because my word was my bond. There was no handshakes, there were no witnesses. It was my, my word and another broker's word. And we traded. I mean, I traded hundreds and hundreds of millions of shares, specifically just on my word. So I always felt that if I give you my word on something, you can take that to the bank. So my word is my bond. And that is something I think everyone should actually practice. Some sort of that, you know, if you say something you mean it, and you have the ability to complete whatever it is you've mentioned, then you should do it. You shouldn't back away from it.

Theresa Cesare: 23:31

Thank you so much for tuning into this episode. I do hope that you enjoyed my conversation with Peter Costa be sure to download, rate, subscribe and share this podcast with all your friends and family. Find me on Instagram and Facebook for updates. And other projects that I'm involved with. Otherwise, friends, I'll be back in six weeks for season five.