Steve Cotler
My birthday is August 16. I’m now 11, which is, IMO, a very cool age to be.
Cheesie Mack
So, there I was last Thursday, staring blithely at an email from Mailchimp titled “UNSUBSCRIBES.” It contained the latest batch of see-ya-later’s from The Marginal Prophet. Happens every time I publish, no matter how upbeat, flowery, plain vanilla, or middle-of-the-road I try to be. I was expecting a handful of these sayonara-laced grenades because yesterday’s post took a shot at the anti-vaccination crowd, but to my pleasant surprise there was only one. One? Really? Okay, one. However, the address of this single account made me feel as if I had just slammed my head into a wall:
Whoa….
Who is Steve Cotler?
Google “Steve Cotler” and you’ll find this description of him from Penguin Random House:
“Steve Cotler is a retired Little League catcher who’s also been a shoe salesman, telecom scientist, singer-songwriter, Apollo 1 computer programmer, Hollywood screenwriter, Harvard Business School MBA, investment banker, and door-to-door egg man.”
This guy sounds like fun.
I bore witness to the “investment banker” portion of Steve’s resume. I met him in 1991, when Steve was one of an army of professional hucksters who peddled equity research and deal flow for Montgomery Securities. I knew Steve, which was to say I didn’t know him well. I probably spoke ten words to him in the three years we worked together. What I did know of him was this; Steve was off-the-charts intelligent, eccentric even for someone living in California, a charming goofball, inquisitive like a fox, had energy to burn, and could sell grass to a chipmunk. It was never hard to find Steve on the trading floor — he was the skinny, balding guy surrounded by a coterie of sales folk mesmerized by one of his many stories, or laughing hysterically at one of his politically incorrect jokes. In the middle of it all was Steve, a cheesy smile plastered to his face. Jeez, the man was ALWAYS smiling. It didn’t matter at what, or for what. For all I knew, Steve may have just convinced XYZ Capital Management to buy a million shares of Immune Response on the IPO, or he may have found a quarter under his bed that morning. It didn’t matter, because based on what I witnessed during those three years, nobody, and I mean nobody, enjoyed a day at the office more than Steve Cotler. Nobody.
I left Montgomery in 1994 before returning in 1997, but by then Steve had moved on. His bio at SteveCotler.com describes his time schilling the Montgomery gravy train; “I was good, but my boss said I could have been great if I ‘only had more larceny in my heart’ and realized that my ‘real job was to turn my client’s portfolio into my personal net worth.’ Another reason greatness may have eluded Steve was that he appeared to never take himself too seriously, a cardinal sin on Wall Street. And why should he? He was too busy being himself.
I heard through the grapevine that Steve had retired from Wall Street to pursue a career as an independent film maker. Good luck with that, I thought at the time, unaware that during the 1970’s Steve did a Hollywood drive-by as a singer/songwriter. His LinkedIn profile lists “Cotler Brothers Productions, Inc.” from 1994-1999, culminating in the production of “Heartwood,” a movie starring Hillary Swank and Jason Robards. Shot in Mendocino Country, Steve’s brother, Larry, directed the film, while Steve and Larry co-produced and co-wrote the screenplay. Steve played a small role as well. I’ve never seen the movie, but the whole endeavor sounds like Steve had fun while it lasted. Check that. I’m SURE he had fun while it lasted.
Getting to Know Steve
The last part of Steve’s Penguin Random House bio says this:
“He lives with his wife and writes in Sonoma County in Northern California’s wine country. He thinks he is and always will be 11 years old.”
An early subscriber of my blog, Steve reached out to me in 2011. I had self-published my own novel, and he wanted to pick my brain about the publishing business, specifically with how I was marketing my book. I was flattered, and our first call lasted well over an hour. He excitedly described his lifelong passion for writing, and that this led him to author a series of children’s book about a middle-school kid named Cheesie Mack. “What a great name for a character”, I told him. By the end of the conversation, I could have sworn I was talking to a cheeky 11-year-old whirling dervish who wanted to come over to my house to kick around a soccer ball, eat gobs of pizza and ice cream, and spend the night playing video games. I nearly invited him over.
Cheesie Mack: Steve’s Alter Ego
Steve’s website describes Cheesie Mack this way:
“Cheesie Mack’s adventures begin at the end of fifth grade, take him thru summer and into middle school. He and his best friend Georgie get in and out of trouble, solve a mystery, tangle with bigger kids, tackle a new school, have fun, and get some life lessons. Cheesie’s a smart kid, a cool kid…but not a genius or anything, nor is he famous, exactly. But he’s cool when dueling, and runs like crazy.”
There’s also this:
“Writing about the challenges and delights of childhood in our digital world offers the opportunity to get in synch with today’s kids. Websites, email, and social networking are second nature to them. They are comfortable with technology and expect it to be all around them.”
I could go on and on. Suffice to say that whether or not you have kids, you need to check out CheesieMack.com. Because all five of Steve’s books are narrated by Cheesie, the website helps Cheesie become real, someone his thousands of fans can relate too. It’s brilliant.
Every writer wonders whether their writing has had an impact on the world. Here’s the impact produced by Steve and Cheesie; since the 2011 publishing of Steve’s first book, he’s visited hundreds of schools across the country, encouraging and challenging tens of thousands of students between the third and fifth grades. All this success is a testament to another career Steve would add to add to his resume; educator. And mentor. And, to his legions of young fans, a down-to-earth, bonified action hero who looked like fathers or grandfathers and spoke the same language they did. How cool was this guy?
And here’s the best part. Steve had fun doing it. Lots and lots and lots of fun.
Prologue
Steve died tragically on June 29, 2021. How he passed, and how he lived, can be read here.
I hardly knew Steve. Our relationship barely scratched the surface of acquaintances, much less friends. But that’s on me, and I deeply regret it. Yet I greatly admired and respected Steve, and wanted so much to grow up and be like him. No man I’ve ever met in my life was better, or happier, at simply being himself.
Even as an 11-year-old.
One Response to Steve Cotler