From Wall Street To NYC Cabbie: What I Learned On The Way Down

"Let's take a look at your numbers." It was only days after 9/11, when he'd narrowly escaped his World Trade Center office, and this comment from his manager made Jack Alvo snap. He quit his six-figure job at Morgan Stanley and began a decade-long career path that would end in an unlikely spot: As a New York cabbie.

Alvo, 50, who spent years working in finance, earning as much as $250,000-a-year, never expected to drive a cab. But it's brought some unexpected joys. He says that he doesn't envy the finance guys whom he drives around all day, six days a week, from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. In fact, it's given the cabbie a new outlook. "I don't want to go back to that lifestyle," of working on Wall Street, he says. "It's grueling, grueling."