Darlene Snell! One of the characters in the Ozark that I barely talked about. It's almost as though she did not exist but she played a huge part in how everything turned out for Marty Barde and his employer.
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Mr. Snell was cold-hearted. Mrs. Snell was hot-tempered. She was the quickest of the pair to outrightly gun a man down if she felt insulted by his insinuations. She never wanted anyone to joke around with her, play her for a fool, double-cross her, or even believe they could have the upper hand in an agreement. She had the legacy of the family she married into to uphold and she had so skillfully won the heart of Mr. Snell from the very beginning in a way that made him blind to her aggression and shortcomings. Even though some of the decisions she made on their behalf brought them nothing but ruin, he stood by her until his hands were too tight to support her anymore. Once she perceived this, she went one step ahead of him like she always did and killed him.
But... This post isn't going to be about the many escapades that Mrs. Snell had. Neither is it going to be how she won his heart or even lived chaotically and caused them lots of ruins.
Instead, this post is about how I watched Darlene Snell go from having her hands tight to being able to use what she had to get what she wanted.
As long as The Barde family wanted a portion of land to build a casino and launder their money, they would always be in bed with Darlene Snell. Even though she killed her husband and took his spot, she was wise enough to understand that in this world, one must always trade something for what's more important to them at the moment.
People trade things every day. You can give someone your time in exchange for them to foot your bill. You can give them your time in exchange for a deal to go through. You can give what you have to get what you want.
For Darlene Snell, she had always wanted a family. I know you are going to say being married to Mr. Snell meant she had a family already but she wanted more. They had everything they wanted but no one to inherit or share them with. Believe me, being in that position would be very disheartening. You would start thinking about how a total stranger might have to live off all of your hard work after you are gone. So, having a family, an heir, and a successor was a really good plan. But I don't know why Mr. Snell never wanted to go fully into it. I don't know why Darlene had to wait for that long to finally ask her husband for a baby.
They had the most supportive relationship. Everything they did, they did together. Even their sexual life was alive, and kicking. What could have stopped them from trying to have children still eludes me. Maybe they spent so many years fighting to keep their space, their lands, and business from being invaded by other people or the government so badly that they forgot to groom a family. Or maybe they just did not think they had the time to build up little humans and turn them into responsible adults. Whatever the case, in the end, Darlene Snell won...
How? She used what she had like I said. Since Marty Barde wanted their land so badly, Darlene was willing to compromise and give them access to crush everything down and build a casino on the condition that they gave her a baby.
She literally gave birth to the baby because she cut him off his mum's womb when she wanted to threaten the pastor into doing their bidding. It might have taken quite a while but the baby found a way into her arms again. This time there was no one to stop her from having a family. Her husband was dead and Marty was pressed for time. So everything worked out for Darlene Snell.
I am very sure that she hated the fact that she had to give up the lands she and her husband spent years accumulating but at that point, a child was more valuable to her than a few plots of lands. And it was a worthy trade.
When I saw that move, it dawned on me that sometimes an investment portfolio may not only be good for the money, but it has the potential to be good for a lot more than cash. A good and sustainable portfolio would give us more freedom to do what we want and ask life to give us anything else that's more important than that asset class at the moment.
Darlene got a baby. One that she loved and adored so much. All she needed to do was to skip all the paperwork that comes with getting a child from an adoption center. She skipped the part where she had to be supervised and monitored to see if she was a befitting mother or not. She skipped the part where society would criticize her decision. She skipped the part where she would be scrutinized by those who made the rules. Her assets open up doors that would naturally be locked up, sealed, and keys thrown away for an ordinary person.
I would say she had what she wanted and all she needed to do was have something equally valuable enough to the other party and the deal was closed.
The next time you think about how much you could make as a result of investing in a particular market, or portfolio, remember, it could also be the chance for you to open doors that are not easily accessible to just anyone.
The next time you think hard about it remember that;
Darlene Snell got everything she wanted just because she owned large hectares of land...Investment portfolio takes one farther than they can ever know.
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