my life was dominated by a nightlife that rivals all but college alcoholics. from the age of 12 to 18, i spent nearly every single weekend at a bar or lounge or restaurant or club in chicago. my parents took me everywhere (except strip clubs…but they didn’t go to those) and i would usually sit, chat with everyone, active in conversation with people over 3 times my age.

when i went to college and turned 21, my friends always wanted to go downtown. “hey man, lets go to man vs. margarita,” a friend would say, to which i would respond, “been going there on the back of my dad’s bike since i was 12, not interested, have fun.”

anyway, i recall one night where we had a guys night and girls night, so i was naturally with the guys. we were out, having fun, and after a few hours, we someone decided to leave. so we all jumped in the car, a range rover that belonged to a dad’s friend. so we’re driving down and minding our own business when we get cut off by a mercedes benz on the street. at the next light, we pulled up to the driver, and the two dudes in the mercedes flicked us off, and they started laughing. why? i guess they thought they were cool, little did they know the net worth of the car they were flicking off was probably in the 8 digits (my family contributes nothing to that total).

for some reason naturally, this infuriated my dad. he immediately jumped out of the car, and everyone else “got his back” ludwik calmly walked over to the drivers side of the mercedes, where he literally reached into the vehicle grabbed the guy by his shirt, and removed him from his vehicle through the window. in one fluid motion, after removing the man from his car, he placed him on the hood of his mercedes. he said calmly, “you cut us off, you flicked us off, and you were laughing at us. now…who’s laughing.” he let go, walked back to the car, and we drove away.

my dad is not violent, and i’ve never seen him use force…but the one time he did, i was incredibly impressed. we talked about the story this past christmas, and all my dad will ever say about the incident was, “that guy pissed me off”

lesson: don’t piss of ludwik.