Focusing on Personal Captial (money, time, energy & attention) and Wealth.
When I was younger, the story embarrassed me. When I was in my 20’s it became a good laugh. Now, on the back 1/3 of my life I find it highly curious for a 5-year-old to do such a thing.
Here is the story.
One weekend while my dad was working out in the back yard, he saw me walking out of the house with a rather intense look on my face. I walked over and said “Dad, where is some rope?” Being the helpful guy he was he rummaged through the shed and found a nice piece for me. This was just what I was looking for. I found a pole that was buried into the ground. It held the one end of the clothesline. It was nice and secure and here I wrapped the one end of the rope around the pole and tied a crude but sufficiently strong knot. The other end I then tied to my ankle. At this moment, I had attracted my dad’s full attention. He stood there curious as to what I was up to. Not wanting to spoil the moment he just stood there and tried to anticipate where this event would lead. I am sure he had no idea.
As soon as I was sure that the knots were secured, I started running. And I ran. I sprinted with all my might, like I was winning Olympic gold. You can see where this is going can’t you? And yes, it wasn’t that long of a rope. Soon the rope became taut and as my dad said, “he became parallel to the ground!” and in that moment I felt the pain of the rope gripping my ankle and slammed me to the freshly mowed grass.
Now my dad did the most dad thing ever. He laughed his head off. He probably thought about how mom’s DNA was surely the reason why I did such a stupid thing like this. But it begged the question and after my dad had finished wiping the tears from my eyes he walked on over and leaned down and asked...”What were you doing?”
And I replied mumbling through the pain of my now swollen ankle. “I had just watched a rodeo on the tv and I wanted to know how the cow felt.”
So now, being of 60+ years old I still think about my mindset. On one hand I am somewhat proud that I could look at a situation like this from another person’s shoes/cow's hoofs. But on the other hand, good god young man sometimes it is best to let your imagination fill in the blanks.
Maybe you don’t look for a job, but if you listen quietly enough, your authentic self finds it for you. Financial Planning has everything to do with understanding how your clients feel. I find it deeply humbling that people will become vulnerable with their financial life to me. They could easily be judged by a us. “Why did you spend this much on your vacation?” “Why did you not max out your 401k?” But the truth of the matter is we all our doing the best we can. One of the most important parts of the job is to understand your point of view. To understand how you arrived here with no judgement and help counsel you toward your wishes, hopes and dreams for your future.
Be well.
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