If you’re a reader of this blog, however many (or however few) of you there are out there it means that we are connected in some fashion or other and you’ve followed me along through this medium since I decided to begin publishing at the beginning of 2020.
It was just before the start of the pandemic, before D-day. It was March 12th, and we celebrated my older son’s birthday. He’s one of the leading cast members in the story that is my life – and he turned 8 that day. It was the last time my family was all together. We gathered at our house, in one of the most welcoming neighborhoods of the city, having just enjoyed a weekend where Denver’s alpine skiing was just starting its upward momentum. Like all kids, the lockdown has been especially hard on the young and old, and I keep the photo of my older son about to blow out his birthday candles as my smartphone background. It’s the most important photo I have because it reminds me of the reality that we would never know again and the reason why I do what I do.
It was lockdown eve, in the event that will mark our society profoundly for generations to come. Our country, still very much in the throes of it, lost many of its grandparents to the virus, leaving behind a family that had to learn a new way of saying goodbye, sometimes through a tablet or smartphone, as access to that last intimate moment was another victim of the pandemic.
I think it’s important for me to express my ‘why’ to my readers. It’s one that has continually refined itself over time, the current state of which I would like to share with you today.
The pace of change, like many other things in our lives was especially quick recently – and my ‘why’ was no exception. Having recently completed my clients’ annual portfolio and wealth management reviews, I was struck by what impacted me the most about the conversations we had.
Clients expressed a gratitude to me in guiding them through a dark and uncertain time. In making myself available to them at a moment’s notice to offer advice, counsel and not shying away from tackling the difficult subjects with aplomb and respect they were able to focus on what mattered to them. In reassuring them that the work we put into building their personalized strategies was proving its value I gave them peace of mind. They were thankful I was there and that I cared.
Having earned the opportunity to advise my clients through the most tumultuous of periods has been something that I wrote about previously, alongside articles about Responsible Investing, my perspectives on wealth management, and living by the philosophy of doing well by doing good. It is both a responsibility that I accept, and a privilege that I hold in the highest regard. If there is a regret that I have it is that I was not able to help more individuals and their families, because I know more people can benefit from my advice as their fiduciary. I’ve been told as much.
The pandemic is an event that we have all been subject to at the same time the world over, without exception. But that doesn’t mean we have all had the same experience. We have all had to adapt to a massive amount of change in a relatively short amount of time. For me, it’s refocused my lens of purpose and brought an attitude of gratitude and humility to the surface. Positively affecting the lives of my clients has never been a higher priority for me than it is now. That is my reward – that is my ‘why’.