SincereCoMuse

Chairman's Muse

Richard Sincere has been a bi-monthly columnist for the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (www.napfa.org) since February 2006.  His column focuses on the thoughts and perspectives of the high net worth. Through personal stories, experiences and focus groups, Richard tries to articulate what advisors’ clients are thinking behind the scenes.

Staying in the Game: A Selection of Blogs is available via Amazon.

Cultivating a Client-Centric Culture

Once a year, I trek to Vegas with a small group of men to discuss the issues of the world. While I’m generally not one to go off with the “guys,” this is an exception. Our group is comprised of corporate professionals and entrepreneurs representing many different industries in both the private and public sectors. We share a tremendous amount of respect, and everyone learns from each other. I’m never quite sure of many of the group’s political leanings since the issues are more important than the political parties.

Being Wired 24/7

I was having lunch the other day with a family friend who I’ve known for over 55 years. Our parents were close friends, and our families used to spend Septembers and Octobers together at Northwestern University football games. Jeff was a very accomplished entrepreneur who sold his firm and joined the public sector. Usually you know of serial entrepreneurs or failed entrepreneurs who end up in corporate again, but I don’t know many who sell their firm after many years so they can return to the “joys” of operating in an institutional, corporate setting again. Since Jeff was one of these rare people, I wanted to question him about the choices he made.

Loss of Innocence

I don’t like it when bad things happen to my friends. There’s a term, schadenfreude, which describes the satisfaction or pleasure derived from others’ misfortunes, but I’m not one of those who celebrate the bad news of others.

So when I recently read in a newspaper article that one of my friends had been accused of breaking the law, it made me sad. I’m often dismayed at the assumption of guilt made by the media and at the “water cooler”, leading to a fate far worse than the accusation itself.

Changing Your Model: Not Always for the Better

It had been over a year since I spent time at my second home in New Hampshire. So it felt good to return just as Hurricane Irene decided to welcome us to the east coast with a vengeance. As it threatened to wash away the stairway that connects our deck to the Ellis River, we were fortunate to have come through unscathed. Unfortunately, other areas in our town and particularly the neighboring state of Vermont did not fare nearly as well.

Putting Your Experience in Writing

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about a conversation I had with my son, Alex, a couple of months ago. I had walked in his room, and he asked me what was new. I casually mentioned that I had just written a book, and I was reading the proof. He was somewhat incredulous (and quite taken aback) that he hadn’t been told that I was writing a book. I’ve mentioned many times that I had wanted to write a novel, which is quite surprising, given that I only read non-fiction books. But handing him the completed softbound book made him realize that I wasn’t dreaming anymore.

Waiting to Hire

In graduate school, one of my favorite courses was “Decision Tree Modeling.” For those who know me, there isn’t any apparent correlation between this course and my choice of strategic marketing as a career. But I always enjoyed being in manufacturing plants and determining the ordering process. Now this course was three decades ago, prior to computers (remember punch cards?), but I was always fascinated by the forecasting process. For those who are good at it, it is a great art.