I went through a very rough period of time when I was in my early 30s, a situation I hope to never live through again. To survive, I spent any free time at the gym when I wasn’t working (all the time) or sleeping (barely).
I was fortunate to have been hired by Citicorp in Chicago during a time when the entire organization was focused solely on winning market share.
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.
About a month ago, a close friend called to confirm our lunch plans, but he asked if I could come his way instead of him traveling towards me. In retrospect, I’m glad I said I would go anywhere to meet him for lunch. I didn’t know then that it would be the last time I would see him.
After years of being pressured by friends and colleagues to work with an executive coach, I was ready to give in. I really needed help, and fast.
Having been a history major in college, I remain a major news junkie. Besides the volumes of e-subscriptions I receive, I am compelled to buy four newspapers daily, check the news web sites throughout the day, and catch news programs on TV whenever I can. Coming off last year’s semi-sabbatical (doing some not-for-profit work while recharging my batteries from 10 fast-paced years running Sincere & Co.), I am preparing to relaunch my company in early 2008. Hence, I had to get organized.
In my last column, I wrote about how I recently (and rapidly) relocated to Chicago from New England. My family decided to return to our Midwestern roots and made a quick purchase decision on a 70+ year-old house that even more quickly has taught us how little we knew about what we were getting into.
As educated as my wife and I think we are, and given that this is the fifth home we’ve purchased since we got married nearly 20 years ago, we thought we had enough experience under our belts to make a wise decision. I’ve never really been that emotional when purchasing a house but given the landmark status of this latest purchase, my undergraduate history degree got the better of me, imagining the conversations between architect and original owner, the joys and sorrows that took place within its walls.
Continue reading "How do your prospects choose an advisor? Ask a general contractor." »
During our annual visit to Chicago (where I was born and raised and where I met my wife 19 years ago), I was rollerblading along the lakefront with my family when my wife turned to me and said, “Why don’t we live here?” I immediately responded, “Why not?” In a quick three weeks, we found a new house, put our Massachusetts house on the market, moved into a temporary apartment, and enrolled our son at Evanston’s high school where he went from a homogenous group of 250 freshmen to over 900 diverse freshmen students in the fourth largest single public high school campus in the U.S.
Many friends have been openly questioning our “spontaneous” decision to move, and many more privately must be questioning our sanity.
Continue reading "When Sane People Make Seemingly Insane Decisions" »
My brother, a lifelong Chicago native, could hardly contain his excitement about the Chicago Cubs being in first place (at least during the first week of August). I was a bit surprised to learn that he was such a big fan. Growing up in Chicago, our father was an avid Cubs and Bears fan. Although my brother appears to have inherited my father’s sports fanatic genes, I guess I struck out. Back then, I didn’t care much about whether those teams won their championships and I still don’t.
Okay, I admit it. I actually enjoy spending time with my wife’s extended family. We often have great conversations. One of the most interesting I can recall was with one of her uncles, a highly successful, self-made commercial real estate developer who reluctantly retired after a cardiac bypass less than a decade ago. At a family event several years back, we were having our usual discussion about business, and I asked him if he would analyze a deal for me. He regretfully replied that since his heart bypass, he found he had been bypassed from the deal flow as well; he seemed to have lost confidence in his analytical abilities. Here was an exceptional businessman discovering that once you’re out of the flow, the skill set dries up.
It was March 21st as my family and I sped along by train to Vienna, Austria. We had just spent the last few days in Venice and were heading back to Vienna (our original arrival city) for three days of meetings at an international conference I’ve attended annually for the past four years. I found myself daydreaming as I gazed out the window as the train wound its way through Italy and Austria.
I was enjoying the gorgeous mountains and picturesque villages along the way, made all the better because my family was accompanying me on this trip. So why was I thinking about work? Why couldn’t I just look outside and enjoy the scenery? I found myself replaying in my mind a negative experience that had occurred a few days earlier.
Continue reading "Lasting Memories from First Impressions" »
This morning (January 18th), I awoke at 3:15 am. Before my sabbatical I survived on five to six hours of sleep. During my recent sabbatical (has it really been only two weeks?), I found myself able to get seven to eight wonderful hours of sleep. However, when I woke up today, I decided to catch the early flight to Miami for the NAPFA Technology Conference. And that's when I realized - I'm back. I've found my motivation again, and I'm smiling ear to ear.
Allow me to digress…
I don't know when I first realized it, but Forrest Gump is my idol. When you consider Murphy's Law, which states that "anything that can go wrong, will," Forrest Gump is the antithesis, exemplifying "everything that can go right, will."
The only problem with Forrest Gump's story is that it is completely unrealistic, at least to entrepreneurs like me. Nearly every one of Forrest's successes was purely accidental. Can most people really succeed like that without planning or working hard?
As I mentioned in last month's muse, I spent this past summer free of airline travel. I wanted to focus on the workings of our business model to make sure we are poised for the coming year, which we start looking at closely every September.
While retracing the familiar steps that led us to our current strategy, something happened along the way. I recognized that - despite our success - we also need to make some changes. And although I felt alone on the path, after speaking with a number of advisors, I learned many are clearly at a similar crossroads and arriving at a similar conclusion.
It’s the end of the summer and I’m bummed. I accomplished all the goals I set for myself and our business this summer, and now it’s back to the fall season. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
For the past few months, I have never worked so hard - physically or mentally. It started in May, when I and 24 other American men and women I didn't know spent a week in boot camp near Massada, training with a platoon of experienced soldiers. None of us had ever been in the military and most were too old to enlist now. But we had all dreamed of experiencing life as a soldier, so we embraced the opportunity to train, eat, and sleep (or not) with real soldiers preparing for war. Not only did I challenge myself beyond what I thought I was capable of, but I came away with 12 axioms learned from my commander that apply not only to the business of war, but to business in general.
Continue reading "12 Axioms I Learned from a 21-Year Old Army Commander" »
I've been thinking about Ray G. a lot lately. You might think that's unusual given that I haven't seen or heard from Ray since 1990, and we really weren't friends either. If you told Ray I was thinking about him, he would probably be incredulous and figure you must be referring to someone else. He would insist that there was nothing about our relationship that could have kept him in my memories after all these years. But the truth is that I always put him on a pedestal. You see, Ray had many qualities that I admired and, as I write this muse instead of spending time with my family, I'm reminded once again of his priorities.
We all have a favorite place we go to get away and think. During my college days, that place was the library stacks where I'd read in solitude for ten hours at a stretch.
These days, solitude is rare, given our commitments to family, friends, business, and charity, plus the technologies that accompany us everywhere we go. Even the office is not conducive to productivity. Deb, my wife and business partner, chides me about being a slave to the phone and the computer. But the reality is that when a call comes, I take it; when an email arrives, I respond to it - that is, when I'm not traveling.
So how does one create time and space for productivity, particularly those of us who travel a lot?
I've always been a big proponent of going to the best school you can get into, not to mention afford. On the other side of the coin, I realize that college isn't for everyone. While I agree it can enhance the intellect of even the brightest individual, I also know some incredibly smart people who never attended college.
One mentor early in my career was from the latter group. Les and I spent countless hours discussing everything from business theory to "Jonathon Livingston Seagull", long before I had any real knowledge or experience of my own. I'll never forget his reaction when I announced that I wanted to quit my job to get an MBA. He drew a picture of a diploma, wrote "Harvard" across the top, handed it to me, and said "OK, now what?"
My friend Barry spent nearly $2000 on a super-duper coffeemaker. After that, he spent months trying to convince me that his coffee is superior to any you can buy from a local shop or national chain. At first I was skeptical, but maybe he's right. Now knowing that I (an admitted coffee addict) could also have the best cup of coffee with this coffeemaker, you'd think that I would rush right out and buy one.
Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), I decided that there is something better than making your own cup of joe, no matter how phenomenal it might be. To me, that something is the pleasure of meeting people while buying coffee from my favorite local haunt. I spend a good amount of time in New Hampshire and have found my favorite at a shop in North Conway - not exactly around the corner. It's actually about 15 miles each way from my house, which shows that I either love the coffee or the experience of going there to get it. After musing on this, I decided it's the latter.
I have a confession to make. Long before I was in Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management, I was a history major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Some of my fondest memories are of spending 12+ hours in the library stacks reading biographies. I'm still not much for fiction but I enjoy non-fiction books. My "Chairman's Monthly Muse" gives me the opportunity to share concepts from my readings or conversations with advisors and apply them to running a business, something all of us are trying to do successfully.
Continue reading "Outsourcing: From Generalist to Specialist" »
