Your Survival Guy’s been working with investors (you) for over 25 years and was a little shocked to get my 30-year reunion invite from Babson College—ranked number one before and since graduation for its entrepreneurship program.
After working at a startup company my senior year, I backpacked through Europe, taught skiing in my favored New Hampshire, and then, much to my parents’ relief, began my work in finance at Fidelity Investments in Boston. Today, in my conversations with you, I’m on a leafy street in Newport, RI, far away from the hustle and bustle of Wall Street or wherever the trading crowd calls home these days.
This morning, hot off an eye-opening trip to Europe, I can tell you from a boots-on-the-ground look, not all is right in the world. Once you get a feel for how life is going and how easily countries are allowing their historical roots to be uprooted, it’s time to do a bottom-up review. Not all is good. But that’s why you need to make these trips. You can read and read and read, but no book is as valuable as a twenty-minute conversation with a local you’ve known for a decade. That’s the intelligence I seek out and find most valuable—anecdotal evidence is reality.
How this relates to you is this: You can read investment books and articles until your eyes fall out, but are you speaking with someone who has intimate knowledge of who you are? Whose experience through all these years can tell how you might consider improving your financial situation? I’d love to talk with you, and you know, if you look at a map, Newport, RI might not be that far from you.
Now is the perfect time to come see me. I want to hear your story. This week, I launched our boat and took a video and pics for you to see. June is a great month to visit because the kiddies aren’t out of school yet, the beaches are open but not too crowded (too cold to swim unless you’re brave), and you can get a reservation at a moment’s notice (maybe not a moment so plan ahead, or ask me).
But as soon as the official summer begins July 4th through Labor Day, it’s a different story. September is a beautiful month, though, and you can see one of the best boat shows in the world. I might even be able to help you pay for one. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Over the weekend, I read a book on Artificial Intelligence and education. There was a quote at the beginning of a section that caught my eye that I’ll share with you my valued reader and wise man:
A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years mere study of books.
Action Line: Don’t let ten years go by before you and I have a chance to sit down and talk. I want to hear your story. If you don’t act now, you might be ten years older when you do.
Originally posted on Your Survival Guy.
