On the Road with Steve Felix: 2/20/11

Friday, February 25, 2011

"The credit belongs to the man.....

I may have shared this with you a some point but I’ve read it again recently and it’s reminded me of something I may have forgotten:

“ The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena-whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood….who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotion-and spends himself in a worthy cause…who at best, if he wins, knows the thrills of high achievement-and, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly-so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.”

Theodore Roosevelt

I can’t remember where or when I found this quote but it’s been at least twenty years as i have it scotch-taped to a business card from a job I had at that time. It’s something I tried to never forget but, you know, things just happen that take us off the path that we dream of following onto a path that we need to follow. But why? What happens along the way? It’s called responsibility or in other words obligation. But that’s just part of it. For many of us, life gets complicated, personally and financially. And, we don’t know how to get out of it, even if we want to. There are all kinds of sayings and clichés and advice about how to live your life-‘don’t forget to stop and smell the roses’, ‘don’t be afraid of failing’, ‘don’t be afraid of succeeding’. They’re all good sayings but, you say, are they realistic in this day and age? Well, my view is that this day and age is all we have and if we don’t grab onto it, at some point in our lives, and ride it for all it’s worth, we run a real risk, the risk of regret, the risk of being close to the natural end and saying, “I wish I had done that or I wish I had gone there or I just wish……”. And, if you and I continue to wait for just the right time to do something we really want to do, or go somewhere we want to go, well, there just may not be a time which is the right time….there may simply not be time.

This coming week I'll be attending my first NAREIM Executive Officers Meeting as a guest of Steve Renna, President of NAREIM. When I took a look at the attendee list the other day I saw that I'll know a number of folks who will be there; some who were my consulting clients when I was at IREI; others who I have just known for years in the industry. One thing that interested me was the list of topics for Group Discussion/Breakout sessions. I think many of these are topics that you can kick around, right in your own office, early on a Friday morning when you bring in bagels and....With all the hustle and bustle of our work weeks, I'm thinking that we need to make sure that we don't overlook how important it is to get together as a team, debate timely topics and share ideas. The beautiful thing is that you don't have to wait for a conference to do it, although the benefit of a conference is that you have voices from different firms contributing. Anyway, here are some of those timely topics:

How is your firm responding to the 'outlook' for the markets and the industry in 2011?
How has your firm applied "Lessons Learned."
Are we experiencing a structural change in the market?

One last item on conferences. A few of you have contacted me about IMN's Consultant Congress to be held in New York on March 30, 2011. I'll be moderating one of the panel sessions and perhaps the calibre of people on that panel will give you an idea of why it may make sense for you to attend the event:

Sean Buhmann, NEPC

Cate Polleys, Hewitt EnnisKnupp

Justin Mallis, Segal Advisors

Martha Peyton, TIAA-CREF

And to throw in just a few of the other firms that will be attending (perhaps you've wanted to meet them but hadn't had a chance):

Evaluation Associates
Courtland Partners
Mercer
PCA
Rogers & Casey
Callan
Hamilton Lane

Sounds like I'm promoting the event, eh? Well, probably but I salute IMN for creating something new instead of the SOSO and, given the role that consultants play in our community I just wanted to make sure that I put it out there for you to consider.

Ice cream of the week: Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream, Columbus, OH. Simply unbelievable. Her first creation, Queen City Cayenne, brings a fine wine like experience: "Rich chocolate reveals back-of-the-throat spice. Finish is tingly and complex". This, my friends, is serious shit!

Music videos of the week: Three of the great vocal performances of our time:

Bonnie Raitt “I Can’t Make You Love Me If You Don’t”

Rick Danko “It Makes No Difference”

Joan Osborne “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted”