Posts in The Examined Life
Comfortably Uncomfortable: Randy Kaufman and Dustin Lowman on Growing Through Discomfort

Humans are subject to an insidious push and pull between comfort and discomfort. Like any species with the evolutionary persistence to survive for millions of years, we’ve survived largely by our ability to identify and avoid threats — toothsome predators in days long past, nebulous anxieties of moneylessness and failure today.

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Cato, My Father, and Me: What I (Unknowingly) Learned About Living from the Stoics

My father named our family’s first dog — a medium-sized, regal brown poodle — Cato. During Cato’s long life, many assumed the name “Cato” came from the Green Hornet’s sidekick, similarly named “Kato.” However, my father, never a TV watcher, insisted that he’d named the dog for some long-dead Ancient Roman senator.

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The Family Consigliere: How Aker Secured Multigenerational Wealth with a Multimillion-Dollar Real Estate Sale… and Beyond

I’ve been in wealth management since 1998. Before that, I practiced corporate tax law at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton, & Garrison and worked as an investment banker at JP Morgan. I’ve seen the topic of financial security from many angles: the legal, the numerical, and most recently, the psychological and emotional.

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From the South of France to the Hudson Valley: Why I Read, and Why I Write

A lot of money-oriented people don’t see the point in writing. A lot of corporate communications are filled with typos, dry language, and other missed opportunities to generate meaning. I went away from the literary arts for a long time, focusing on my career. But I came back when I desperately needed answers. I’m never leaving again.

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Freedom Rings: Why I Quit Corporate America in the Middle of a Global Pandemic

May, 2020. COVID-19 decimates our country; sirens screech night and day in New York City; thousands of Americans die daily; hospitals are overrun with the sick and dying; unemployment levels reach the highest rate in my lifetime. In the midst of all of it, I decide to resign from corporate America. My mom, who, in her ninth decade, still guides me twice daily, asks, “Who leaves a great job in the middle of a global pandemic?”

“Well mom,” I say, “I do.”

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