Field of Dreams: Cracking the Mind of an Entrepreneur

Due in large part to how entrepreneurs are depicted in pop culture (think HBO’s “Silicon Valley”), there’s a common perception that they tend to be young, insatiably energetic, tenacious and willing to risk it all. But studies have shown that when you push back the curtain, you see a much more fascinating, diverse, and often surprising portrait of our most prominent movers and shakers.


Read More
To Grit with Grace, Episode 5 — Lowman Family: No Success Like Failure

Dustin Lowman wasn’t always my marketing manager. In 2015, he moved to Nashville, Tennessee to turn his passion for songwriting into a career. But things didn’t go completely as planned for the 22-year-old. Struggling in an industry town, Dustin faced trials of confidence and identity he never thought he’d face.

Read More
Thought Bubbles, and the Stories We Do Tell

Stories often originate in facts, and shortly thereafter, take on a life of their own, leaving facts behind as distant memories. Never is this clearer than in money stories, or money messages as we call them in the wealth advisory biz. Money makes our worlds in a very tangible way, and interweaves deeply with personal and family narratives. In my wealth management career, I’ve seen different family members take the same set of facts and create very different stories.

Read More
Grit with Gods: Bastet, the Lioness Warrior

Of all the feline deities, none attained higher rank than Bastet, goddess of many interlinked domains: warfare and protection, fertility and children, music, the arts, and, of course, perfume.

You might wonder why a goddess of fertility and children is important to me, a woman who always wanted dogs, never wanted children, and never relented, in spite of the protestations of strangers, friends, and family alike.

Let me explain.

Read More
To Grit with Grace, Episode 4 — Curt Cronin: Saving the Space for Grace

When we think about war stories, we tend to think in terms of Saving Private Ryan — heroism in the heat of battle, the willingness to face down death for the sake of our fellow soldiers.

My guest this month, Curt Cronin, calls that “valorous courage.” Curt served as a Navy Seal in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Through some trying times, when the U.S. was conducting combat operations in unfamiliar terrain and against an unfamiliar enemy, Curt realized that “infinitesimal courage” — the courage to have tough conversations — was much more valuable. In Curt’s case, that meat telling his commanding officer what he really thought about his orders, unsure of the outcome, not once, but three times.

Read More
To Grit with Grace, Episode 3 — Leslie Montanile: True Love, Lust, and Lies

Who do you trust?

The older we get, the more is at stake, and the harder trust is to come by. My guest this month on “To Grit with Grace,” divorce lawyer and newly minted author Leslie Montanile, was burned by one kind of trust: that which she invested in her business partner Jeff. But she was saved by another kind of trust: that which she invested in her husband, Joe.

Read More
It’s Too Darn Hard: The Need for Effective Family Governance

The proverb “shirtsleeves-to-shirtsleeves” refers to a toxic pattern in family wealth, in which the resources accumulated by one generation are exhausted by a later one. How can we build wealth sustainably that goes beyond 2 or 3 generations?The short answer, effective family governance.

Read More
Grit with Guests: 3 Lessons I Learned as a Nonprofit CEO that Made Me a Smarter, More Efficient Philanthropic Consultant

Every nonprofit executive and fundraiser carries around the exhilarating memories, but not all are awash in sweetness and light. I spent innumerable sleepless nights leading two wonderfully innovative and successful nonprofit organizations. As with all stressful experiences, each of these was punctuated by crucially important lessons. I learned them the hard way. Now, as I reflect on my experiences and nurture the next generation of philanthropic leaders, I share them so that others might benefit.

Read More
Grit with Gods: Aker

For thousands of years, we’ve been telling ourselves the same basic stories which deliver the same basic lessons on how to live life happily. Each generation must learn them anew. There’s a beautiful irony in calling on the ancients for contemporary guidance: Though sourced from an era that looked almost nothing like ours, the fundamental tenets have everything to do with how to live well today.

Read More
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.”

Read More
To Grit with Grace, Episode 1 — Randy Kaufman: Trifecta of Suck

The ’08 financial crisis kicked off what I like to call my “Trifecta of Suck.” Followed closely by a breast cancer diagnosis and a divorce, the 10-year period starting in 2008 was a trial. Survival was made possible only by the support of my friends, and an insistence on grit — a trait I learned from my father.

Read More
Bringing it All Back Home: Why Bob Dylan Sold His Catalog for $300 Million

Despite my decade-plus-long devotion to Dylan’s music, I unfortunately don’t possess a channel directly into the man’s mind. I can’t say with absolute certainty why Dylan decided now was the time to sell, but I have one hypothesis which I haven’t read elsewhere: He’s looking out for his kids.

Read More
Magical Mystery Tour: The Past, the Future, and the Now

2020. For me and mine, it started like a perfectly normal year: a lovely New Year’s Eve, far from the maddening crowds of NYC, a birthday fest for our Labradoodle, Hudson and me; an annual ski trip to one of my favorite places in the world, Jackson Hole.

Then, devastation came, and came, and came, and came again.

Read More
False Gods — Givin’ on a Prayer: The Myths that Starve Philanthropy

Philanthropy is one of my favorite things. I have dedicated many hours to it for myself, and my clients, over the past 25 years. But, as Andrew Carnegie said, “It is more difficult to give money away intelligently than to earn it in the first place.” Philanthropy — it’s a messy business. And, in philanthropy even more than in investing, far too often we (including yours truly) are still ruled by our caveman brains.

Read More