Here’s Your Future. In Six Words

It was one of those delicious, delightful, daft moments in a meeting.

I know you know the moment.

The moment when you know that the next thing you say will be more ridiculous than the last.
And both of you will be convulsed with laughter, struggling to speak with more than a squeak.

We were talking about ESG investment.
Of course we were. I mean, what else would the MD of a financial planning business be talking about with their leadership coach?

For some reason we’d recalled the latest David Attenborough programmes.
Each programme growing a little more pointed about our impact on our fragile home. Earth.

We’d reached the part where Matt was discussing the inexorable, devastating rise of the earth’s oceans. Boosted by us doing our level best to push the planet into an oven.

“I’m sorry. But you’re not going to keep those rising oceans back with a few sandbags!” quips he.

Chuckle.

“Ah! but what about getting a few million blokes to pump seawater from the English Channel to the Irish Sea?” spluttered I.

Picture it. Hee Hee.

“Of course, we could always create a system to push the excess from the Atlantic into the Pacific. That would do the job.” Countered he.

Now I’m holding my sides. Har har har.

And so it went on, until breaking for lunch was the only sensible thing to do.
Trying to think strategically in our state was not going to work.

Before we moved on to something more serious, we compared the ludicrous scenes we’d just painted to the mentality that Active fund managers can consistently predict the medium-term future of the markets.

Only to have their highly-educated, hugely-expensive, column-inch-consuming intellectual posturing wiped out by the appearance of a creature one-thousandth the size of a grain of sand.

Hmmm.

So, what about our future?
Yours and mine.

Is our future – our businesses – up for grabs: hostage to the whim of uncontrollable forces?
Or can we dare to create a future of Hope and Abundance?

I gathered my financial planning clients together this week to discuss this simple question:

“What’s Inspiring Me as I Look To The Future?”

Simple enough, huh?
Except… for the devil in the detail.

The catch was, each person had to express their inspiring idea in just six words.
Six words. Maximum.
SIX!

Listen to what came from their passionate minds.
About their businesses, their clients, their team, their lives.

I was deeply moved.

I think you will too.

• “The Team Is My Client Too.”
• “Inspire Anyone. Not Just Financial Clients.”
• “The Ability to Redesign Your Life.”
• “Provide Refuge for Our Client Community.”
• “Learn from Others Who’ve Been There.”
• “People, Planet, Profits. My Leadership Priorities.”
• “I Cannot Fail with Your Support.”
• “We Few. The Hope for Many.”
• “God’s Timing Is Perfect. Always.”
• “Love First. Skills Next. Brighter Tomorrow.”
• “We Are the Light They Seek.”
• “Anything Is Possible!”

Yes, we’re all reeling from the consequences of our species’ collective short-sighted behaviour.

But conversations like this remind us that – when our back is against the wall – the spirit of humankind can rise selflessly, nobly, magnificently.

Can you see why I rejoice in being surrounded by leaders like these?

People who can carve out a better future.

In just SIX words!