knowledge

What’s in Your Portfolio

August 1, 2014

What’s In Your Portfolio?

A portfolio is generally understood as a collection of valuables; whether artistic drawings, important papers, or financial investments. It reflects the talents and treasures of the owner, and is generally carefully cultivated and added to over a period of time. But to increase the treasures in your portfolio, you must first focus on increasing your talents.

A recent issue of Forbes Magazine featured The Best Investment Advice of All Time, which profiled insider tips from some of the financial industry’s best known thought leaders. These were financial gurus such as T. Rowe Price, Jr., George Soros, Sir John Templeton, David Tepper, Sam Zell and Warren Buffett who built their professional expertise and personal portfolios based on their intellect and abilities. They had to invest in their talent before building their treasure.

These talents or skillsets include knowledge, wisdom, abilities, experiences and interests. And most of all they include your innate gifts, those characteristics endowed upon you from birth that attract you and compel your learning decisions. Properly applied they develop and produce treasures.

Your Talents Form A Foundation For Your Treasures

Building and investing in a portfolio of talents is equally important as your portfolio of treasures. Here are several great examples.

Jeff Maggioncalda – courtesy of www.FinancialEngines.com

Several decades ago when Jeff Maggioncalda was newly married, he created a simulation engine to model the results of one million Monopoly games to generate the probabilities and payoffs for its various properties, and used this as a cheat sheet to beat his wife at the game. Later, Jeff used his ability to develop simulations to found Financial Engines, a company which provides financial advice to almost 800,000 employees at 553 large employers. Because Jeff invested in himself first he was able to transform his ideas and skills into a lucrative business, and build his portfolio.

Floyd Mayweather, Jr. courtesy of Wikipedia

Floyd Mayweather, Jr. is the world’s highest paid athlete with $105 million earned in the boxing ring over the past year. According to Wikipedia, he is currently undefeated as a professional and is a five-division world champion, having won ten world titles and the lineal championship in four different weight classes. His father, a boxer and trainer, started taking him to the gym as soon as he could walk, and fitted him for his first pair of boxing gloves at the age of seven. Floyd developed his skill by investing years of practice in the gym, but it was fueled by an innate love for the sport. This propelled him to his current position atop the list of highest paid athletes, with a portfolio to match.

Sarah Ketterer courtesy of Columbia Business School

Sarah Ketterer was born into the investment world. Her father, John Hotchkis, founded several successful asset management companies where she worked during the summers; but she didn’t initially pursue a career there. After several educational and professional shifts, Sarah eventually became interested in understanding and organizing the data used to make investment decisions, and joined her father’s firm to start a new international equity arm. From there, she and a partner developed a new model of money management, and in 2001 started their own international asset management business. Their unique approach which combines quantitative computer program probability predictions with fundamental analysis of stocks has paid off, and in the past 18 months their assets have more than doubled to $33 billion.

Leave a Legacy

The typical result of building a successful portfolio of treasures is to bestow it upon your heirs, or to donate it to a worthy cause. Some have amassed family fortunes in a trust for generations to come. Others have joined Bill Gates’ and Warren Buffett’s Giving Pledge, a commitment by the world’s wealthiest individuals and families to dedicate the majority of their wealth to philanthropy. Whether your portfolio is valued at $10,000 or $10 million or $10 billion, if properly managed its value may outlive you.

Similarly, a successful portfolio of talents can add value to others and provide benefits for those around you and for future generations. Inventors and innovators like Steve Jobs, George Washington Carver, and Thomas Edison have proven this already.

So what’s in your portfolio of talents, and how will that transfer to your portfolio of treasures? What assets do you have in terms of your skillsets, abilities, interests, and experiences? Whether you’re just holding a job, or in the midst of a successful career, it’s important to hone in on those elements upon which your success has been or can be built. Doing so will not only drive the right decisions to maximize your future personal development and professional career choices, but will enable you to provide lasting benefit to others in their growth and development.

Read Forbes Magazine’s June 30, 2014 issue for more information on Maggioncalda, Mayweather and Ketterer. Learn more about Mayweather’s early years here.

Wise Leaders, Foolish Leaders

June 17, 2012

Priscilla Archangel

Capability, Leadership

Wise Leaders…Foolish Leaders

Have you ever wished that you could give a colleague some wise feedback that would help him or her in their career, a project, or some aspect of their responsibilities? But you couldn’t because you recognized that they weren’t receptive to it, or they would have difficulty understanding it. You recognized that their perception or beliefs about what they were doing were so strong or deeply rooted, that it would be difficult for them to see any other point of view. You may have even recognized that this could develop into a serious professional derailer for the person. Maybe you carefully planned a moment in time to have the conversation, only for the person to rebuff your remarks and try to make YOU think that you were foolish.

As much as you wanted to help the other person, to help them see the folly of their ways, you knew that you had to wait until they WANTED to listen to you. You had to wait until they fell and got bruised and tried to figure out what happened and why….then maybe, just maybe you’ll be able to help them recognize how their own behavior or decisions contributed to their situation.

A rock with the word Wisdom engraved on it. Realistically, none of us are completely wise or completely foolish. There are simply areas in our lives where we exhibit more or less wisdom (sometime a lot more or a lot less). The goal is to increase the areas where wisdom shines through; to seek the counsel of other people who are wise; to be able to recognize the difference between wise and foolish behavior.

This is even more important for leaders, because their wise or foolish decisions impact not only themselves but others around them. A CEO who makes an irrational or foolish product decision can drive the company’s stock downward effecting investors and employees. A CFO who foolishly covers up material financial information similarly damages the corporate reputation and subjects the firm to negative sanctions. The greater your responsibility, the greater your need for wisdom. The greater your wisdom, the greater responsibility will come to you.

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God – The Revealer Secrets

December 10, 2011

Priscilla Archangel

Faith Based Leadership

God – The Revealer of Secrets

Imagine going about your daily routine, when suddenly you have a visitation. Now you may not believe in visitations, but you don’t know what else to call it when suddenly a man appears in front of you. His appearance is unlike any you’ve ever seen. It’s indescribable, as if he’s glowing inside and out. When he opens his mouth to speak, the sound of his voice is melodic yet strong. There’s something intimate about the way that he extends himself to you, yet you’ve never seen anyone like him. As awestruck as you are, you’re not afraid. In fact, you’re spellbound, as you stand there transfixed by his gaze.

He opens his mouth, calls you by name, and reaches out his hand to you. You are drawn to him as you respond with your outstretched hand, and he beckons you to sit with him. He then proceeds to speak to you, ever so sweetly, telling you about your future; the things you will accomplish, the people you will meet, the experiences you will have. His words are spell-binding. What he’s saying is so different from your current reality, that you almost can’t comprehend it. He points with his finger into the distance, and as if on cue, your visual field is filled with images of your future. You can see yourself doing the things he said you would do. Like watching a movie, you can see yourself in ways and places that are new and different to you.

IStockPhoto

As the vision fades, you turn back to look into his eyes again, to ask him what all of this means. But just as suddenly as he appeared, he vanishes. You’re left there, alone but not lonely, because your spirit is filled with the words he spoke to you. Your mind is filled with the visions he gave you. Your heart is filled with the warmth he left you. But what does it all mean? He shared with you a deep understanding of your future that you never dreamed of. This mesmerizing man just shared a secret with you; your own personal secret that was for you and about you.

You sit there for what seems like forever, replaying the vision over and over again in your mind. As time passes, the vision becomes more and more real to you. Fearing that no one will believe you, you decide to share this secret only with one or two of your most trusted friends; friends who will come as close as anyone to understanding; friends who will hold you accountable to moving toward it.

Most of the secrets we share or know are about a person’s past or present. They’re regarded as juicy bits of gossip, generally negative in tone, because the really positive news is often shared openly. But secrets about someone’s future are more difficult to understand or ascertain. Generally, they are a prophetic word; simply put, telling the future. They’re not for everyone to know because not everyone can handle them, not everyone is poised to receive them. Some secrets are meant to stay hidden, others are meant to be revealed at a set time. The fact that this information is a secret speaks volumes about its power. That power can be used for good or for ill, to enlighten and uncover, reveal and release.

God is a revealer of secrets. He has information about our future. His secrets are not kept from us, they are kept for us. God, the revealer of secrets prepares the moment so that we will be ready and able to handle the secret He has for us. When we’re ready to receive it, He will reveal it and begin to show us what to do with that information.

God uses angels and mankind to reveal His secrets. Thousands of years ago, an angel appeared to a young virgin whose name was Mary, and told her a secret about her future, that she would become the mother of Jesus. Though she wondered how it all would come about, the angel assured her that with God, nothing was impossible. Mary accepted the secret about her future, and said “let it be to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38 NKJV) Only Joseph, her fiancé, and Elizabeth, her cousin seemed to have any inkling of this marvelous truth.

Daniel called God the revealer of secrets because God used Daniel to reveal to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon the content and meaning of his dream. At that time he was one of the bright young Israelites, held captive in service to the king. Yet God chose someone of low stature in man’s eyes, to foretell the future to a man of high stature.

Today, leaders still want to know secrets about their future. They guess, speculate, negotiate, and leverage the future based on their knowledge of the past and present. They plan, strategize, predict and communicate the future based on previous experience and current circumstances. Their stakeholders demand that they meet future performance targets, and so they try to understand and control their secret future.

Your future may be a secret from others, but it’s a secret for you. Knowledge of your future secret enables you to act with confidence, like someone pointing the way forward to you. You gain this knowledge by asking the revealer of secrets about your future. You spend time with Him, believe in His great power, believe that whatever He says, no matter how different it may be from where you are now, He can bring it to pass. If you feel stuck right now, not knowing where to turn or what to do with your future, wondering where you’re going and what God wants you to do, know that He’s the revealer of secrets. He knows your future and wants to reveal it to you at the appointed time when you’re ready to receive it. So seek God, the revealer of secrets.