Slow and purposeful.
This has been the main thrust of my business for over a generation. As I am looking at 2024, this is our last blog and video broadcast of 2023, I think of the 37 years that I have been in this chair, in this career, in this calling, serving people. Slow and purposeful.
This brings to mind a recent visit my wife Betty and I took to the country of Portugal. During that trip, we had an opportunity to visit a cork farm. This farm was owned by several generations of the same family. I never understood that much about cork before. They make it into shoes, purses, and clothing, but it is used primarily to seal wine bottles.
What I didn’t realize about a cork harvest is that when it is taken from the tree, they don't kill the tree. The tree continues to live. In fact, about every 8 to 9 years, you can harvest the bark or cork again from the tree. So, we got on a flatbed wagon with a bunch of other people and were taken out through the woods of this cork farm by one of the children.
I say children, but he was actually in his 40s and he was talking about the history of their farm and showing how the harvesting took place.
This was the takeaway that I had from this visit: from the point in time that a little cork tree seedling takes root, it is 45 years before the first commercial harvest takes place from that tree. So, their philosophy is generational, slow and purposeful.
As we’re looking towards 2024, we are looking at our firm to grow. We would like to expand it with additional team members, but we will do it slowly and purposefully. We will be taking on new, additional clients, but we will be doing it slowly and purposefully. During the holiday season, as you are meeting with friends and family and they are asking you who your financial people are, our hope is that you mention our names. We hope that in the New Year, you can connect us with those families and individuals who have the same values that we hold dear so we can grow with them. Slow and purposeful.
We will be closed next week so the team can spend extra time with their families, and we will be open for business again on January 2nd and ready to tackle the new year. We hope that you have a blessed holiday season, and we wish you the very, very best in the coming 2024.
