Don’t Begin With the End in Mind
There is a bit of chaos and change in the world today. Okay, a lot. And everyone is looking for answers. Whether it is how to lower taxes and keep your hard-earned dollars, find people to work, invest in markets (financial, real estate or otherwise) that appear overpriced, but also feels necessary to fight the cost of everything going up in price so drastically… everyone is looking for answers.
Author Arthur Hlavaty once stated, The first secret of getting what you want is knowing what you want.
If you are looking for answers, would it not follow that you know what you want? Perhaps and perhaps not. Eugene Lonesco said it best: It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.
We think we need or want one thing, but too often we are just looking for ways to put out the fires in front of us. We have a problem, fear something, worry about something, or just want a good night’s sleep. Unfortunately, putting out one fire won’t prevent another one from starting.
We spend years, decades even, building our legacies—our family’s success, our businesses, our wealth. Yet we wait until the last hour to plan for the biggest moments in our life. Whether it is retirement, selling the family ranch, helping the next generation be successful or keeping our wealth in-tact; we wait until its crunch time. Then we are looking for solutions…how do we do it?
Too often we meet someone after the fact: They just sold their business. They just retired. They just finished up their estate plan. Through our discovery of working with these families we too often learn that what was done (“the answer”) won’t work at all in the long-run.
After working under a deadline with families for more than thirty years, we have accumulated a lot of insight. The one thing that rings true almost invariably is that it isn’t ever about the answer. It is so much deeper than the answer, which can often make the most apparent answer not applicable at all.
Frankly, it’s not about beginning with the end in mind in the way of “how do I sell my business and pay the least amount of tax?” or “how do I invest my money today?” or “where do I go to get my estate plan in order.” Rather, it is about beginning with your end goal in mind—What does it mean to you to Live Life on Purpose?
More than thirty years of experience has also given us the wisdom to see the holes you needed to work on …yesterday. And the answer is not the same for you as it is for another family. Which is where it usually goes wrong. Google cannot give you the answer you are looking for. A cookie-cutter insurance or investment shop can’t give you this. No one thing can give you a simple answer.
You must slow down to go fast. You must begin with the real end in mind. What is your unique situation? What are your goals? What does your future look like? What are your family dynamics? What are your feelings about the economy, markets, risk, taxes? What is most important to YOU?
If you are not starting here, chances are you putting out a fire only to learn you have another one. Don’t begin with finding an answer. Let us help you take the time to find YOUR answer!