The Wall Street Journal featured an article Friday about Roger Federer who is scheduled to begin seeking the Wimbledon championship for the seventh time tomorrow. From my perspective, the article, Federer’s Best Shot, provides a perfect lesson in longevity–maintaining yourself at the top of your game for a long time.

“The most remarkable part of the Federer story . . . has been his uncanny ability to fend off physical and emotional fatigue and remain motivated,” writes Tom Perrotta. Read the rest of this entry »

We watched The Bucket List last Sunday evening. I wasn’t sure what to expect, considering that it stars Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. I was more than pleasantly surprised. Yes, there were laughs. What movie with Nicholson in it won’t have laughs?

But there was a lot more. Indeed, I was impressed that Nicholson was willing, actually, to be serious and, even, subtle. There were some very poignant scenes.

But I was most impressed with the entire premise of the movie: Read the rest of this entry »

Most of the “success coaches” I’ve listened to seem to swear by the idea of writing your goals. Universally, they seem to say that merely thinking about your goals is not enough. You’ve got to write them out and, even if you don’t rewrite them every day, you need to review them every day. –Every day!

I think I’m slowly beginning to understand why they say this. Read the rest of this entry »

G____, our legacy planner, asked, “Suppose we were to say a family has successfully passed on its legacy to the next generation if two things, at minimum, are true: 1) the family’s wealth is still there when the first generation has passed away, and, 2) none of the members of the second generation have seen their lives destroyed due to improper use of funds; no family relationships have been ruined as a result of strife over money.

“Of families who use traditional financial and estate planning techniques and go no further, what percentage would you guess are successful, according to this definition, in the second generation? How many wealthy families still have the wealth and are still relationally intact in the second generation?”

“Maybe one or two percent?” I suggested. Read the rest of this entry »