I catch a lot of flack for reading Harvard Business Review.
“Egghead academics with no real-world business experience telling you how to deal with a pain-in-the-a** employee? No thanks,” is how one colleague put it.
I showed him the return Harvard’s endowment generated in fiscal year 2008; it shut him up. Whatever they’re doing in their ivory towers isn’t all that complicated, and is a testament (yet again) to the benefits of asset allocation and a properly diversified portfolio. So relate this little tale the next time one of your clients gets emotional. Whether it’s an up or down market, money is still to be made. More importantly, this also means your poor performance is a whole lot tougher to excuse.