GPS for Advisors

To succeed in life, a person has to know his place. That means calculating and constantly recalculating where you stand in relation to the world around you.

I have been giving quite a bit of thought to my own place of late. That is because, dear reader, I will be moving on from my happy home at Research after more than 18 years as editor of this publication.

This transition is occasioned by personal and familial considerations that have prompted me to make a very big move, geographically speaking and otherwise, to Israel’s capital, Jerusalem. While today’s technological tools would enable me to perform my job from anywhere, in truth I didn’t want to just change my location but change my life too.

This plan to change my place (i.e., location) has helped me to assess my proper place (i.e., role) in the world. As editor of an advisor trade publication for nearly two decades, I’ve learned a thing or two about the business.

I have come to see that it is like a very crowded marketplace with merchants and media shouting and blaring their not infrequently conflicting messages from the chaos of their stalls and booths, tripping passersby with their shiny wares.

Time in these stalls or advisor-conference lecture halls is often misused—wasted on trivia that do not add to knowledge or growth.

When an advisor encounters something of genuine importance, the inspiration is apt to dissipate like so much vapor exhaled on a winter day—usually from the moment the advisor gets back to the office and starts returning phone calls. In other words, advisors quite easily lose their place.