Tyranny of OR – Genius of AND

Let’s take a few minutes here and talk about the tyranny of the or and the genius of the and. So what does that really mean? Well this came about Jim Collins wrote a book “Built To Last.” And in that book, he developed that idea. And it’s interesting to kind of start looking at that and looking through this book, he talks about these successful companies really focus on the genius of the and. So as an example here, he talked about think of these various examples: continuity and change, right on two different things, not necessarily the or, but can you do the and. Freedom and responsibility, but can you do the responsibility? And then discipline and creativity. So when I kind of was preparing for this here and we’ve talked a lot about this over the years. And when I think about it, so in my free time, I coach my son’s fourth grade, third and fourth grade tackle football. And so this is the first year most of them are. So we as coaches talk a lot about discipline and each player having a responsibility on the football field. You know 11 players out there at a time. So with discipline we can help them you know learn their positions and be very good at those positions. But all of them have to have an element of creativity in there. You know every play is going to have some variance that you can’t predict every play. So they have to have their own creativity. If I said you have to do this rigid disciplined play every single time, this only way, well what if the offense or defense, whatever we’re on or playing against reacts differently? There has to be some level of creativity there, right? You know we live in such a polarizing world these day where even with like financial markets, when you look at that. When you turn on the News, there’s somebody that’s always out there. We call them the Perma-Bulls. You know somebody, no matter what the market is doing that day, that week, that year, their saying you know the markets are always going to go up this and this. There’s somebody that’s always got a very optimistic view on the performance of the markets. And then there’s going to be the other side, right? You turn on the television and the world is falling apart. The markets are crumbling. You know that person that’s always kind of has the pessimistic view of that. Well does it have to be one way or the other? Maybe, but not necessarily, right? Let’s talk about this with your own financial portfolio. A lot of people, especially as they get into retirement struggle with this growth and safety piece. You know I want to have growth. I’ve had that my whole life. And you know they start kind of going through this and they build themself up with various things. But then they start saying well boy, you know I’m not contributing anymore and I want this money to last. So maybe I need to have some safety in various elements of that. So when you think of this, again it doesn’t have to be the or, maybe it’s the and. Maybe there is a little genius in that and. So with your retirement portfolio and your plan that you have to encompass for that or lack of one yet. Let’s talk through these various things for you and see how we can help you and make sure if there’s an and and if you can look like a genius in retirement.