Crisis Opportunity - thoughts about the previous months from Managing Partner Ron Richardson:
The holiday season is rapidly approaching, including the 40th anniversary of employment in the securities business. What a ride it has been!
The original crisis was my graduation from Southwestern College with no idea of what I was going to do next. That led me to Oklahoma, where I intended to go to law school and become a corporate attorney. Through several twists and turns, I ended up employed by Dean Witter Reynolds in January 1984. Hard to believe it's now 40 years ago.
The numerous crises along the way to today: Black Monday, "the Crash of 1987," the "S & L crisis," the invasion of Iraq, 9/11, the "dot-com bubble," the "Great Recession," another banking systemic problem, the Pandemic, and the Invasion of Ukraine. So many different and similar crises. How do we manage these?
"Genius is a crisis that joins the buried self, for certain moments, to our daily mind." - William Butler Yeats
"The original sense of genius means an attendant spirit-being in the care of something unseen but clear." - Awakenings, Mark Nepo
Let's see if I can bring this together for you. The Chinese have an ideogram that represents the thought that out of crisis comes opportunity. There is a Chinese symbol for this. I literally have this tattooed on my hip. 😊 That does not suggest that I seek out danger, but when faced with crisis, I look for the emerging opportunities. My greatest triumphs have come after some of my greatest valleys.
The second tattoo I have is of my beloved Tetons. It is a reminder of the connection I feel in nature, to things bigger and greater than I. The forces that have guided my career and many areas of my life are beyond my conception.
"Perhaps the purpose in crisis, if there is one, is not to break us as much as to break us open." - Awakenings, Mark Nepo
Thanks for allowing me to help during the last 40 years of crises. Let's hope for some calm seas ahead.
Enjoy the day....r2