Great Coaches Matter!!!

Posted on April 21, 2014 by Tony — No Comments ↓

After reading Steve Jobs’ autobiography I really thought about how he changed the world and his employees at Apple. Based on the book Jobs was not easy to work for. He demanded perfection and when he didn’t get it he got In the face of the offending employee. There was no such thing as ‘good enough’ there was only one way, the right way. That is according to Steve Jobs. He believed that whatever his vision was he could will it into reality. I’m quite sure the turnover rate of those working directly with Jobs at Apple was very high. Apple recruited only those at the top of their class from the top schools in the country. The best of the best of the best.

Image representing Steve Jobs as depicted in C... — Image via CrunchBase

Even with this top talent there was no guarantee of top performance. In other words high intellect or high levels of technical skill did not necessarily equate to success when working for Steve Jobs. He demanded more, he demanded that you find a way to be great. And if Jobs surrounded himself with enough ‘A’ players Apple was sure to succeed now and well into the future.

Nearly all of those who worked for Jobs cursed him for demanding perfection or demanding more than they thought they could give. Many called him an a__hole to work for. However nearly all said that in the end they would not have been great without him. He brought out more in themselves than they thought they had. Steve Jobs was a Great Coach.

Here in Green Bay we had a great coach who brought greatness to his players and his team. Vince Lombardi demanded perfection from everyone in the Green Bay Packers organization. Although most of his players were very talented and gifted. Vince believed that if you diligently followed a process and demanded more of yourself than you thought possible you would succeed as well as lead to team success.

Teams knew the plays the Packers were going to run, but because they ran them to perfection the defenses could not stop the Packers offense. Many of Lombardi’s players cursed him but after their careers were over, thanked him for making them great. Vince Lombardi was a Great Coach.

All great coaches make their ‘players’ do things they did not want to do. Great coaches know that ‘it’s different this time’ does not work. Great coaches know that if you diligently follow a prudent process you will succeed in the long term

The lack of an investor coach will lead to inferior results. Many investors keep searching for the investment strategy that works best for ‘right now’. The Wall Street bullies encourage investors to continue searching for the ‘new’ best solution for right now.

It has been proven over and over that stock pickers….market timers do not succeed over the long term. Even if you have the best tools available with the best products you will not do as well as you would with a Great Investor Coach.

Your coach will demand you do things you do not want to do, like buy stocks when the market is down OR sell stocks when the market is up. Sometimes you will lag behind the market for short periods of time but over the long term you will succeed. Of course, past performance is no guarantee of future results.

A Great Investor Coach will not tell you what you want to hear. Nor will they sell you what you want to buy. They will show you a prudent investment process and keep you disciplined.

So, fire your broker/agent and hire a (Great) investor coach/fiduciary adviser.

Does (Investor) Coaching Matter?

Posted on January 13, 2014 by Tony — No Comments ↓

The University of Alabama has had great success in recent years despite this year’s results.

For anyone who follows college football, Nick Saban is the man. His teams have won four of the last 10 BCS championships, and he boasts a lifetime record of 154-55-1. His extraordinary success has generated huge interest in his coaching style. In a recent Forbes interview Saban emphasized that he teaches his players not to think about winning or losing, but rather to focus only on the processes that will lead to success.

Italian American (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Investors can learn many lessons from the success of Coach Saban. By not focusing on winning or losing and rather on the process Coach Saban teaches his players to focus on the long term and forget short term noise.

Another great message from Green Bay’s own Vince Lombardi.

“Mental toughness is many things and rather difficult to explain. Its qualities are sacrifice and self-denial. Also, most importantly. It is combined with a perfectly disciplined will that refuses to give in. It’s a state of mind – you could call it character in action.”

“Once you have established the goals you want and the price you’re willing to pay, you can ignore the minor hurts, the opponent’s pressure and the temporary failure.”

“There is only one kind of discipline, and that is the perfect discipline. As a leader, you must enforce and maintain that discipline; otherwise, you will fail at your job.”

These are great inspirational quotes from one of the great motivators in Green Bay as well as American history. These quotes are very relevant to investors.

When you find a process you believe in and remain disciplined, success will be yours in the long term. And the long term is what you are investing for. You need to ignore the short term ‘noise’ of the markets and focus on you financial goals.

In my opinion most if not all of you will need the help and guidance of an investor coach. The media will fill the airways and press with financial pornography. These bullies will try to use your emotions against you when things look bleak.

Remember the press during the 2008 crisis. Much of what you read and heard from the media was that it was the end. The markets will continue down until the entire financial system collapses. All these proved to be wrong. Yet many investors sold out at the absolute bottom, thereby missing the huge recovery during the last nine months of 2009. These investors locked in their losses and will never fully recover from their decision to sell.

Some statistics might help here, from 1926 through 2013, the average recovery period from a more than 20% downturn has been 111 days. This proves that panicking during a downturn is bad for your portfolio as well as your long term financial goals.

Even today there are brokers/agents selling their ‘safe’ products by predicting the next ‘crash’. These bullies are using your emotions namely fear to sell more product.

Remember when saving for retirement and living through retirement your main risk is not capital risk or that the markets will go through down periods. You main risk is inflation. And stocks are a great way to keep pace with inflation. Actually, in my opinion, stocks are safer over the long term in maintaining your purchasing power.

So forgot the short term noise, fire your broker/agent and hire an investor coach.

What Will An Investor Coach Do For You?

Posted on August 26, 2013 by Tony — No Comments ↓

The ‘new’ trend, maybe not so ‘new’, is that of coaches. I have seen examples of this as business coach, voice coach, career coach, health coach and in my case the investor coach. There are many others but you get the idea.

Most of us associate coach with sports. Our Green Bay Packers have many coaches from head coach Mike McCarthy to all the assistant coaches. Coach McCarthy is responsible for the plan for the entire team. Each assistant was hired to guide the players in a specific area. Altogether it will lead to the completion of Coach McCarthy’s overall plan.

To win the Super Bowl is the ultimate goal for all NFL teams.

Imagine the chaos if each player did whatever they wanted. What if the coaches listened to the fans and changed their plan after every bad play or bad game?

Many of us have had coaches who have guided us in our sport. We listened to our coach because we trusted their wisdom and knowledge.

Many times our coach had to tell us ‘NO’.

We were told what to do and we did it without question, well almost all of us.

A great example of a coach for us avid Packer fans has been most recently Mike Holmgren and Mike McCarthy. These coaches provided their players with the proper knowledge and discipline to succeed. But our most famous coach was Vince Lombardi.

Can you imagine one of Lombardi’s players questioning his directions? What do you suppose would have been his reaction? I believe he would have told the player that the players’ ideas might work but the player would have to find a different team to implement them.

Lombardi demanded attention to detail and discipline. He believed that with proper execution and teamwork success was inevitable. During his time in Green Bay many if not most of his players hated him at times.

But in the end his Lombardi’s players loved him and there was success long term.

An investor coach will provide you with the process AND the discipline necessary to succeed long term in investing. Many times your investor coach will ask you to do something that you do not like. After all you want to avoid all pain, such as during markets. These down markets can be prolonged and quite painful. But your coach will keep you focused on your long term financial goals. This is also true when investors chase the hot sectors/asset classes. Your coaches’ role is to again keep you focused on the long term.

Unless of course you are able to consistently and accurately predict the future.

If you are interested in investing for success by following a process and remaining disciplined with confidence hire an investor coach. Be prepared to hear ‘NO’ on your requests to stock pick, market time or invest in the hot track records.

You should not worry about being invested correctly if you are working a fiduciary adviser (investor coach).

The Wall Street bullies hope you continue trading as their profits swell when you continually trade. Stop being a victim and hire an investor coach.

A part of the process is three simple rules of investing:

Own equities and fixed income.
Globally DIVERSIFY.
Rebalance.

Risk cannot be avoided, however you can control how much risk is right for you. Your investor coach will help you control this risk, as well as control your emotions.