It’s summer already, let’s take a break and remember why we are here. Our purpose. Trying to badly paraphrase the social-network-phenomenon Simon Sinek, whom I randomly bumped into at a wedding recently, expressing your why is the key to efficient communication and impact. People buy-in more easily if they understand the reason behind your product and actions.
It’s a lot more powerful to convey a message from the inside out, why, how, and what, which is in fact rarely how we behave socially. More often than not we start by what we do, with the narrowest description possible i.e. a title or a function, a company name, and an industry. This is the surest way to start a conversation with your clone, but bears the lowest probability to make new friends.
Searching your why is the 21st century quest. An entire generation, the millennials, have awaken to this new imperative, and place purpose and meaning at the heart of who they are. And, quite rightly so. Not only are they the ones that will inherit a planet in poor shape, but also bears the scars of a beggar-thy-neighbour system. Their quest to the why has been further enhanced by a facilitated access to google-trove answers to every issue that inevitably lead to the next Russian-doll question, and the next, and the next…
My why is that I’m obsessed with giving better financial education and access to everyone, not only a gifted few. My why takes its roots in growing up in the not-so-privileged outskirts of Paris. After wrestling my way, quite literally, out of this social and geographic determinism, I managed to get a descent schooling, graduated a prime business school thanks to state sponsorship, embraced an international career, and landed as an international fund manager. Being now at the interface of these two worlds, I sense that my mission is to bridge the gap. Facilitating access to an improved financial well-being is my why.
My what and how are constantly amended to serve my purpose, but in short it is to build simple and cost-effective tech-enabled investment solutions, which along with financial education should allow access to better-suited financial investments and returns.
During this summer, take time to search your own why.
360 Advisory – Markets