My Hero'S JOURNEY...

Call to Adventure

The Hero’s Journey does not start in a mythical place…it begins in the ordinary world we all live in. My journey started in high school in sunny San Diego.  Growing up, my career path was destined to be a doctor or an engineer but as I entered high school, I increasingly became interested in the stock market and the world of investing in general.  It was not an obsession of any sort but something that piqued my interest and that interest increased throughout high school and into and throughout college as well.  

Well, as college ended, the next step was to find my first job and that is essentially when I took the next step in the Hero’s Journey.  The next step as defined by Mr. Campbell is what he refers to as “Crossing the Threshold.”

Crossing the Threshold and the Road to Trials 

My Crossing of the Threshold started off with getting my first job as a Financial Advisor after graduating from UCSB.   As Mr. Campbell outlines in the Road to Trials, you will advance in your journey after crossing the threshold and face many positive and negative experiences along the way.  I too experienced this, I fought battles along the way trying to build up my books of business while resisting temptations to earn higher commissions for products and services that were not suitable for my clientele.  I experienced success with helping clients achieve their goals and in turn, their success allowed me to earn more than I ever thought that I could.  But even with this success and monetary rewards, there were failures along the way as you don't win every deal you want and sometimes even the best investment strategies and well thought out plans can get derailed for a variety of factors.  

Along the way, I received advice and mentorship from some key people who are still important in my life to this day and also came across others who I did not see eye to eye with.  During this journey, I started to really understand how the Wealth Management Industry worked and it quite frankly made me sad, angry, frustrated and wondering if any of us so-called ‘advisors’ were really looking out for the best interests of the client.  I started to realize how the industry is full of conflicts of interest and all the sneaky ways that firms and advisors would position things that seem good for the client, while in reality just putting more money into the pockets of these firms and advisors.  

As I started to make this realization and connect the dots, I started to evolve how I worked with people.  This started many conflicts with upper management at the firms I worked at, but deep down I knew that I was fighting a battle worth fighting and every time I would encounter a situation in which I felt that a client was misled, I would fight to make things right for them.

One of the biggest conventional opinions in the industry is that people in general need to have their money professionally managed by someone.  Billions of dollars are spent each year trying to convince people that this is what they need.  Advisors at firms go through sales training to learn how to get into people's heads and make them believe they need a professional manager. 

Quite frankly, most advisors go through more sales training than they do investment training throughout their careers.  Now I am not saying a professionally managed account does not make sense for some but it definitely is not for everyone.  The lengths that the industry goes to market and advertise these accounts and hide the underperformance of these accounts against the market indices is absolutely sickening.

The same goes for people who sell commissioned products.  More time is spent convincing people why they need the product versus explaining to them how it works and the fees that they pay.  I came to a point in my journey where I had to make a change…that is where the next phase of my journey started, one that Mr. Campbell calls the Abyss.

Abyss

Mr. Campbell defines the abyss as when someone on their journey experiences at least one massive  failure that tests whether you have the resilience to rise again with more wisdom and determination.  If you do have the resilience and determination, a significant change or what Campbell refers to as a metamorphosis occurs where you propel yourself through that fear with enough determination to stay on the path and keep moving forward.

Each person and each hero's journey is different and unique.  My abyss transpired over a 7 year period, starting in 2014 when I started a firm with a business associate of mine.  Let's just say, he sold me on one vision and when I joined, that vision became a distant reality.  Quite frankly, I was disgusted and ready to throw in the towel but I wanted to try and find a place where I could use the skills and knowledge around investing and planning that I learned to actually help people and make a difference in their lives...without my income being based on making sales.

After the venture with my business associate did not go as expected, I decided to enter into the Family Office world where I thought I could use my skills and talents to truly help people.  

Now, I was on the other side of the fence, where people would be presenting ideas and solutions to me that in theory would benefit the principals that I worked for.  I should have known but when bigger dollars are involved…more conflicts of interests arise, more blatant dishonesty and quite frankly, just shady and negative people that you have to deal with.  I dreaded waking up each day having to deal with these crooks and characters.

I was at a crossroads.  The money I was making was amazing but no longer was any sort of motivation nor source of happiness.  I was unhappy, unhealthy and headed towards a dark place.   I still remember to this day sitting on a beach in early 2021 thinking, why is it so hard to find honest, ethical and decent people to work with?  I quit my last Family Office role in May of 2021 with nothing lined up.  

This led to the next phase of the Hero's Journey, The Ultimate Boon.

The Ultimate Boon, Crossing Back into Ordinary Life and Returning the Boon

Mr. Campbell calls the hero’s biggest reward, “the boon”, which is the special knowledge about how to succeed that the hero has earned through his journey.  

The special knowledge that I learned can be summed up as follows…

• Proper, comprehensive and unbiased financial planning can only be accomplished if the advisor has no conflicts of interest. 
• Understanding the timing and amount of your future cash needs is one of the most critical items to build a successful long term financial plan.  
• Index Investing makes sense for a large majority of people who are invested in the stock market
• Overall, 90% of active investment managers underperform the corresponding market indexes over the long term
• One of the most critical items to take advantage of compound interest is to not lose principal and realize any sort of losses in the early years.
• Dividend growth investing is one of the few forms of truly passive income

As Mr. Campbell explains, as someone crosses back into ordinary life after their journey, material rewards become less exciting and less meaningful.  What becomes paramount and most enjoyable is passing this knowledge to others, or “returning the boon.”

This was exactly the case for me in my journey and the reason I started Truly Unbiased LLC.  Will I ever make as much money as I did before?…Most definitely not!...But I will be more satisfied knowing that I can enrich people's lives and help them establish and reach their financial goals in order for them to hopefully learn these key lessons and go on their own hero's journey to spread the boon and knowledge to others.