Q1 '25 in Review
Off the Highdive
I started 2025 in motion and haven’t slowed down yet! I’ve traveled a good bit, and am keeping to my commitment of being present where I bring value this year.
Travel (and what it taught me)
Inauguration:
Sheya and I made a list minute decision not to attend the inauguration in DC because of some uneasiness about the security situation. Anytime I let the fear of loss influence my decisions, I end up regretting it. I have several friends who took positions in the Administration and I should’ve been with them to wish them well and trusted that the folks that care about such things would have kept us safe. It’s a lesson that I’ll try harder to remember in the future.
Funeral in Dallas
I went to Dallas in January to celebrate the life of a good man, Rick Sapio. He and I were not the closest of friends but definitely belonged to a mutual admiration society. I felt like his heart and impact deserved respect and so I attended his very Catholic funeral with some friends from his group, the Gathering of Titans. It was a proper sendoff for a guy who worked so hard to create value for so many people, and did so with the wickedest sense of humor I’ve encountered. People came from all over the country to pay their respects and I was pleased to be among them. I took from his life a lesson in how to live a life where love could cut through differences and bring cooperation.
Miami weekend
I’m blessed to have good friends who watch out for me, keep me honest, and life me when I’m down. Two of them noticed that I was a bit too nose-to-the-grindstone over the past six months and arranged an old man’s trip to Miami. We met up in Orlando and took the high speed rail from there to Miami for the weekend. We stayed at the Fontainebleau, sat by the pool drinking mojitos, talked through the world’s problems, ate well and soaked up the fellowship. I learned from these men to look closer when a man says he’s fine, but really might need an arm around the shoulder and a weekend escape from responsibilities.
Atlanta for politics
Each year my local governments host an event for the legislature in Atlanta. Called the Bird Supper, it’s been a mainstay of the legislative calendar since the 1940s and was the first of its kind so many decades ago. Now, every county, and lobbying organization has an event or 3, and the legislators scramble to attend as many as possible. No one misses the Bird Supper though, and while I don’t go every year, I do go when there are people to meet. This year, I met with several folks during the day to discuss bills of importance to me, and then circled up at the Supper to indulge some local talk, too. I used the time mostly to compile the list of statewide candidates we’ll be supporting in the coming cycle. I’ll release those names soon.
Tempe/Phoenix/Scottsdale
I had a weekend sandwiched between two business meetings and chose to spend it in Scottsdale with two good friends, Brad Hart and Jasmine Jonte. I told Brad that I needed to get out of my business and just be around intelligent conversation and people doing high-value work. He obliged, put me up (he’s the only person I say with when I travel), and let me hang around his new startup that is revolutionizing content marketing. His wife Jasmine is the producer of my video course for A CEO Only Does Three Things, and they arranged a dinner of interesting and connected people. It’s not everyone’s idea of a recharge, but it suited me perfectly. Before flying out, I spent the day at the spa and the pool at a local resort for the cost of a day pass and was good as new! The lesson I learned from them is to be open and giving and to let people find their way to you.
San Diego
I speak at a Family Office Investment Conference twice a year. I represent the small offices and sit amongst people managing billions of dollars in family wealth. They are very kind to listen to my specific perspective and I always get good feedback. This year that conference was in San Diego, which I know to be a nice place, but I never left the hotel. There were simply too many good people to meet and network with. I made several investments in alt-debt vehicles from this year’s conference. I also got an insight into the political thinking of Jerome Powell and the Fed and so far it’s played out just like I was told it would. The lesson I learned and continue to learn at this type of event is that no amount of money gives you a level of certainty in investing that others don’t have. It’s all access, capital reserves and terms.
Tampa
One of my best friends also happens to be the most accomplished Chief Operating Officer I know. When my COO and I were looking to sharpen the saw, I asked Dave Fulk if I could book some time with him to get our heads on straight. An immediate yes was followed by an intense day of dissection and refocusing on our business. He applauded us where deserved and kicked us where we needed it and then gave me an invoice for $0.83. A day of his time easily goes for $6k, and he carved an entire day out of no email, no phone, just relentless focus on what I told him I needed. The lesson I took was just how great it feels when someone takes a minute to show you love by helping you where you most need it.
TPC in Jacksonville
I’ve attended The Player’s Championship in Jacksonville every year since 1986 (Sandy Lyle won and I was front and center on 18 when he did, as a 12 year old!). My brother, dad, and I went every year, often spending the entire Spring Break week walking the course, following the golfers we loved, and cutting loose after the day was done. When I walk the course now, it’s with a flood of those bittersweet memories: my brother sitting under his favorite tree on #12, my Dad soaked from head to toe from a sudden downpour, Fuzzy Zoeller making jokes with us from the tee box, me bringing my college buddies to flirt with the girls and soak up the sun, and so many more. It’s a spiritual experience for me, and almost like I can spend the day in their company again. This year I was able to take a friend who had never been, and I warned him in advance that I’d be sharing stories. He was gracious about it and I learned that sharing the men I loved most in the world with my friends was a great privilege and supreme pleasure.
San Francisco
My son, Ret, has never been to California and has asked to several times but we haven’t pulled it off. After my last trip to San Francisco in 2019, I was so put off of the city that I hadn’t returned and this was a place I’ve visited twice a year since I was in my 20s. This year I moved our lodgings from Union Square on the advice of a local friend, and up to Nob Hill where we stayed at the Ritz Carlton. San Francisco has changed, most of the retail has cleared out because of rampant unprosecuted crime, and the stores that are left don’t open until 11 because there isn’t enough foot traffic to justify it. Ret didn’t care, he wanted to see the wharf and the Bay and we did them to death. We walked up and down the hills, climbing Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower, and then Russian Hill from the Marina to Japantown. We visited Muir Woods and paid reverent homage to the redwoods. We spent a day focused on museums and culture visiting the Japanese Tea Garden and the Palace of Fine Arts before watching a gay, black adaptation of Hamlet in the theatre district. We ate two Michelin starred restaurants to give Ret an appreciation of a particular way of excellence. As a teenager, my son is farther away from me than he used to be, but on this trip I marveled again at what a good person he is, how invested he is in finding his own path, and how proud I am of him. The lesson I took was to pay more attention to what he does right and less about what he might do better.
Intellectual Pursuits (and what they taught me)
Mastery Session: Venture Capital
I was privileged to to the guest speaker on a nationwide training session on Venture Capital for new investors. Drawing on my work at Venture Capital University, and ably prompted by the host, Patrick Grimes, my good friend, Luke Merseberger and I had agreed great time teaching the basics of how, when and why individual investors might consider venture capital as an investment. Knowing something is fine, but the real joy comes in sharing your passion for a subject with eager and open students.
Books
Government Gangsters, by Kash Patel. I’m lucky to have met Kash Patel thorugh a mutual friend and think the absolute world of him. News that he had been selected as the nation’s Top Cop to head up the FBI was great news to me, as I’ve been critical for the organization for awhile. In Kash’s book, written in the 4 years between Trump Administrations, Kash lays out his blueprint for how the FBI should be run. Watching the news now, I see it playing out just as he wrote. It’s like having the cliff notes to current events. Regardless of your political beliefs, it’s always interesting to see the roadmap behind the decisions. The book itself gets a bit tedious and detailed but was worth the time investment to me.
Liar’s Poker, by Michael Lewis. I’ve read every word Lewis has ever written (and even been quoted in one of his books, the New, New Thing) except his debut book, and I always felt a little bit of an imposter because of it. So I read it last month and thought it was great. It’s Lewis in his infancy as a writer, for sure, but his ability to find the story stands out loud and clear, and for me, who has always been a Wall Street voyeur, it was fun. The book is about the excesses of the 1980s bond market and how greed and acceptance can make you do funny things.
Legacy: The Giving of Life’s Greatest Treasures, by Dr. Barrie Greiff. Greiff, who passed on the same day as my mom in December of 2023, is a legend in the Family Office community because of his work on understanding legacy and how it impacts family wealth transfer. He was a Harvard Psychologist who accidentally found his way into working with high net worth families. His primary message is that legacy is not just denominated in dollars, but in eight distinct categories that families should work on well in advance of a need for them. Much of my work in the healing of grief over the last two years has been focus on legacy—what I’ve taken from those that are gone, and what I do with it. This book was a tremendous help to me personally, and I have begun training it in groups that I lead. The older I get the more I recognize the human desire to create meaning beyond material wealth and focus on the importance of passing on wisdom and values to future generations.
Shows
The only good show for me this quarter has been the original Law and Order. Hulu just repopulated the entire series and I jumped back in on episode one. I remember being excited about the show when it premiered and I watched it with my Dad and talked to him about how I wanted to become a lawyer. I then watched reruns on A&E as part of my nightly routine for years. I took bits and pieces of the law and used it in law school, ironically enough, and even quoted Ben Stone on one of my exams. The show is a monolith and rewatching it now I cannot believe just how many actors got their start on the show. Lots of really big names now were crack addicts, crime victims, saucy housewives, or down on their luck cops in the show. The acting and writing are very good, even when the writers decide to be political. Lenny Briscoe is one of the best television characters of all time, Claire Kincaid can still turn a head or two in the courtroom, and Ben Stone is still the Atticus Finch of my generation.