Last week, one of my long-time individual company 401(k) advice clients invited me to meet. This kind of spur-of-the-moment meeting had never taken place before with this client. She has no time for personal meeting during her business day. Our relationship has always been over the telephone or e-mail.
The meeting was a quick review of her current company 401(k) retirement plan mutual funds and investment performance. At the end of the meeting, my client handed me a copy of a book titled, “Am I Being Too Subtle? Straight Talk From a Business Rebel.” The author is Sam Zell, a very famous billionaire businessman.
When she handed me the book, my client made the following statement. “There is a story in this book that reminded me of how you help me with my company 401(k) retirement plan account. See if you can find the story that I am referring to.”
That same night I began reading the book. It took me a couple of nights of reading to finish the book. I found the book passage below which I hoped my client was referring to when she gave me the book.
A little set-up is required. When Mr. Zell was 19-years-old, he and a friend were hitchhiking on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The gentlemen who was giving the companions a ride suddenly had car trouble. This is the rest of the story from the book.
“It was ninety-five degrees. We were driving along near a wooded area, and as we went through a tunnel, the radiator overheated. Water and steam were spilling all over the place. I was thinking ‘Sh–, I’ve lost my ride.’ The driver pulled over without saying a word.
“… The guy got out of the car, walked to the rear, opened the trunk, took out a gas can, and then proceeded to walk straight into the forest. Huh? So I followed him. We walked maybe 150 yards, right off the road, straight into the trees. All of a sudden, there was this beautiful brook. The guy bent down, filled his gas can, walked back to the car, put the water in the radiator, and everything was fine. We got in the car and just started driving again.
“I was speechless. I finally turned to him and asked ‘How did you know?’ And I’ll never forget it, he just looked at me and said, ‘Well, I didn’t know there was a brook there, but we were in the mountain, so there had to be a water source close by. I figured I’d just walk until I found it.'”
The morning after I finished reading the book, I sent an e-mail to my client to confirm my finding this story. The next day in her e-mail response, she again stated her appreciation to me for providing a logical, disciplined and organized investment management game plan for her company 401(k) retirement plan account.
This example is one of the sincere compliments that any individual company 401(k) retirement plan client has ever given to me. It is nice to be thought of as a person who provides an area of expertise that my busy client appreciates.
Ric Lager
Lager & Company, Inc.
