Kenneth Kaszak

This piece is based on a story a client told me. When people tell me they’re happy with their financial advisor, I no longer roll my eyes. I just give them a copy of this article to read. This article is near and dear to me for a few reasons. The main one may it’s the first one time I used the phrase “You don’t know what you don’t know.”

The year 2008 was an extremely important year for me—for various reasons. The major market decline motivated me to examine the way I had been doing business, how I was structuring portfolios, and if my knowledge of the capital markets was as extensive as it should be. This article details how I turned a negative into a positive.

I wanted to use one of my favorite words, epiphany, in the title. It didn’t make it there but found its way into the first sentence. I was trying to determine which criteria were valid and relevant in determining when to enter and when to leave the stock markets. The finding was an epiphany for me.

This was written at the beginning of 2012. I had two story ideas in my head and presented them in this manner. I’m all about educating investor how the investment business really operates and the second half of this piece does a good job of doing that. The investment business does a good job of not sharing with you what really goes on behind the curtain. I find ways to help you look behind the curtain.

Ron Morris was the founder of the American Entrepreneur radio show. He provided me with countless hours of insight and entertainment. Ron battled liver cancer for many years until succumbing to the disease in June of 2012. I wrote this piece and submitted it to Ron’s staff so that Ron could take a week off from writing his Friday afternoon “email blast.” I had an unusual relationship with Ron and had the opportunity to share and discuss movies with him. If I’m in my office at 3:00 during a weekday, I wish I could turn the radio on and hear him again.

The title for this piece was influenced by a lyric in a song written by Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. You don’t have to be a fan of classic folk rock to appreciate the message in this essay.