People are a combination of logic and emotion. Logic is boring, but it provides a framework for moving through life in a way that attempts to help make sense of what’s happening around you. It is like a two-dimensional black-and-white map.
Emotions take that make and turn it into a three-dimensional, colorful experience. It provides flavor for the occasion. Unfortunately, emotion and logic are often opposite sides of the same coin. Usually, people err on one side or the other when choosing how to consider future actions.
There is no better example of the relationship between logic and emotions than watching men watch football.
Usually, based on geography, men choose one team to cheer for and have ruin most of their Sundays for the rest of their lives.
A team that one has no control over shifts your mood and outlook on life every September – February (December if you’re a cowboy fan). Now listen, I am one of those men. I have a daughter named Landry… after Tom Landry, but the Cowboys finally broke me; they broke my emotion capacitor. Jerry, finally doing me in, has been a tremendous benefit to my life because I no longer waste emotion on something I have no control over.
We are two weeks into the NFL season, so it is a great time to look around. Where the spectrum of football fans was unified around hope just a few weeks ago, you now have the spectrum as broad as the East is from the West, with the Cowboys and Jets fans on each side.
The markets feel like football seasons. Even the best seasons have adversity and loss. While fans and others scream that you must make trades or cuts or “Do something, anything!” that is not always the right approach. Often, top-tier franchises are built between February and August when emotion is nowhere to be found. The good and the bad are separated by the ownership and management decisions that happen off the field. Good franchises work harder than anyone else in the offseason, identifying their goals, doing tireless research, and using their resources to complement their efforts to create as balanced a team as possible. As painful as this is to write, if you had to pick a franchise to model in the NFL you would choose the Patriots. People remember a crying Brady holding up another Trophy but what allows that to happen are people like Bill Belichick who seem to have had all emotion surgically blocked.
While you may never have control of a football franchise, you have control over your portfolio and investment decisions. Build a model that withstands adversity and attempts to perform in a way that sets you up for as much long-term success as possible. Trust your process, research, logic, and advisor at Greenwing Wealth Management.
We would love to examine how we can help turn your portfolio into a model franchise with a complimentary consultation and financial planning meeting.