medic0020's Group - CLOSED--BUSTIN AT THE SEAMS (Page 73)

To my Dear Friends at BT,

Through thick and thin, all of you have been solid and steadfast friends as we have progressed through the year.  It is a gift that I have been able to meet several of you in person.  There are many good things in life I like to share and bring the joys of life that I am blessed with to each of you.   But I have been way to absent recently on all fronts and I have to be honest that this has been the most challenging time – professionally – in my 30 year career and there are days that I hardly have enough emotional energy to get through the day at all, let alone write at the end of it.

For 30 years, families have extended their trust to me to be with them on the path to their dreams.  I have the incredible opportunity to be their silent partner in seeing their children go to college, financial independence to found, weddings be grander than ever imagined or security become part of a family’s life that they never knew they could have.  This is a trust that I cherish and work to live up to each day.  To do my work, I chose to extend my trust to others.  I am capable of doing analysis myself but I chose to trust those in our government (elected and regulatory), the rating agencies, our financial institutions, our businesses, our analysts and many more.  Over the last year, that extension of trust has proven to be an error in judgment of monumental proportion.  The rationalized malfeasance to justify greedy and short sided decisions has been staggering at all levels.

The trust I had placed in so many proved to be a gigantic error.  That misplaced trust and the lack of insight on my part led me to not properly defend my client positions and many of those dreams we have worked for and now far further away.  What joy is in a phone call that says – we beat the market by 15% so you are only down 35%...

That means you need a 50% gain to get to break even.  How many years work or savings will we need to make this back up?  Each day I must be the pillar of strength to the many families I serve and being strong when a tornado is stripping your house into pieces is a task that uses all my energy every day.

As I check this weekend to see if the parent company to my enterprise, CitiGroup, survives the weekend.  I can only take solace that if I have to start saving for my future over again, I am 52 not 62.  There is time to make it back.  Seeing 26 years of commitment to an enterprise wiped out because of the greed and short-sidedness of a handful of people is a real wake-up call.  In the Citi family there were 375,000 dedicated employees that trusted those who led our business to manage with the fiduciary view of a future we could share together.  Of the 300,000 or so that are still here, we have seen our investment in the company that we believe in disappear.

Sadly, I think the true criminals of this crisis will stay hiding in their Long Island mansions with their multi-million dollar bonuses and those we elected to oversee it will go right on making speeches that sound good and do nothing.  As I watched the ridiculous hearings with the auto execs the other day, I can only wonder at the arrogance and avarice these folks brought with them to Washington.

I am a true believer in the free enterprise system and the rewards it brings us but it is built on a basis of trust.  I don’t know what actions it will take but the light of day must be shed upon those who have violated their covenant of trust with all of us.  Whether it be a politician who does not govern at the behest of those who paid them, an executive who took the short term bonus at the expense of their enterprise, a regulator who has not the capability or guts to do their job, a hedge fund trader that will destroy a business for personal gain…  “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” and “every man has his price” are two sick adages that play out way to well today.

Do we never learn?

I have faith that we will again return to a level of trust worthy of all of us.  And,  it will not be soon enough…

Your dedicated, but emotionally exhausted friend, Emerson

Hey Gang,

Just signing in for the first time in a long time. Tons happening here - but more on that in a minute,

Emerson, I can hear the pain in your message. I don't know what to say. I do know the feeling of losing everything, since I have and then some. And, it largely happened because I trusted my investors to come through on their contracts. When they didn't, it destroyed me, not them. I'm 40 and will likely never recover simply because the hole is just too big. Hang in there.

As for life in Houston, we are doing well. The kids are grieving but appropriately so. We just made the decision to hire an Au Pair. The girl we selected is an 18 year old from Spain, who speaks English, Spanish and French. She will arrive in mid-January to give me some much needed help. I've been using sitters, and the Au Pair will cost me the same amount of money but I'll get double the hours.

I'll need double the hours too, since I now have two big events on the calendar. In April, I will do the MS150 again. Over 2 days we cycle from Houston to Austin to raise money for MS. I did the event last year on the spur of the moment when a slot opened on our team. This year, I'm actually going to plan for it. I'd been training last year so it wasn't a big deal, but I could have been better prepared. The second thing I've signed up for is Ironman Cozumel on Nov 29, 2009. I am pumped and scared at the same time. But it's gotten me back to training at least some. I've been showing the kids pics and they are getting excited too.

I hope you are all well. I haven't forgotten you. With the new job, I'm working 60 hrs a week including the 48 mile commute, plus traveling every couple of weeks. But, I like the job and the company, so it's all good. Then with the sitter challenges, trying to find time to train, spend time with the kids and have a social life pretty much wears out my days.

Stephanie lived her life fully. I think her message to others was to do the same - cherish every moment. Our slogan for the tri this year was, "It's not about cyring and dying. It's about living and tri-ing." That's exactly what we are doing.

all my best,

Greg

Wow Greg,

I am glad to hear from you!  Looks like we can survive and struggle through Ironman together since our races will only be a few months apart.  I am also very excited but scared!

Good luck with everything!  Glad to hear from you! 

With all the stress and all the strain...  There is nothing like new life to bring the world into prospective...

Grandpa with baby Rowan...

No better place to crash than the arms of someone who loves you...

Mom, my daughter Courtney, with Baby Rowan... 

Amy, just sent you an invite... back later, Emerson

PS:  I am etknowles on face book, pretty origional...

Emerson, the baby pics are beautiful. She is too cute - but not cute enough to make me want to go back to babies!! ;-) Good thing I'm single cause if a wife were to see these, the "Awww effect" would kick in big time!

Late night feeding....

Looks like those two had way too much turkey!!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!! 

If you were a man and had just breast fed a baby, you'd look like that too!!

Getting psyched to run tomorrow...

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/mailstory-clickthru/270456.php

Emerson it is funny you say that.   I actually just found out today that my alma mater is going to Tempe for their football bowl game.  I really wish there was a way to get down there... It would be very nice to meet you and your family as well as seeing my football team and getting out of this snowy cold weather (we have 12 inches of snow on the ground right now).  I'm trying to figure out the details... it would be a great get-a-way.

Julie Snaman....and I too am thinking of doing and even though I do not want to take away from Pam and her group, I too am thinking of mentoring a group....either way....PLEASE KIT! I miss my BT family!