All the world ’ s a stage ”, William Shakespeare wrote in 1599 , “ and all the men and women are merely players , they have their exits and their entrances ”. He continued : “ And one man in his time plays many parts , his acts being seven ages ”.
The theme of this edition of The Professional is cycles . There are many cycles one can write about . Nature has its cycles . There are economic and business cycles . We have cycles in industries and innovation ( often called S-curves ). But it is especially the cycles in a typical life — and if we put a personal financial angle to it , the wealth cycles in life — that have intrigued me since my days in wealth management around a quarter of a century ago . Financial advisers — and especially wealth managers and private bankers — have the privilege to see the life stories of hundreds , if not thousands , of people playing out — ranging from the happy and successful to the not so great and even tragic .
Spotlight :
What Shakespeare can
teach us about life ’ s cycles
By Izak Smit , PPS Group CEO
If you are really curious ( as we are at PPS ), then you can learn from all these life experiences , analyse and dissect them and pen down the afterthoughts from the coalface of financial planning . You can distil a few guiding principles and observations — we might even call them “ habits ” — of those who have tasted success and happiness , and who have been serious about their well-being . They are reminders of how to steer clear of the hidden pitfalls that can lead to unhappiness . There is , of course , not a universal roadmap or recipe to becoming successful , wealthy and happy . Yet , students of lives well lived — as many wealth managers are — will tell you that there are certain themes and habits ,
8