I grew up with a lot of stories about work. I hung out in garages, airports, and hotels while my parents ran their rent-a-car business and learned how to deal with irate customers, flat tires, and accidents. I listened to stories about my 8th-grade educated grandfather, a hayseed from Tennessee…

I toggle between hurtling through life and stuckness. The hurtling resulted in building a $2.5B institutional money management firm from scratch. The stuckness strikes when I feel conflicted between what I want and someone else’s often unspoken desires. I find myself paralyzed, afraid to create disappointment, disapproval, and abandonment. Here’s…

I posed a not-so-innocent question on social media: “What’s the one thing you hate most about financial advisors/financial educators/financial services? Don’t be shy. Let it rip.” And boy, did you ever. You didn’t trust them, understand them, liked the way they treated you, and worst of all, felt they came…

Why we’re not as happy as think we should be — I count my blessings. Among them, my grandparents paid for my Princeton degree, my dad having predeceased them when I was 15. They had the means to do so, and thankfully they valued education. And because I graduated in 1983, before college cost more than a small country’s GDP, money…

Overcome analysis paralysis with this simple reframe — I named my institutional money management after Daruma, the founder of Zen Buddhism. He’s my favorite Bodhisattva, mostly because he was a bad-ass. A 6th-century Indian monk who introduced Buddhism to China, he became the stuff of legends: He scolded the Shaolin monks for being book smart but real-world stupid…

Discernment without judgement generates right action — When I first learned about Buddhism, I thought it was bullshit. “All suffering is due to the 3 poisons — anger, greed, and ignorance”. No way did I buy that when I was a kid. Greed and anger? Sure. But not ignorance. Just read books and poof! No more suffering. …

Writer’s block is 100% discretionary — Treat creative output like poop. Remember how proud you were of your “creations” as a toddler? When you were potty trained, your parents applauded every “masterpiece” you produced. Being praised for something effortless to make that felt good to unload was heart-warming. You no longer expect applause every time you…

Stupidity is not a good marketing strategy — I am not prone to verbal violence. Yet I started my day ranting on LinkedIn because I got a marketing email so inane I turned into a bad marketing vigilante. Here’s what my fancy pants gym sent: Good morning Mariko! Here at O2 Fitness we would like to say Happy…

Your business wants you to listen to it! — I was a professional stock picker for over 30 years. I’ve poured through thousands of pages of financials, questioned hundreds of management, and stumbled upon every way an investment thesis can go south. Managing a couple of billion marked to market daily was stressful. New Year’s day was my only…