The Elite Circle

Last Tuesday I presented two of my investing team at One Capital Management: Andrew Buckley, a retired Special forces Green Beret, sniper team leader(Alpha company) in the U.S. Armed forces and now a client services associate and Patrick Bowen, President, with previous experience in Private Client Wealth Management at two of the finest Wealth Management institutions (Bernstein, Oppenheimer) in the U.S.

In a Q and A format, Pat quizzed Andrew about some of his experiences in the special forces and Andrew regaled us with some powerful stories (he could only tell us of things that were not "classified" ) with some very interesting slides to accompany them:

Like the time in Haiti when he was dropped in to secure a section of the city and ensure that senior negotiators had safe passage to their location for talks.

Interrupted by an ambush, Andrew and his team of 15 had to ensure the safety of very high level VI P's : Colin Powell and Jimmy Carter.

As Andrew told a riveted audience quite succinctly: the first 1.8 seconds of an ambush is crucial to survival.

He also told us that each team member had a very specific role to play in any circumstance which required 100% trust in each member: believing that they could perform their role as you carried out yours, was the only way that the team would be able to survive that first 1.8 seconds.

This was called "The Elite Circle".

According to Andrew: casualties occurred only when one of the team members stepped out of this circle of trust. Taking on a role that was not theirs to perform.

One can draw many parallels to a "team" situation that are not as life and death oriented, but the message is clear: In times of crisis, we need to count on our team members to perform their roles, so we better have 100% faith their abilities.

We have just endured a significant economic setback, some have referred to it as a crisis.

Tony Fell, retired chairman of RBC Capital Markets and one of the most highly regarded investment professionals in Canada recently described the last 2 years as the most devastating that he had witnessed in his 50 years in the investment industry.


How have you fared through this time?
Has your financial team been working with you in a consultative, coordinated and comprehensive manner?
Do you have 100% confidence that they are looking out for your best interests?
What are your end goals? and where abouts are you on the path to achieving them?

Andrew and Pat will be back with their stories in the fall, if you would be interested in hearing them, let me know.