For the past 5 years, I’ve been re-learning guitar as an adult with a full-time job, four kids, and zero “professional upside” riding on it. I did play a little as a teenager, but in retrospect I had no clue what I was doing and really just tried to memorize cool solos from songs I liked.
Committing to learn an instrument the right way has taught me more about PATIENCE and COMPOUNDING than any investment class or research paper ever has.
There is no shortcut. You show up, you’re bad at it. You show up again, you’re slightly less bad. Again and again and again. Progress is invisible for weeks and months, and then suddenly…it isn’t. Things start to click, as the long procession of concepts, lessons, videos, scales, and riffs builds on itself. You start to notice your Google search and Claude prompt history include phrases like “how to tell if you’re an Intermediate guitar player”. Some people compliment you and say “hey, you’ve gotten really good”. Others may still politely ask you to practice in the back room of the basement.
Many other aspects of life operate the same way – including your investment in people (relationships) and your financial decisions. The advice that actually changes someone’s life rarely lands in one meeting. It’s a rhythm you build over years; show up, ask questions, show up again. Repeat indefinitely.
The biggest impact I’ve had on my clients over the years has generally been a product of knowing them well, asking the right questions, and executing reliably. Helping look around corners. Being a resource whether they think they’ll need it or not. And eventually we find an outsized opportunity to take advantage of the markets, or a tax strategy, or a once-in-a-lifetime planning decision ahead of a major life event. But that opportunity only presents itself because of the five or ten or twenty prior interactions we’ve had.
A few years ago, I helped a client execute a complex tax strategy following a business sale, re-position their entire investment portfolio, and secure specialized personal legal advice - all within a two-month period. But those insights and solutions only came because we’d met quarterly for the prior 3 years.
The instinct that has kept me working at the guitar every day for the past 5 years – with NO END IN SIGHT (!) – is the same instinct that keeps me looking for the small things in a client’s life that are quietly costing them money, time, stress, or all of the above.
Neither one rewards you immediately. Both reward you eventually. And the payoff is that much more satisfying.