Fortunate people find themselves in circumstances that are remarkably good. Productive people create remarkable occasions that exhilarate themselves and the fortunate ones. But to experience the creative energy of two productive people who dedicated themselves to an exhilarating celebration of life is beyond remarkable.
In my case, the context of the celebration was the traditional American marriage of two remarkable people of independent and principled character. More about them later. What occurred to me early as events unfolded was the concept of “intentionality.” According to the dictionary of the American Psychological Association, intentionality is:
A characteristic of an individual’s acts that requires the individual (a) to have goals, desires, and standards; (b) to select behaviors that are in the service of attaining the goal; and (c) to call into conscious awareness a desired future state.
The preliminary events, marriage ceremony, and parties had intentionality written all over them: an exhilarating experience for everyone and in every way. And like any worthy project, a major part of the fun is the planning, the challenges and the anticipation. But I can’t speak to that. I had very little to do with any of it. But it’s there. I know it. It had to be.
The location for the wedding and reception is a concrete example in brick and mortar. It was a finely renovated warehouse in a warehouse district with one world-class feature: the only suitable facility in the world with the Statue of Liberty looking directly our way to bless the gathering.
But the significance of intentionality began with the groom’s father telling stories about his son’s development into a young man during the rehearsal dinner. Frequently emotional, the justly proud Dad talked about Mike’s determination, his singular focus on goals he chose for himself, and his independence in choosing the values he wanted to pursue. Not surprisingly, he was also a hockey player.
Not only did Mike’s integrity include his relationships with siblings, cousins, high school friends, college buddies, and professional colleagues, but it was nearly identical to the character traits of his bride, Alyson. As her father, I know how well liked and respected she is among her cousins, college friends, and professional colleagues. And I am one of those fortunate people who found themselves in circumstances that are remarkably good. She also excelled at everything to which she put her mind.
When selected by her university’s college of business to represent the senior class in the alumni magazine, Alyson described her method to the journalist as “full immersion.” When asked what she was most proud of, she replied, “riding my bicycle across Iowa with my dad.” All of this — family, friends, sports, career, and not committing to marriage until that other independent, benevolent soul reveals themselves — speaks loudly to the intentionality of both of them.
So, there was this wedding along New York Harbor with two fine individuals who knew how to have fun with their closest friends, family, and colleagues. But there’s more. It was October — the ideal time of year for that location, and they knew it. And a perfectly comfortable day it was. As the sun began to set over New York Harbor, over 200 guests waited excitedly for the outdoor ceremony - and the groom, best man, and officiant were in position.
But with a fairly stiff breeze near the water and the wedding party having marched down the aisle, Alyson had the presence of mind to call an audible. Her attendant tested the wind direction with the bridal veil to make sure it wouldn’t blow around in her face during the wedding vows. Perfection — it would blow the veil behind her.
Then I asked, is this the traditional wedding march or Free Bird? “Neither, Daddy, it’s a bluegrass cover of a techno song.” Intentionality. Who has a bluegrass band at a traditional New York wedding ceremony playing techno and pop music? A girl born in Kentucky who played grade school chess, won the lead for her Ohio high school play, and is now a managing director at a New York investment bank.
Speaking of money and finance — I had to work that in, right? The wedding officiant (who was also an equity analyst) related many stories of the bride and groom’s courtship, including the phone call that was their introduction. It seems Mike had written a report that misused the phrase “adding alpha.” They both worked for the same firm; he had a marketing role, she had product development responsibilities, and she called him on it.
For the laymen among us, “alpha” is a big deal in the asset management business; maybe the biggest. It means excess rate of return over a specific benchmark, and it must be used accurately. Needless to say, the issue was resolved, the relationship germinated — and it blossomed according to the Golden Ratio of the Fibonacci sequence.
The evening after the wedding, a guest and amateur investor tried to lecture me about the merits of his personal excess rate of return strategy. For an asset management firm, rate of return is essential because they have thousands of unique investors that no fund manager can know, but individual investors must define their values and goals to be successful.
I bring this up because there was no intentionality to this investor’s habits. He had the typical rate-of-return mentality without regard to his cash flow expectations. He thought he had mastered something but was not able to describe the purpose for his financial assets. There were no defined values or goals. He admitted “that is hard,” and that it is easy to buy large American growth stocks in a raging bull market, but he had no interest in a proven way to define success and measure performance objectively
To me, that is no different than the Paul DePodesta character in the Moneyball movie who said that same thing about the baseball industry. Team managers and talent scouts had not properly defined their goals for hiring baseball talent. It should be scoring runs, but instead, they hired multimillion-dollar players that do not produce runs in sufficient quantities. In turn, that does not create the remarkable occasions that exhilarate baseball fans and justify the financial risk.
Put together, traditional scouting departments and individual investors do not understand risk as a capital asset to be invested efficiently. They are unaware of spending capacity and risk capacity. In baseball, DePodesta’s goal was to improve the culture, change the philosophy, and buy run production instead of buying players. The same is true for objective investors. We do not buy stocks, and we do not buy funds. We buy the runs scored of defined goals for a lifetime of confidence.
Back to the newlyweds, they are proof that natural law is certain, human perfection is possible and they partied like it was 1999. Naturally, the epic location, amazing sunset, twilight music, cocktail and dinner hour hospitality, electric DJ and dancing, battalion of photographers and staff, and renewed acquaintances and new friendships will be remembered by the wedding guests for a lifetime. In fact, the common description was “stunning.”
In a larger sense, the event merely symbolized the bride and groom’s desires and standards, goal-directed action, and awareness of their future state. And because of Mike and Alyson’s reverence for their own lives before becoming each other’s highest value, we became the fortunate ones. That is how truly civilized cultures operate. That should inspire all of us.
Ed: The Moneyball Method Team would like to congratulate Mark Shupe, his daughter and son-in-law — Alyson and Mike — and everyone who loves them, on this wonderful occasion.