My Back 9

I received a video clip the other day from the movie Pay it Forward , with Haley-Joel Osment, Helen Hunt, and Kevin Spacey. For those of you who have not seen this movie yet, I would encourage you to do so as soon as you can. I will not divulge the details of the entire story, but let’s just say that the connection between the title and the story is so powerful, that it quite possibly will change your life…..at least temporarily. I watched the movie several years ago, and I remember being very moved by the story. I’m sure it brought tears to my eyes at the time, but quite frankly, I was in such a different emotional space than I'm in now, and the feeling didn’t last. So even though I was moved by the story…..and it impacted me at the moment...it really didn’t change my life. Like many people caught up their egocentric lives, I just had too much on my own plate to be concerned about paying something forward . I figured that, in my own way, I was already doing things to help people, ...

“ What doesn’t kill us….makes us stronger ” What do you think? Is there truth in this statement, or do people just say it to keep others motivated in troubled times? Well, after reading about some recent suicides in the financial services sector today, I started thinking deeply about this topic. You see, for those of us who are actually in the financial services industry, these tragic stories hit very close to home. The last few years have been very challenging to say the least in this business sector….specifically in the mortgage banking space. The recent recession has certainly taken its toll, and its tentacles reach far and wide. I was reading an article yesterday about some of the more high-profile suicides, all from the financial services industry: David Kellerman: The Freddie Mac acting chief financial officer was found hanging in his basement on April 22. It has been speculated that the stress of the failing mortgage giant was the reason. René-Thierry Magon de La Villehu...