It wasn’t just me: Why I’m only as good as my team

Do you remember in 2009 when pilot Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger made an emergency landing on the Hudson River after a flock of birds took out both engines? 

Miraculously, all 155 people aboard survived. They were rescued from the icy waters just 24 minutes after the plane landed on water. 

Seven years later, Clint Eastwood turned the tale into a movie starring Tom Hanks. 

In the final scenes of Sully: Miracle on the Hudson, we see fictional investigator Elizabeth Davis praise Sullenberger for landing the plane without any casualties. Without him, she admits, the incident could’ve ended in tragedy.

The humble pilot responds: “It wasn’t just me. It was all of us. It was [my co-pilot and flight attendants] and all of the passengers, the rescue workers, air traffic control, ferry boat crews and the scuba cops. We all did it.” 

Whether the real Sullenberger ever said this is unclear (sources say the movie includes a number of inaccuracies), but Eastwood’s Sully delivered a powerful message nonetheless: you’re only as good as your team. 

“It wasn’t just me”

When you choose Smarter Financial Planning, I’m the only person you see. I get all the credit, but I couldn’t do it alone. I delegate or outsource as many tasks that are not directly related our relationship or my skillset as possible, working with investment managers, technical geeks, researchers, administrators, and marketers so that you get the best of the best. Everything down to the software I use has been individually created by experts in their field.

Did you know, for example, that your investment portfolios are evidence-based using millions of data points and crafted by Nobel Prize-winning economists? 

You can also see the performance of these portfolios at the touch of a button, thanks to the Smarter Money app. 

I use powerful tools driven by AI and technology that models your future cashflow so that you can see how it might be affected by various different scenarios (stress testing against market falls or inflation for example) to ensure you have a sustainable plan.

I’d never be able to build these tools myself, nor should I.

With the help of all these people and technology, I can cut out the noise and focus on delivering an excellent service that ensures you can relax knowing that everything is taken care of.

Without them, it just doesn’t work. 

A critical friend

Something that Eastwood’s movie did get right is that three minutes after US Airways Flight 1549 collided with birds, Sullenberger turned to his co-pilot, Jeffrey Skiles, and said: “Any ideas?” 

He’d already told air traffic control that they’d end up in the Hudson, but with the fate of so many people at stake, he wanted to make an informed decision.

In an interview with MSN, Sullenberger said: “Even if you're the top surgeon, you know, listen to others, take input, have your whole team help, you go around the table and say: what else can we do? What might help? What action can we take?”

And that’s why I have a financial planner of my own. We all have blind spots. We all need a ‘critical friend’, someone on the same side who feels comfortable enough to not only coach us, but challenge us too.

I have exactly the same relationship with my clients. 

If a client’s main priority is to cut down their hours and only work three days a week, for example, and they tell me they’re thinking of buying another sports car, it’s my job to tell them what they need to hear, not what they want to hear. Hold your feet to the fire.

This doesn’t come from a place of judgement or shame or criticism. It always ties back to the plan. Some people simply need reminding of their values, or maybe I’ve misunderstood. Perhaps something has changed. Years later, they tend to thank me for being so honest.

I’ll do the barking so you don’t have to

A client once said to me: “You don’t keep a dog and bark yourself”.

I’m reminded of this phrase in the run up to each Budget announcement, when I usually prepare for calls and emails from concerned clients eager to know what the Budget will include and whether we’ll need to make changes to their plan. 

I understand why people look for action in these situations. Since the election, there’s been no shortage of so-called experts with opinions on what the new government’s financial plans will be. It’s hard to keep your cool when speculation is rife.

But stressing about your finances is a bit like stressing about a flight. The things you’re worrying about probably won’t happen. And if they do, you’ve suffered twice! 

You’d be a fool to try and land a plane yourself when there’s already a pair of pilots in the cockpit. So trust me! By the time Budget day rolls around, I’ll be ready to spring into action if necessary.

It’s unlikely that I’ll need to land the plane on water, but if I do, I’ll have everything we need – and a team to support me in the background.