MANAGING EXPECTATIONS

Memorial Peonies, Jamestown, NC

Memorial Day 2020

There was a point in my business career when our company began aggressively extending our product lines to include products that had much more volatility and inventory risk than the basic lines that continued to pay the light bills.  High risk can yield high reward or calamity, while low risk yields low rewards and possible calamity.  However, our customers continued to have the same expectations for service that we had built our reputation on for years.  It wasn’t long before we came to the sober realization that we now had to not only focus on managing and classifying risk for our inventories but perhaps even more importantly our customers’ expectations.

This worldwide COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant lockdowns have splashed a huge bucket of cold, reality water on the instant gratification society we have devolved into these days.  Of course, nobody wants to sit by quietly and watch our economy go from record levels to death spiraling lows almost overnight.  So, I agree that we must proceed cautiously to reopen our economy in the interest of balancing personal safety with personal wellbeing.  And personal responsibility goes hand-in-hand with personal freedom.

I received a financial update this week that reinterated the eternal truth that no one can predict the future and no one can accurately and consistently time the market.  This market analyst concluded with advice that really applies to everyone coping with the pandemic on a Memorial Day where people are once again flocking to crowded beaches and lakes with expectations that would still seem to be beyond common sense as this virus still actively moves among us:

“But we can all manage our expectations, as well as our emotions, when taking what the market gives us. Stay invested within your given risk parameters and stay the course of the plan you have laid out. There is an end date to this and we will get through these uncertain times.” 

And if you substitute the words “taking what the market gives us” with “taking what life gives us”, we will all be in a better place to manage our expectations on this day we honor our dead.