Leading and Lending

I just got back from a few days in North Carolina. If all goes well, a lovely college there will hire us to oversee their investment portfolio. Then I’ll get to return more often. I’d like to spend more time in the Charlotte area. It seems like a Midwestern city that’s been transplanted in the South. I’m sure its Southern roots are buried there somewhere.

We call presentations like I did in North Carolina beauty pageants. Four firms each get forty-five minutes to present to a Committee, generally made up of older men who have donated large sums to the school. I’ve given up predicting how these things will turn out. When you think it went well, you lose and when you think it went poorly, you win.

On my flight home, I sat next to Anthony Muñoz, former Cincinnati Bengal and inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I’m not a celebrity watcher so I didn’t recognize him at first. I only noticed after I got situated in my customary window seat the guy next to me didn’t appear to be your typical boring middle-aged sales rep. For one thing, his calves were as big as my thighs and his left pinkie was bent in a right angle. It was only after I gave him a battery for his dead Bose headset and we got to chatting that I realized who he was.

While I admired Anthony during his playing days for my hometown team, what I most admire him for is consistently giving back to the community. He has found his true calling.

Frances Hesselbein is quoted in Success Built to Last as saying, “[there is] a powerful synergy when you combine service to others with a passion for your own mission, your own work. We are called to do what we do, and when we respond to that invitation, it is never a job. When we are called to serve and we respond, it is joy and fulfillment. The key to fulfillment is service and the key to leadership is not how to do, but rather how to be. Serving others is part of the ‘how to be’ character of a great leader.”

By that definition, Anthony Muñoz is a great leader.

On another topic, I relaunched my banking career today. I became a reluctant banker four years ago when we sold our investment firm to a bank in order to facilitate the departure of our founding partner, who was terminally ill. But last year my banking days ended when we bought back our company and took it private.

I’ve been frequenting a website called Prosper that allows you to lend money to individuals. It’s sort of like microlending for the masses. I’m intrigued by the concept because it’s a perfect example of disintermediation coupled with the tipping point. Since most people loan in increments of $50 to $75, only a small percentage of the loans get fully funded. The mystery is why do the loans that get funded actually get funded.

I made my first loan to a construction worker with no credit history. I am going in with the same attitude I use when buying individual stocks⎯that I am going to lose it all. Then if I actually get repaid, it’s a bonus.