Turning 39...

I’ve just returned from a week in Cyprus with 28 of my family, celebrating my mums impending 70th birthday. I also turned 39 during the holiday and so, as I enter my 40th year on this spinning planet, I thought I’d jot down some thoughts.

I always get sentimental going away with all my family. Seeing the 13 kids interact, having fun with their cousins and developing their relationships is a true joy to watch. It’s nostalgic for me because I remember being the kid on these holidays, playing football all day with my cousins and loving the freedom that holidays bring. These are the memories and feelings I strive to pass on to my children. Feelings of love, support, friendship and family are what I believe to be the foundations of a happy childhood.

Of course, there are tears, drama and arguments. No family holiday would happen without these as well. Certainly not when there are so many of us, I’m not pretending we’re the Waltons! But these are few and far between and we all feel so lucky to be in the position where we are able to have these special times together that we really appreciate them.

Turning 39 this year means that next year is a big one. The big 4-0 (yep, maths is one of my strengths). Having seen a lot of friends and family members turn 40 recently, it’s fair to say it impacts people in different ways. Some people I know are upset that 40 years has gone past, or that they believe their life is now on a downward slope. Some people are celebrating reaching that milestone, full of positivity for the wisdom gained in the prevailing years. I think I will fall into the latter camp. I certainly don’t feel old. I do look at the grey hairs in my beard and tell myself they’re blond but for the most part, I’m excited for the next stages of my life.

I feel its so important to make sure that I appreciate what is happening in the world around me. My children are growing up, they’re currently 9, 6 and 3 and we’re out of the baby stages. We’re entering the adolescent years and I anticipate the next 10 years will be pretty different to the last 10 years. I know that I only have my girls with me for a certain amount of time until they’re off forging their own paths. I want to make these years count and be sure that they know they can rely on my wife and I for love and support, but know they are ultimately responsible for the choices they make in their life. We want them to be bright, caring, curious, independent young women.

My wife and have been married 11 years and with the kids coming thick and fast throughout this period, looking forward we want to start travelling and seeing some of the world. We’re creating a bucket list of things we want to do and we’re aiming to get through that over the next 40 years (PG J).

Engage will be celebrating our 5th birthday in June and, with similar emotions to reaching my personal milestone, I feel we’re approaching this professional milestone with pride for what we’ve already achieved in our short space of time and excitement for what’s yet to come as we continue to strive for best (not just better).

We have made the TOP100 advisory firms list for the past two years and earlier this year we won the Money Marketing Small IFA of the Year award. All of these are a testament to our team’s hard work. Our client retention and satisfaction rates are high, and we are confident in our processes and workflows. What we need to do is push forward and demand more. We need better tech, better reporting, better outputs to make sure we’re on top of our game. This is what’s fun about running a business, it’s knowing you’re doing well and also knowing how much better you can do, then finding the balance between those.

I will try to write something clever about 40 lessons before turning 40 over the next year but for now I’ll finish with something I ask myself a lot when making sizable decisions both personally and professionally……

“How am I going to feel about this when I look back on my life on my death bed?”

When you frame it like this, you realize that most decisions aren’t that big and they’re likely not really that important.

What I do know is that, upon my deathbed (hopefully a good few decades away!), I will likely look back and be most proud of the relationships I have with my loved ones. So, with that in mind, most of my decisions should be based on whether or not this goal is going to be impacted.