Introduction to the Firm

Finally got things together and officially introduced our little estate planning project to the rest of the firm. It went off as well as you might expect--considering we're asking them to refer their clients to us and that we are, in essence, using insurance products. Some of the guys here (I think all of the brokers are men) are into it, some are likely repulsed while others (perhaps the majority) are on the fence. In this business two things rule: making money and stories...and the best thing is stories about making money. All we need is a few guys to make some big cash working with us and (I think) we're off to the races.

I forget to mention that I finished Belly-Up on the weekend. It was quite good. I highly recommend it. I then started Working Dollars: The Vancity Savings Story. I tried, I really tried, to get through it but after 40 of the 500-odd pages I have to give up on it. It's just too boring. Not at all like my books on investment banks and bankers. I guess if you're like Vernon Mike (a capitalist in socialist clothing) you'd like it but hearing about top bankers being 'activists' and the 'credit union movement' but for a dyed-in-the-pinstriped-wool Wall-Streeter like me it's a little much. (You might be interested that Mike's grandad is a Communist...which is not illegal in Canada: being a neo-Nazi, however is; whereas in the States being a neo-Nazi is legal and being a Communist is verboten.)

Ok, time for work.