What is a financial advisor, anyway? It’s a broad term, after all. A good one, to borrow a phrase from Nike founder Phil Knight’s wonderful memoir, Shoe Dog, is the consummate “Professor of the Jungle.”
The phrase comes from legendary North Vietnamese General Võ Nguyên Giáp. When Knight met the 86-year-old general in Saigon in 1997 and asked him simply, “How did you do it?”—meaning, how did he defeat the Japanese, the French, the Americans, and the Chinese in war—Giáp paused and said: "I was a professor of the jungle."
Scrappiness, grittiness, savviness, and cunning: these are the traits that sprang to mind when I read that powerful line, which the diminutive and unassuming Giáp uttered years ago. Translated to a financial advisory practice, a professor of the jungle is someone steeped in practical knowledge, acquired through their own resourceful efforts, trial and error, and occasionally painful failure, that enables them not only to thrive but also to survive in the jungle that is modern financial life.
But it’s not enough for me to be an aspiring professor of the jungle. Borrowing another line from this fantastic book, we must all be professors of the jungle. In that spirit, I invite you to follow along as I share what I know so far here. I’ll do this in five series:
Money Mind Mastery: Behavioral insights from my favorite books and speeches that help you think clearly, resist bias, and make better financial decisions.
Omahajj: A pilgrimage through the ideas that built Berkshire Hathaway. I explore how Buffett and Munger's wisdom extends beyond markets into decision-making, work, and life.
Unreasonably Prudent: Drawing on my experience as a corporate attorney married to a former law firm partner, I help high-earning lawyers identify risks and opportunities they often overlook in their own financial lives.
Capital Flows: Visual flowcharts that distill complex personal finance decisions and cut through analysis paralysis.
The Long Position: Essays on money, work, and decision making. Some are personal stories from my financial life. Others are frameworks for thinking more clearly about wealth and what truly matters.
