Thanksgiving and Gratitude
Wednesday November 24, 2010

Each year autumn brings its glorious colors, and in the East, we have enjoyed a spectacular display this season. In my own garden, we have been busy completing our harvest and are making plans for our Thanksgiving celebration. Of course, I couldn’t resist planting just a few more bulbs and marking the spots that will need some extra attention in the springtime. I simply love this time of year because it gives us an opportunity to reflect and be thankful for the abundance in our lives.

Last week, as I was darting from meeting to meeting in New York City, I decided that I needed an extra dose of caffeine to get me through the rest of my day, so I visited a very busy Starbucks near our new office on Park Avenue. As I waited in line, I picked up a coffee cup sleeve and was struck by its seasonal message – “Stories are a Gift: Share.”

It reminded me of our summer intern, Briene, who balanced her interests as a marketing major at Penn State with her talent as a strong communicator and writer. She spent a good portion of her time in the Pitcairn offices learning about our business from financial concepts to marketing tactics. She also honored a request made by her aunts and uncles earlier in the year to conduct a series of interviews with her grandfather, Jim Jungé. Armed with a tape recorder, her laptop and a list of topics, Briene was able to explore a myriad of subjects with her “Grandpa.” Each piece was so well written and carefully constructed (I even highlighted the one on family vacations by writing about it in my last Transitions essay).

I called Briene to tell her about the Starbucks sleeve. In the course of our conversation, she reflected upon her summer with us. She expressed her gratitude about working with such great people. She confessed that slogging through the quarterly market commentary actually helped her in her semester’s courses by learning about finance through a marketing lens. She learned what it was like to work in a specialized financial services firm. And, she experienced first-hand our culture of collaboration and teamwork, as well as our sense of humor. She was in charge of filling our CIO, Rick Pitcairn’s office with balloons and decorations on the day he turned 50! But her favorite memory was interviewing her grandfather. She had a chance to hear about his courtship with her grandmother, the growth and dreams of their family, and what it meant to him to craft a legacy to be enjoyed by future generations.

One of our industry’s great mentors, Jay Hughes, encourages families to learn about their histories, including specific relatives and stories that may be related to those individuals.
Briene is so fortunate to have begun this valuable lesson with her beloved Grandpa. Hopefully she will continue the practice with other relatives when she can, and preserve the wisdom they share, or lessons they’ve learned, through stories.

I am taking my cue from Briene as I anticipate writing for Transitions in its second year. I am going to keep telling stories—stories about couples and parents, children and cousins, as well as challenges and opportunities faced by families. Some of the scenarios will be taken directly from clients we have helped at Pitcairn (it goes without saying, that we will always mask the identity of any individual to protect the privacy of the family) and some will be profiles we develop to illustrate issues we believe we have specialized expertise to address. We are calling the series, “Voices Across the Generations.”

My goal is to distribute Transitions more regularly in 2011. I learned in the course of this year, that my role and responsibilities at Pitcairn sometimes get in the way of my best intentions to write. And I love to write, as so many of you have kindly observed in your letters and responses. Thank you for that! And lastly, my sincerest thanks extend to my wonderful Pitcairn colleagues, our Pitcairn clients and family, and to my Transitions audience at this time of harvest, abundance, and community. Share and enjoy!

Warm regards,