This is Scott Becker with the Becker Private Equity Podcast. Today's discussion is the portfolio approach to life versus single-mindedness, and there are pros and cons to both approaches. The portfolio approach to life might be this concept of one has family, they've got their investment, they've got their work, they've got their friends, they've got their fitness, they've got their hobbies, whatever it might be, you might have six or seven parts of your portfolio of life. At some point at some times, some of those are going great, some of those are going poorly. But the hope is that between the mix of things, you're relatively happy and can count your blessings in the part of that portfolio that's going well. The kids are doing well. Business isn't doing so well, but it's all okay because at least business is good enough and the kids are doing great. This is the portfolio of life approach. It can be the portfolio of business approach, and we'll talk about that in a second, like a business that has multiple different facets. The contrast to the portfolio approach to life or the portfolio approach to businesses, really digging deep into one or two things with single-minded focus.

I love the story of the beerist backup quarterback, and I'll take you off course for a second, this Tyson Baygent who basically said, Look, if not for being a backup quarterback and playing quarterback in the NFL, I would be spending my time getting ripped at CrossFit and teaching high school. Again, those would be his two great focuses. Whether you agree with those two great focuses or not, I think that clarity of life, this is what I'm trying to do, is just magnificent and resonates with me so much. When I look at people with this portfolio of life context, with some points in life, I'm in that spot, some points in life, I'm in a more single-minded or a couple-minded approach to life. I do think thinking about this and how you're approaching life as a portfolio or a single-minded greatness is a really interesting thing to think about. It's never totally single-minded greatness, because for most of us, even if it's single-minded greatness, we better also be taking care of our family or our children, or whatever else our responsibilities are outside of business or life. But I do think the portfolio approach to life is comforting through lots of periods of time, particularly when everything's not going great, but some are.

But that single-minded approach to life where you're really building something or really committed and compelled to something is in some ways, often the higher level of self-actualization and can block out all the misgivings over things that aren't going as well as should be, as long as, of course, you're still taking care of your physical, mental health, and your children or whatever your responsibilities are. I do think it's a fascinating thing I think about it often. It's a different period of life. I find that we're in different mindsets. I am certainly in a mindset today where life is more of a portfolio of life versus a single-minded focus of building a business and taking care of children. In both parts of life are satisfying. Certainly, one is less stressful, one may be more fulfilling. I think if you think about businesses, when you run and grow businesses, almost all of us do better with a couple core focuses versus a multifaceted conglomeration of approaches. I think in life, having a few core focuses is probably better than a vast portfolio of focuses, but it's hard to get to that spot often, and it takes a lot of work to keep on narrowing down and focusing to few areas of greatness versus doing a portfolio approach to life.

I do think a portfolio approach to life can be very important to periods of time of grieving, periods of time of challenging, periods of time of really having serious challenges with one's life. It's not an absolute binary. One's better than the other. But certainly for myself, what I found is in different periods of life, the greater focus has led to the greater self-actualization, where the great portfolio of life has been very helpful at other periods of life. I hope that some of you can relate to this, and it resonates with some people trying to think about life or business in a portfolio approach versus a very focused approach. No real judgment for anybody else as to what works for them. Judgment for me as to what's more satisfying versus what's less stressful. Those are often two different things. Thank you for listening to the Becker Private Equity and Business Podcast. If you have comments on this, as always, feel free to text me at 773-766-5322. Thank you to our producer, Chanelle Banger, the best in the business. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your daily responsiveness, your daily efficiency, and your great productivity.

The attitude is everything. One of the great credits to Chanelnele, our producer, is the positive attitude in working with Herb is something to behold and fantastic. Thank you very much, Nels.