Let’s start with You!

Think for a moment about a typical day – how many of your thoughts are to do with money? How many of them are about a decision – maybe it’s what you’d like to do, wished you hadn’t done, don’t know how to and so on. Our financial lives are dominated with decision-making and yet, do we truly know what’s driving those decisions?

Money, which ultimately puts food on the table and a roof over our heads is a very practical affair. And yet, how we think and feel about money and about ourselves is fundamental to whether we feel happy, satisfied and secure in our lives.

I want to share this understanding with you and others because it is life-changing. Life does not exist in silos. Only our thinking is in silos.

Two Streams

My life has been dominated by two themes which looked to be worlds apart – different streams coursing through completely separate terrains. Over time, though, I came to see that these themes were, in fact, more like two banks of the one river.

The finance & business stream: my professional career started with chartered accountancy and specialized in corporate finance with Deloitte, going on to strategy, consulting and a whole host of interesting roles, projects, transactions and positions, in the UK and internationally. I’ve played a variety of roles – consultant, non-executive director, quasi- finance director, coach, mentor and advisor. Working with private enterprises, listed multinationals, and charitable organizations, I found the diversity of their activities and values fascinating.

The inner stream: my inner enquiry has been wide-ranging, from a variety of philosophies to personal development, from energy practices (yoga, tai chi, chi kung) to meditation (Buddhist and Vedantic). The wisdom resource which pulled it all together for me is the timeless non-dual teachings of Vedanta.

One River

The enquiry into my own mind and heart, and my patterns of thinking, feeling and perceiving, started early. It began when I had the simple realization that if I’d been born into a different family, race, or culture I would have had completely different beliefs and behaviours. I would literally have been a different person. So then, what it did really mean to be “me”? This wasn’t an idle question. It had practical and real world implications. Not least – how do you make reliable decisions if you don’t know who you really are?

My long professional career in finance gave me the perfect vantage point from which to observe all manner of financial behaviours. These experiences fed into my enquiry about the programming that drives our decisions. It’s what enables me now, to help others make better financial decisions by gaining a better understanding of themselves.

The common thread through my career has been communicating finance in a down-to-earth way, whether advising founders on company boards, lecturing on Cranfield University’s Msc in Motorsports Engineering, or training Russian trade union leaders on the financial information needs of a market economy (back in the 1990s).