Every Investment Has Impact. What’s Yours?

Posted on by Real Leaders

For Liesel Pritzker Simmons, there’s no shortcut to raising the bar on impact investment performance. 

As Principal of Blue Haven Initiative, a family office she co-founded in 2012 with her husband Ian Simmons, this millennial is showing how investors of all ages can maximize the positive social and environmental impact of their investments while generating financial returns.

But it isn’t easy.

If you like this, subscribe here for more stories that Inspire The Future.

Whether it is analyzing a portfolio company prospectus or visiting entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa, Pritzker Simmons applies a rigorous portfolio-management lens to every investment—whether for-profit or philanthropic capital—with the goal of aligning financial performance and public benefit. There’s no magic bullet or “Top 10” list for impact investing, says Pritzker Simmons. “It’s a highly personal endeavor, requiring people to think deeply about how portfolios should reflect their values and concerns.”   

As one of the first family offices created with impact investing as its mission and focus, Pritzker Simmons and the Blue Haven team are careful to ensure that philanthropic efforts and investment efforts are coordinated and complementary.  And they are playing the long game. Whether investing in a social enterprise, supporting research and education, or regularly reviewing its public equity portfolio, Pritzker Simmons, her husband and their advisors believe the future of investing will be reshaped by more informed investors.

We recently caught up with Pritzker Simmons. An excerpt of our interview follows:

Amy Bennett: Liesel, thanks again for your time. Let’s jump right in. How do you define impact investing? 

At Blue Haven Initiative, we start from the premise that every investment has an impact—good, bad, social, environmental and financial. From there, we do extensive research and seek to maximize the positive social and environmental impact of our investments while earning a market return. As a result, impact investing requires us to ask a lot more questions and do more rigorous due diligence in assessing the long-term risks and returns of our investments.

We’re a family office and we take this approach because we’re long-term investors. If we don’t consider environmental and social risk and returns, we’re not only putting our financial investments at greater risk, we’re not being good stewards of wealth for future generations. We don’t want to make a mess our kids will eventually have to clean up.

How does your philanthropic giving fit into your impact investment strategy?   

Blue Haven takes a Total Portfolio Management approach to impact investing. That means looking across asset classes and capital types. Our philanthropic capital is an important resource that we use as effectively as possible. We look for opportunities that markets really cannot address—civic engagement in voting, disaster relief, research and education—things that traditional investing typically doesn’t value as much as we think it should.  We prioritize our philanthropic spending for those kinds of opportunities. 

Philanthropy is one tool in the tool belt for impact and we use it for grants as well as concessionary investments where the impact equates to a non-risk-adjusted return. And it is part of a holistic process. We want to make sure that our investment portfolio is not working against our philanthropic goals. There is absolutely no point in funding climate change initiatives with your philanthropic dollars if you’re not trying to reduce your carbon footprint in your investment portfolio.  It doesn’t make any sense. 

We hear a lot about how donor advised funds are growing in popularity and democratizing philanthropy. And we know each other because you use ImpactAssets’ offering, the Giving Fund. How has it played a role in your impact investing?

The Giving Fund is the vehicle through which we do our philanthropic grant making and our concessionary investing. We want to spend time finding great organizations and companies to support without devoting a lot of time on the complexities of philanthropic administration. There’s really a great range of tools that impact investors use these days—from debt to equity, recoverable grants, C4 strategies—and ImpactAssets knows how to help us implement them.

In addition, the organization plays an important role in the impact investing ecosystem. Clients of ImpactAssets are among the most active impact investors in the world.  It’s an innovative and risk-taking community and you can see that in the number of deals that are done and the kinds of funds that are on the platform. It’s inspiring to be a part of it. 

Can you tell us about one of your favorite impact investments that you made through the Giving Fund? 

One example is our support of PRIME Coalition, an intermediary that facilitates very early-stage investments into game-changing climate-change companies. They find companies, vet them, and structure early-stage investments into them.  We’ve supported PRIME through an operating grant as well as providing funding that PRIME used to place equity into another venture. And we’ve also supported them by directly investing convertible debt into RedWave, a company that is developing technology to convert waste heat into renewable electricity. 

Millennials are enthusiastic but often inexperienced when it comes to impact investing. What’s the most important lesson you have learned as a pioneering impact investor that you can pass along to your fellow millennials?

I’ve learned that you can’t expect that impact investing is going to be faster, easier or cheaper than traditional investing.  It’s more complicated, idiosyncratic and rigorous. And that’s okay. If it were easy, everybody would have already done it.  You have to put time and energy and effort into impact investing, but it’s where the most exciting conversations are happening. And I think millennials know that.    

It’s also important for millennial investors to just get started with something and learn as they go. Don’t try to find perfection in one single investment or in one single fund. Don’t try to look for a website that rates every company perfectly and makes impact investing just a click away. Start small, piggyback off of investors that you think are smart, and learn that way. 

If you could deliver one message to investors of any age, what would that message be?

I would appeal to investors to take more responsibility for the total impact of their investments. If an investment has a negative impact socially or environmentally, somebody is going to have to clean up that mess. If not you today, then your grandchildren tomorrow. 

Get into the mindset of long-termism because a thoughtful and rigorous consideration of the environmental and social impact of your investments in the long run is just more informed investing. 

And if you believe that a better understanding of risk is smart in the long term, then you’re more than halfway to being an impact investor.

If you like this, subscribe here for more stories that Inspire The Future.

Four Investments You Can Make Today to Increase Your Love Life

Posted on by Real Leaders

You can’t do a good job, if your job is all you do. The aspiration for work-life balance is dead. It was killed by technology. If you want to be happy in life and happy in your primary love relationship…

Over the past two years with almost every Executive I coach and every audience I speak to, I hear that the aspiration for work-life balance is dead. It was killed by technology. What’s weird is that this fact is often presented with some chest beating… as if to say… work-life balance was for wimps all along… people with a serious work ethic never worry about work life balance.

Really?

I guess so. Sheryl Sandberg the guru of Leaning In writes, “The days of unplugging for a weekend or vacation are long gone.” Way to go Sheryl… sounds awesome.

Yet, sadly I find she is not kidding. Ten years ago, even the CEOs I coached had most weekends and evenings free of direct work, such as conference calls and decision-making meetings. That’s certainly not true today.  Today leaders are lucky to get a half of a Saturday or a half of a Sunday free of stressful meetings or real-time e-mails where decisions are being made.

And free evenings… yeah that’s a relic from an earlier age. Today most people go home and spend at least two more hours on the computer working. This new work routine is not confined to leaders. The combination of technology and massive projects is increasingly engaging managers and individual contributors in a trail of work that slithers through our lives like a hungry python night and day.

Is this it? Is this the best we can do? Is this the crowning achievement of our economy… that we all live work-centered lives?

If so, what is the cost?

Well, according to marriage experts at the University of Washington and the University of Virginia what we are sacrificing is our love lives. The biggest toll a work-centered life is having on us is increased feelings of social isolation and a lack of intrinsic connection with our loved ones. When we get too busy, love devolves into a concept rather than a feeling.

In this state of mind, we recognize that we love our romantic partners and children but we just don’t feel that love. We could write down on a yellow pad all the reasons we love our loved ones but we just don’t feel it. All words but no music.

Having the emotions of love evaporate from our lives is a ridiculous price to pay for work. A recent survey of 1,500 people over the age of 78 asking them what their biggest life regret was overwhelmingly confirmed it was one thing… staying too long in a job that was unfulfilling.

We also know that the happiest and healthiest people on earth are actively in love. In the hundreds of studies done on the causes of human happiness we know there is no greater mood elevator than being “crazy in love.”

We all know how goony people get when people fall in love. The thrill of emotional intimacy with someone you find fascinating, attractive and admirable sets off a brain circus of dopamine, oxytocin and serotonin that gives you a feeling of optimism, well-being and invincible confidence that is simply the best brain buzz ever.

The problem is this love fog does not last without continuous investment in the relationship similar to the investment you were willing to make when you were falling in love

So, just what are the investments you can make to increase the love in your life?

First of all, you have to have an IPO! Stay with me.  A few days ago I was talking to one of my favorite clients, Brad and Sheryl, who own a very successful high-tech consultancy. I have known them for nearly two decades. They’re married with three daughters and have always been crazy in love.  What I mean by that is that they have an Irrational Positive Opinion (IPO) about each other. When I talk to them separately they’re constantly bombarding me with how great the other one is. They refer to each other as brilliant and amazing. They brag about each other’s accomplishments. Hell, it’s like being married to a cheerleader.

So, are they really that great? Well no. They’re like all the rest of us… full of good stuff and not such good stuff. But they’re living proof of the research by John Gottman at the University of Washington that confirms that the happiest couples are those who hold and an irrational positive opinion of each other.  It turns out that when it comes to personal self-worth and interpersonal trust we don’t much value realists who point out our flaws and want us to change. That’s something a coach can do. What we want from our romantic partner is for them to be “crazy” about us… literally irrational about our wonderfulness.

If you want to be happy in life and happy in your primary love relationship launch an IPO. And keep investing so the stock of your relationship continuously rises.

Here are four critical investments that research confirms will keep the flames and the feelings of love burning.

1. Celebrate each other’s successes. Research tells us that making a big deal of small successes creates more trust and intimacy than comforting people when they’re struggling. The reason we think this is true is that amplifying good feelings has a bigger positive payoff than trying to reduce bad feelings.Here is a silly but true example. I am an old dude surfer and like all surfers we want to be admired for our surfing. I am quite sure that I am average for my age and experience, yet sometimes I get a good ride and some other surfer will give a hoot or say “nice wave.” When I get home, I never fail to tell Debbie of my small success. She insists that I then tell her about the details of the wave, gives me a hug and a kiss and makes me feel like I’m the greatest surfer on earth. She clearly holds an irrational positive opinion about my surfing that jacks me up with enough dopamine and oxytocin that it makes me want to actually move the furniture around so she can see how the room would look with a new arrangement.The key to celebrating each other’s success is to ask for the details of what your partner actually did. That’s what creates positive intimacy.

2. Help when it’s inconvenient. Talk is cheap, even love talk. A willingness to drop whatever you’re doing to help your loved one communicates how important their agenda is to you. You don’t have to do this one hundred percent of the time because sometimes what you were doing may greatly suffer from an interruption. However, if you’re willing to instantly respond most of the time your love stock will certainly rise. (It’s also important to help with routine tasks to avoid causing simmering resentments.  Only 20% of men are willing to do laundry and vacuuming regularly. So, if you want to be in the top 20% of male partners you know what to do!)

3. Plan positive experiences. Dating is all about planning positive experiences. We make careful choices about where we eat or what movies we see to make sure that our dating partner will be happy. We take great care in what we wear, how we smell and what we say. However, when our relationship ripens we often approach going out together with a question… “So, what do you want to do?” This means you did very little thinking about your time together… not good.

Planned positive experiences are critical to fanning the flames of love. That’s because we associate the positive feelings we get from the experience, like going to a sensational concert, or visiting a breath-taking National Park or exotic tropical island with the person we are with. New experiences also make us more interesting to each other. These experiences also create shared memories, which are strong positive bonds that sustain loving feelings when things get a little stale, dull or frustrating.

4. Love with your full presence every day. We know that the happiest couples spend at least 30 to 60 minutes a day in focused conversation with each other. I know…. that may seem like an impossibly high bar. But consider its possibilities. The greatest longing of the human heart is to be fully accepted by another. The most powerful way that we communicate this is to listen to a loved one without an agenda for them. This is difficult. When I am talking to Debbie I often have to remind myself that I just want her to be happy in the way she experiences happiness. It’s unnatural to listen without judgment. We justify having agendas for the people we love because we think we know how to help them… and sometimes we do. But remember our loved ones long for someone more than a coach. We all want to feel loved intrinsically. We want others to see our good and positive motives not just our less-than-perfect behavior.

The only way we can access the feelings of unconditional positive regard is to drop our agenda and just be present. Just listen with loving intention. All of this will be impossible unless you’re willing to unplug from both your job and the torrent of mostly irrelevant media that bombards us daily. (New research validates that peoples’ optimism and happiness rise when they quit Facebook or other Social Media Apps.) The primary reason seems to be that Facebook incites envy and social comparison causing an epidemic of inner emotional drama among Facebook users. If you think this doesn’t apply to you try a week-long Facebook fast and ask yourself if you’re less stressed and a little more happy.)

The bottom line is that love and intimacy take a daily investment of personal time. I’m convinced the good life is a combination of meaningful work performed at a reasonable rhythm that makes plenty of room for love-drenched relationships. No work success can substitute for love.

 

Four Investments You Can Make Today to Increase Your Love Life

Posted on by Will Marre

You can’t do a good job, if your job is all you do. The aspiration for work-life balance is dead. It was killed by technology. If you want to be happy in life and happy in your primary love relationship…

Over the past two years with almost every Executive I coach and every audience I speak to, I hear that the aspiration for work-life balance is dead. It was killed by technology. What’s weird is that this fact is often presented with some chest beating… as if to say… work-life balance was for wimps all along… people with a serious work ethic never worry about work life balance.

Really?

I guess so. Sheryl Sandberg the guru of Leaning In writes, “The days of unplugging for a weekend or vacation are long gone.” Way to go Sheryl… sounds awesome.

Yet, sadly I find she is not kidding. Ten years ago, even the CEOs I coached had most weekends and evenings free of direct work, such as conference calls and decision-making meetings. That’s certainly not true today.  Today leaders are lucky to get a half of a Saturday or a half of a Sunday free of stressful meetings or real-time e-mails where decisions are being made.

And free evenings… yeah that’s a relic from an earlier age. Today most people go home and spend at least two more hours on the computer working. This new work routine is not confined to leaders. The combination of technology and massive projects is increasingly engaging managers and individual contributors in a trail of work that slithers through our lives like a hungry python night and day.

Is this it? Is this the best we can do? Is this the crowning achievement of our economy… that we all live work-centered lives?

If so, what is the cost?

Well, according to marriage experts at the University of Washington and the University of Virginia what we are sacrificing is our love lives. The biggest toll a work-centered life is having on us is increased feelings of social isolation and a lack of intrinsic connection with our loved ones. When we get too busy, love devolves into a concept rather than a feeling.

In this state of mind, we recognize that we love our romantic partners and children but we just don’t feel that love. We could write down on a yellow pad all the reasons we love our loved ones but we just don’t feel it. All words but no music.

Having the emotions of love evaporate from our lives is a ridiculous price to pay for work. A recent survey of 1,500 people over the age of 78 asking them what their biggest life regret was overwhelmingly confirmed it was one thing… staying too long in a job that was unfulfilling.

We also know that the happiest and healthiest people on earth are actively in love. In the hundreds of studies done on the causes of human happiness we know there is no greater mood elevator than being “crazy in love.”

We all know how goony people get when people fall in love. The thrill of emotional intimacy with someone you find fascinating, attractive and admirable sets off a brain circus of dopamine, oxytocin and serotonin that gives you a feeling of optimism, well-being and invincible confidence that is simply the best brain buzz ever.

The problem is this love fog does not last without continuous investment in the relationship similar to the investment you were willing to make when you were falling in love

So, just what are the investments you can make to increase the love in your life?

First of all, you have to have an IPO! Stay with me.  A few days ago I was talking to one of my favorite clients, Brad and Sheryl, who own a very successful high-tech consultancy. I have known them for nearly two decades. They’re married with three daughters and have always been crazy in love.  What I mean by that is that they have an Irrational Positive Opinion (IPO) about each other. When I talk to them separately they’re constantly bombarding me with how great the other one is. They refer to each other as brilliant and amazing. They brag about each other’s accomplishments. Hell, it’s like being married to a cheerleader.

So, are they really that great? Well no. They’re like all the rest of us… full of good stuff and not such good stuff. But they’re living proof of the research by John Gottman at the University of Washington that confirms that the happiest couples are those who hold and an irrational positive opinion of each other.  It turns out that when it comes to personal self-worth and interpersonal trust we don’t much value realists who point out our flaws and want us to change. That’s something a coach can do. What we want from our romantic partner is for them to be “crazy” about us… literally irrational about our wonderfulness.

If you want to be happy in life and happy in your primary love relationship launch an IPO. And keep investing so the stock of your relationship continuously rises.

Here are four critical investments that research confirms will keep the flames and the feelings of love burning.

1. Celebrate each other’s successes. Research tells us that making a big deal of small successes creates more trust and intimacy than comforting people when they’re struggling. The reason we think this is true is that amplifying good feelings has a bigger positive payoff than trying to reduce bad feelings.Here is a silly but true example. I am an old dude surfer and like all surfers we want to be admired for our surfing. I am quite sure that I am average for my age and experience, yet sometimes I get a good ride and some other surfer will give a hoot or say “nice wave.” When I get home, I never fail to tell Debbie of my small success. She insists that I then tell her about the details of the wave, gives me a hug and a kiss and makes me feel like I’m the greatest surfer on earth. She clearly holds an irrational positive opinion about my surfing that jacks me up with enough dopamine and oxytocin that it makes me want to actually move the furniture around so she can see how the room would look with a new arrangement.The key to celebrating each other’s success is to ask for the details of what your partner actually did. That’s what creates positive intimacy.

2. Help when it’s inconvenient. Talk is cheap, even love talk. A willingness to drop whatever you’re doing to help your loved one communicates how important their agenda is to you. You don’t have to do this one hundred percent of the time because sometimes what you were doing may greatly suffer from an interruption. However, if you’re willing to instantly respond most of the time your love stock will certainly rise. (It’s also important to help with routine tasks to avoid causing simmering resentments.  Only 20% of men are willing to do laundry and vacuuming regularly. So, if you want to be in the top 20% of male partners you know what to do!)

3. Plan positive experiences. Dating is all about planning positive experiences. We make careful choices about where we eat or what movies we see to make sure that our dating partner will be happy. We take great care in what we wear, how we smell and what we say. However, when our relationship ripens we often approach going out together with a question… “So, what do you want to do?” This means you did very little thinking about your time together… not good.

Planned positive experiences are critical to fanning the flames of love. That’s because we associate the positive feelings we get from the experience, like going to a sensational concert, or visiting a breath-taking National Park or exotic tropical island with the person we are with. New experiences also make us more interesting to each other. These experiences also create shared memories, which are strong positive bonds that sustain loving feelings when things get a little stale, dull or frustrating.

4. Love with your full presence every day. We know that the happiest couples spend at least 30 to 60 minutes a day in focused conversation with each other. I know…. that may seem like an impossibly high bar. But consider its possibilities. The greatest longing of the human heart is to be fully accepted by another. The most powerful way that we communicate this is to listen to a loved one without an agenda for them. This is difficult. When I am talking to Debbie I often have to remind myself that I just want her to be happy in the way she experiences happiness. It’s unnatural to listen without judgment. We justify having agendas for the people we love because we think we know how to help them… and sometimes we do. But remember our loved ones long for someone more than a coach. We all want to feel loved intrinsically. We want others to see our good and positive motives not just our less-than-perfect behavior.

The only way we can access the feelings of unconditional positive regard is to drop our agenda and just be present. Just listen with loving intention. All of this will be impossible unless you’re willing to unplug from both your job and the torrent of mostly irrelevant media that bombards us daily. (New research validates that peoples’ optimism and happiness rise when they quit Facebook or other Social Media Apps.) The primary reason seems to be that Facebook incites envy and social comparison causing an epidemic of inner emotional drama among Facebook users. If you think this doesn’t apply to you try a week-long Facebook fast and ask yourself if you’re less stressed and a little more happy.)

The bottom line is that love and intimacy take a daily investment of personal time. I’m convinced the good life is a combination of meaningful work performed at a reasonable rhythm that makes plenty of room for love-drenched relationships. No work success can substitute for love.

 

0