Kim Ann Curtin
August 27, 2016
My international team & I provide strategy, executive performance & culture coaching & consulting.

Transforming Wall Street with Five Practices

A long time ago, I decided I would dedicate my life to proving that being a good person and being successful did not have to be polar opposites. I’ve always loved the world of finance, believed in capitalism, and believed in the American Dream, which for me meant not only living the good life but helping others to do the same. Ultimately, those beliefs led me to becoming The Wall Street Coach , but it wasn’t an easy journey. Living a life of integrity is never easy, but that said, it’s easier than the other option. Let me explain by sharing a little of my story.

Ten years ago, I left my lucrative position as assistant to the MP of a Hedge Fund on Wall Street. I enjoyed my career and was certainly well-compensated, but I had always thought my purpose on this planet was to make a positive difference in the world. Frustrated that my career wasn’t an expression of that, I hired an executive coach to help me figure out how I could reconcile my conflicting career and with what I believed to be my life purpose. Unexpectedly, by receiving coaching, I discovered that it was coaching   others that ignited my passion, and so I began. 

After two years of steady clients and feeling fulfilled in my new career, my coaching clientele began to decline dramatically. When I complained to a friend about the lack of business, she suggested that I find clients by coaching for free while picking up side work to pay the bills. She affirmed, “If coaching is what you are meant to do, you’ll find a way, no matter what.”

Fueled by this idea, one day I sat down outside the NYSE with a small sign that read, “The Coach Is In: Free Coaching.” Coincidentally, that day was October 7, 2008, the day the stock market fell over 500 points. Before I knew it, folks had lined up to engage in speed coaching with me right there on the street. That day The Wall Street Coach was born.

Fast forward three years. Many people were frustrated and angry—and rightfully so—that those who had caused the crisis in many ways were walking out of the debris in one piece and not being held accountable. I felt frustrated myself about the bailouts; I believed they were antithetical to how capitalism worked.

When I saw the Occupy movement begin to grow in momentum, I visited Zuccotti Park downtown and spoke to some of the organizers. I believe in civil disobedience and in the power a small group of people to change the world, but I noticed this movement was engaging in what I can only describe as “otherizing.” I really felt it was defining capitalism as wrong, instead of speaking to how it had been perverted.

The entire finance industry wasn’t the culprit. It was the lack of morality and integrity of some of those in the finance industry. I thought, There must be a way to encourage a more positive outlook and restore a sense of confidence in capitalism .

Capitalism is not inherently problematic—without it much of the good we have today never would have come about. Capitalism is not greed. It is an economic system that brings value and improved lifestyles to people around the globe, but it can only work properly and for the good when it is balanced with consciousness and integrity.

In my book, Transforming Wall Street , I tried to show that many Wall Street financiers have achieved this balance. I conducted more than fifty interviews with successful business men and women who discussed the moral challenges many of them faced while on Wall Street—and how they overcame them. I see these authentic and successful Wall Street individuals as positive role models with tools to provide to current and future generations so they can achieve this same balance. With those tools, we can start to rebuild our trust in finance and in all aspects of capitalism.

The tools I suggest we use to build our consciousness I call "The Five Practices."  I designed these practices to help others achieve a greater degree of consciousness in both their professional and personal lives. The five practices are:  

  1. Self-Responsibility: This practice is focused on taking responsibility for what shows up in one’s life without fault or blame. Everything shifts when you take responsibility for your life and everything that shows up in it.
  2. Self/Other Empathy: This practice focuses on the importance of having compassion for oneself and the challenges we regularly face. All human beings are driven by need, so when we don’t have our needs met, we experience unpleasant feelings. For example, if your need for respect, security, and purpose aren’t being met, you might feel frustration, resentment, or anxiety. Practicing self-empathy helps us deal with moving through these emotions. When we have empathy for ourselves, we can learn to develop forgiveness, understanding, and compassion, first for ourselves and then for others.
  3. Emotional Non-Resistance: This practice builds on the practice of self/empathy by encouraging us to learn how to “be with” difficult feelings. It involves identifying where in the body we can feel negative feelings; we then force ourselves to stay in the moment and “ride the wave” of the emotion so it can move through us completely.
  4. The Internal/External Journey: The journey to developing consciousness can be both internal and external, and it is unique to each individual. Sometimes, it is a metaphoric “knock at the door.” Other times, a very real experience sends us on this journey. Author and mythologist Joseph Campbell called this “The Hero’s Journey.” It is marked by four distinct stages: a) Separation/Departure: call to adventure, b) Descent: trials and temptations, c) Initiation: achieving the gift or boon, and d) Return: the road back.
  5. Self-Awareness/Mindfulness: Self-awareness is the ability to observe one’s self, feelings, and behaviors in any circumstance with curiosity and neutrality. Mindfulness is about being present to the moment at hand. These two go hand-in-hand. Many practices facilitate developing more self-awareness, including meditation. It is the practice of letting go of everything other than this one moment. As Seth Godin says, “Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.”

These practices are designed to help you start your own journey toward achieving a greater degree of consciousness in business. What I like to call Wealth with Meaning . They will allow you to succeed more effectively and with greater confidence. For more on these five practices, please visit my new YouTube series, my book:  www.transformingwallstreet.com  or website: www.thewallstreetcoach.com

 


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