In what is going down as the weirdest and best experience of the year for me, I recently completed a 28-mile day hike with 60 other finance professionals to remember the soldiers who had fallen in battle.
Among those who I hiked with was a journalist from the New York Times who covered the event. He does a great job describing the event and the asset management firm, Alpha Architect, that helped to organize our squad of 60.
Also in our squad was Patrick O’Shaughnessy, a prominent blogger and podcaster. His recap sums up my own experience and is well worth the read.
What started off as small talk about our own profession and thoughts about asset allocation, slowly moved to more personal and deeper conversations. With hours and hours of time on the trail, many conversations got deep. And as Patrick mentioned in his blog post, he had deeper conversations with practical strangers than with people he has known for years. I felt the same way and am glad I was not the only one who had that experience.
Never in my life would I have imagined doing such an event with so many strangers. And now, I can’t wait to be part of it again next year.