One of the most important Syverson Strege core values to me is compassion. I think compassion is at the heart of serving clients and motivates us to do our job to the best of our ability.
When people try to define compassion, they might think of empathy. So, what is the difference between the two? Empathy can be defined as our feeling of awareness toward others’ emotions and an attempt to understand what they are going through in their life. Compassion is the actual act to help someone after feeling empathy toward them.
I feel we are fortunate in our jobs as financial planners because we are given the opportunity to be compassionate to our clients. We often serve clients who are going through difficult stages of life such as the death of a spouse or other family members, loss of a job, or a divorce – to name a few. Each of these examples has financial implications and the team at Syverson Strege has the knowledge to be able to help clients through these situations.
After I graduated college, my first job was in an investment department inside of a large financial company. I thought I wanted to be a stock analyst and help select stocks for investment products that are sold to people. This was somewhat satisfying work as I enjoyed the process of research and analysis, and it was easy to measure “success” of trying to beat the performance of the overall market. However, it still felt like something was missing, and I was not being fulfilled in my work.
Around the same time, I decided to take a mission trip to South Africa through my church which turned out to be a life-changing experience. I was able to see people in real need without some of the necessities of life including food, clothing, and shelter. This triggered a lot of emotion inside of me and helped me realize that I had a lot of empathy for other people. It forced me to do some soul searching and ask God if I was truly on the right path in my career or if He had other plans for my life.
The answer I received suggested that I should quit my job as a stock analyst but, luckily, it did not mean that I had to move to Africa to make a difference. Fortunately, I think God nudged me to my current job as a financial planner with Syverson Strege because it was a great values match. It has provided me with the enjoyment of still doing research and analysis but has added the most important component of countless opportunities to be compassionate toward others. I can directly help people with their finances and see positive change in their lives as a result.
I think acting with compassion is what brings the most fulfillment in our jobs at Syverson Strege. It is the value that is most important and what we look for when interviewing potential employees. If we know that someone is compassionate, we also know they will do a good job serving our clients.
If you are interested in learning more about values-based financial planning, please feel free to connect with us online or at (515) 225-6000.