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Financial consultant Bryan Hirsch has learned to love Mondays as much as Fridays
South African financial consultant Bryan Hirsch is also a popular TV and radio talk show host, media columnist, and author of many books on financial health and wealth. In this Q&A profile, he explains why it’s important to enjoy Mondays as much as Fridays, how he conquered cancer many years ago, why he counsels patients with cancer on how to live with dread disease, and why he won’t ever stop what he’s doing. MS
By Marika Sboros
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
An orthopaedic surgeon.
Why?
I was born with a club foot and had orthopaedic treatment for five years
Did it work?
When the surgeon, Dr Edelstein, gave his inaugural address as professor, he said mine was the most successful club foot he’d ever worked on.
Why didn’t you go into orthopaedics?
I was always more interested in finance, selling, and marketing. I had businesses on the side, at school and university, I was always selling something – lottery tickets, records – remember those? I was always a people person, totally uninhibited, highly enthusiastic, energetic, innovative, never scared to prospect, including for girls. A friend’s mother once said I had the best black address book in town.
What did you study at university?
Commerce, but I dropped out and into the real world of business.
Who inspired you to do that?
The late Lou Miller, Liberty Life’s first salesman, and my mentor. I worked for him in 1967 and 1968. He told me: always pray for your clients that they do well, and give them good service and as they grow, your business will grow. It’s a lesson I apply in all of life. I’m a terrible customer, hard to please, but I love what I do and my service levels are obsessive.
You were chairman of the Pioneer Financial Planning Group and remain its single largest private shareholder – but stepped down in 2008 to form your own consultancy, Bryan Hirsch, Colley and Associates. What precipitated that?
A talk I went to in 2007 by an Indian philosopher who posed the question: do you look forward to Mondays with as much enthusiasm as Fridays? Do you look forward to the first day back from holiday as much as the day you go on holiday? I realised I didn’t and why I made the move. Also, people told me I’m a very good leader but a bad manager, so I decided to get out of day-to-day management.
In a nutshell, how do you describe your work now?
I do estate, tax, investment and retirement planning; my main objective is to create wealth for people but not overnight. They have to give me time and realise the risks associated with trying to achieve long-term growth. And of course wealth is relative.
What’s your definition of wealth?
Professionally, it’s about being able to make a difference to other people’s lives. Personally, being able to do what I want, when I want, with whom I want. Without health, I can’t do the things I want to do, and because I am so energetic and active I need to stay healthy.
What work stresses do you face?
Looking after other people’s money can be stressful. People have short memories and forget investment objectives; they read media headlines that are full of fear and greed. When there’s bad news, people get fearful; I know what they’re thinking and it stresses me. I move from financial planner to nanny to psychologist, trying to stop people making stupid decisions based on negative media hype. I watch the same news as they do. I just make sure whatever I’m hearing doesn’t change an investment strategy for a client. I understand my client’s needs, plan accordingly, and I ‘ll never do for a client what I wouldn’t do for myself, my son, my mother.
How do you handle stress?
Uh, badly; I exercise, watch my weight; what I eat, but I have a large client base, and I’m a worrier – about things that will never happen.
You were diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1985. Did you ever think you would get cancer?
I thought I was more likely to have a heart attack. I was working under ridiculous pressure, very long days – 15 to 16 hours a day wasn’t unusual.
After diagnosis, did you fear the worst?
I was scared of course, but never pessimistic. I’m a Scorpio, black and white kinda guy. I asked the doctor one question: Will I live or die? He said I’ll live. I believed him.
What treatment did you have?
Six months of radiation. A year later the cancer had spread to one of my lungs.
Were you scared again?
I asked the same question: Will I live. The doctors said yes. I believed them. I had surgery to remove the tumour, six months of chemotherapy, and I’ve been fine ever since.
What did you learn from facing dread disease?
About enjoying life, doing what I want to do when I want, not putting it off, and taking time out, not time off.
What’s the difference?
Time off means you are usually still connect to work and daily life. Time out is about really switching off. It’s actively destressing.
When do you do that?
When I go on a cruise once a year; it’s the only time I switch off my cell phone, though I receive communication everyday from my PA by fax to the ship. My partner Mark Colley whom I’ve been in business with for 27 years will handle with the same effort and obsession I have, any problems a client may have.
What’s your typical daily diet like?
Toast and tea for breakfast; lunch is a homemade salad, with chicken or fish. I eat very little red meat. Dinner is a bowl of homemade veggie soup. You’d be amazed at the bowl’s size.
What’s the least healthy thing you do?
Can’t think of one. I used to be a chocoholic, and drink diet drinks, but don’t do that any longer. I don’t drink coffee or alcohol only water.
You counsel cancer patients and their families. What made you do that?
It’s my way of giving back. I don’t counsel on cancer, just how to deal with life during treatment. It’s what’s not in the books; I know it makes a difference,
What’s makes a difference?
From my own experience, it’s threefold: realising you need to remove stresses in your life – finding the right people around you who will comfort and not stress you. People mean well, but they can stress and exhaust you; secondly find and eat foods you enjoy because you need to keep your weight constant; thirdly, it is your time you can never get back, so make time for yourself; don’t let other people determine how you use your time. You and your family must be in control; Get enough rest, and sleep.
Any secret fears?
I used to fear failure when I was younger. Now I don’t even contemplate it.
And hopes and dreams?
I hope for the health of my family, my grandsons that I’m here to enjoy their growing up, and can enjoy my work for the rest of my life.
So no thought of retiring?
I won’t ever retire, but you do need to build hobbies. So when my grandchildren, Cole, currently aged 4, and Connor, 2, decide they can have more fun with their friends than their grandpa, I want to do three things: learn a language – German, my background is German and I speak a little; play a musical instrument – I once tried the piano but didn’t have the time, or maybe I’ll try the guitar; and probably take up golf.
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