This weeks’ blog is a special one, as our valued team member Meredith Mercer returns home from the Alps, after summitting two four thousand-meter peaks: Grand Paradiso in Italy and Alphubel in Switzerland. This feat is not new to her. She has successfully climbed three of the seven summits: Kilimanjaro, Denali and Aconcagua.

The seven summits are comprised of the highest mountains on each of the seven continents and reaching all of them is a goal for Meredith. This is an extraordinary goal (only around five hundred people have achieved this!), but Meredith assures us that it looks very similar to most goals.

Meredith also assures us that when she is climbing mountains, she has lots of time to think. Throughout her latest climb, she considered how lessons she has learned “attached to the rope” are very similar to the basics of how we achieve our goals as people, teams and investors.

Her three largest takeaways are that, in achieving your goals, you must trust the process, objectively assess risk, and build a strong team around you.

Trust the process

When climbing, the basics are key. You must focus on physical and mental health. Simply put, self-care. Hydration, calorie intake and sleep. The training and planning have been done, and now it is time to put one foot in front of the other and keep taking steps forward. However, it is important to understand that circumstances evolve, and you must be adaptable and trust that the process that you have trained for will get you to the top (and back down), safely.

This is similar to how Smith Falconer Financial Group (SFFG) supports clients through the financial planning process, making adjustments over the years and growing with changing circumstances and goals.

In either case, resiliency is an important attribute. Whether you are 10% off of your financial plan, or have ventured off the climbing route, there is always a way to re-assess and adapt. The path from A to B is rarely a straight line.

Remaining objective with risk

Along this same path, there is risk that you need to respond to, and perceived risk that is part of the process. This is as important to climbers as it is long-term investors.

When Meredith arrived in Europe a couple of weeks ago, the objective was to climb Mont Blanc. Shortly upon her teams’ arrival, there was an avalanche on the route, rendering it unsafe to climb. This was risk that needed to be acted upon, and her team changed course, finding success at Grand Paradiso and Alphubel.

Comparable to how Meredith’s climbing team responded to the avalanche, in certain cases for investors, decisions to change course must be made to achieve long-term goals. However, in many cases, investors must instead distinguish risk from volatility. Day-over-day, the market goes up – and it goes down. It is understanding that this volatility is only a perceived risk in achieving a longer-term goal that allows investors to block out the “noise” of the immediate and mitigate the effects of making short-term decisions based on heightened emotions.

Like investors, each climber has their own perception of risk and risk tolerance. Stock market volatility, and seeing the one-thousand metre drop below you as you climb, can both easily cause panic. To stay on track, what must be understood is that these views are essential in reaching the top.

Meredith’s takeaway from looking over the edge, is that climbers and investors need to keep perceived risk in perspective when achieving their goals.

The importance of a team

We strongly believe that goals are successfully achieved with a highly capable team around you. When climbing, you must place your trust in your guides and your fellow climbers. Everyone has different perspectives and abilities to bring to the team, the combination of which is greater than the sum of its parts.

When Meredith climbed Denali, her guide had one request before they began – assume the best of your teammates. Respect and communication are essential.

SFFG values teamwork immensely. As a team, we acknowledge everyone’s unique strengths using the Kolbe index. This index helps us better understand how we approach tasks, through four key areas: fact finding, follow through, quick start, and implementation. In knowing how a team member enjoys spending their energy, we can work effectively on any project.

Equally as important are the teams we work with for our clients. We work with partners internally in Private Banking and Financial and Estate Planning, and externally with accountants and lawyers. This allows our clients to benefit from the expertise of a strong team, each member with an important role to play.

Goals – whether they be to reach the seven summits, or those that are found in a financial plan, are always best achieved with a guide and team that you trust.

This blog evolved from an inspired interview that Maddie Hubbard conducted with Meredith Mercer, following another successful outcome for Meredith, as she attempts to conquer the seven summits.