Michael Gold grew up in Queens with no money, a father who closed his business to get health insurance, and a mother who got sick. You got into finance for the same reason that most people do. He says: “You go in because, ‘Oh, that’s where you make money.’ What he found on the other side of that pursuit changed the way he measured everything.
Michael Gold, founder and CEO of Gold Family Wealth in Westport, Connecticut, spent years chasing the taboos of his growing up. A beautiful car. A better place. Escape from want. But the initial victory felt futile. He says: “When I was successful in the beginning, I realized that it wasn’t really beneficial. Money came, then something strong came into focus.
He says: “What was most important was the relationship that you have built over the years. The impact has taken the place of accumulation as a measure. “When you start making an impact in people’s lives, not just the clients you work with, but the team, vendors, people in your industry, when you have an impact on that, that is often very rewarding,” he says.
Hexagon – Six Keys to Restoring Balance and a 5AM Wake Up Call
The change in philosophy required an operating system to catch up. In his practice in Westport, Michael Gold conducts what he calls the Daily Action Plan, a written framework based on the structure of the Hexagon structure that is very strong in nature and engineering and, as Gold puts it in your life. The Hexagon covers six important aspects of your life: work, finances, family, spouse, health and happiness/Hobbies. The idea is to protect, not to optimize. He says: “You never let one of them consume you.
Every morning starts at 5am – Gold writes down his 10-year, three-year, and one-year goals for each of the six key areas of life, in longhand, before the workday begins. He says: “I have long-term goals for each of these sections, which I write down every day. He’s been doing it for years. “Everything I’ve ever written down over a period of time, it may have taken 10 years, it took 20 years, to be published,” he says.
The framework was born out of failure. Focusing too little on work and finances cost Golide her marriage and, by her account, contributed to three spinal surgeries. What’s important are corrective exercises to help restore balance to your life. Built around lessons he learned the hard way: let one dimension rule and let others fall.
The Yellowstone Framework for Personal Balance
Gold draws on the natural history of Yellowstone National Park to explain how the balance works. When wolves are removed from the park, the elk population explodes, overgrazing the landscape and degrading the environment. When 41 wolves were reintroduced in 1995, the balance was restored. “Wolves do not hunt for sport. They are predators, but there is a reason,” he said. That relaunch fixed the cascading imbalance throughout the park. “The whole system of creation, the balance was restored,” he said.
Gold uses a metaphor specifically for the six important elements of the Hexagon Structure in a balanced, happy, healthy and rich life- if you neglect one or more areas for a long time, like when wolves are removed leading to the collapse of the ecosystem of parks, in a personal ecosystem if you remove one or more areas you are putting your life at risk. His version of recovery was waking up at 5am. He traded a few hours of sleep to focus on all six important things before the work day began. The basic value under the system dates back to watching his father make silent sacrifices. “You have to swallow your pride and ego to get the best,” Gold said. That lesson, he says, overrides all validation or market effects.
Leadership that Measures Success by Shared Goals
Philosophy reshapes the way Michael Gold leads. He watched Wall Street reward a version of success built on outsourcing rather than investing in people. “People will build, sell for hundreds of millions of dollars, have all the money in the world, and do it on the shoulders of people who threw them a bone,” he said. Gold watched the CEO sell his company for nearly $100 million while his longtime assistant stood crying on the corner of 5th Avenue. That image became a constant reference point for the culture he built at his Westport company.
Gold Family Wealth operates without statutory vacation, sick, or time off policies. “If your child has a sporting event or something to attend, you better be at that event. We are not brain surgeons here,” he said. The standard works in both directions, success is measured by whether the people around you are achieving their goals alongside you. “If I help people to reach their goals, that shows that they reach my goals,” said Michael Gold.
Investment advisory services provided through CWM, LLC, an SEC Registered Investment Adviser.
