Kashif Ahmed Podcast
Erica Mattison: Welcome to Conversations with Erica. I'm your host executive coach, Erica Mattison.
Today I'm joined by Kashif Ahmed, known as Kash, Founder and President of American Private Wealth, and a longtime finance professor. In our conversation, Kash shares why financial planning is first and foremost a human business and the crucial role of building trusting relationships. He talks about taking risks, learning from failures and being resilient, as well as the importance of loving what you do. Kash also emphasizes carving out time for the non-work activities you enjoy, especially once you've built a solid professional foundation.
Kash and I met through a Suffolk University event. Tell us a little bit about what you're up to with your work and your teaching.
I know you have a lot going on.
Kashif Ahmed: Thank you for having me. I always have a lot going on. So you mentioned the teaching, which I am very proud to say is my first love and will be to my dying day. I've been a professor of finance, investments, now currently of management since 1998, so we're like 28, 29 years.
In addition to that, during the day, I have a wealth management firm that I own , American Private Wealth. Addition to that, I do a lot of volunteer work. I'm sort of an ambassador of the FBI and just stay busy. I'll sleep when I'm dead.
Erica Mattison: I'm sure that there's a lot of variety, but give us a sense... what does a typical week look like for you?
Kashif Ahmed: I ended up hiring two of my former students, both military veterans from Suffolk University, from the financial planning program. When you're new in the business, this is a very serious business of financial planning and wealth management,
the book stuff aside, it's very important to know what to say, what not to say. That we are really, at the end of the day in the human business, they need to learn from somebody who's been doing this for many decade on how do you talk. Even in the two meetings we had today was a very different tone.
It was very different language used, and I think that's very interesting for them to see. So I had that and in between, I had my own client stuff, but thankfully my staff handled most of that.
Erica Mattison: You've talked about building a team. Tell us a little bit about what you look for as you are building your team.
Kashif Ahmed: Wealth management today remains very not diverse at all and very aging. The average advisor is well into their sixties and it's predominantly Caucasian men. At the end of the day this business is about people.
We're asking people to entrust us with their financial future and their family's financial future. There's money involved. There's emotions involved, so somebody who is able to, you know, be empathetic and yet be firm because we are in the business of providing advice that has impacts across many decades.
These two individuals really stood out for me because they're former military. It's a tough business. Make no mistake. The structure that I offer is you're an entrepreneur and I'm going to mentor you and teach you everything to be successful, but you still need to have that discipline and the determination and the drive.
Some people have it, some don't, and I'm of the opinion that sure, you can have your work-life balance, you can have all of that, but that you should not also expect the results that come with a hard hustle. This is a very, very blessed profession where we are able to make enormous and significant impact in people's lives.
This is almost a taboo subject. People don't like to talk about their personal finances. A lot of the time that prevents them from actually going and seeking out the help that they know they need. So it's an incredibly noble profession in what we do. I firmly believe in anything, whether you wanna be a boxer or a runner or anything, you have to do the hard work.
You just simply cannot expect the results and the rainbow if you don't want to put up with the rain. It's just that simple.
Erica Mattison: So you're looking for people who are empathetic. You're looking for people who have drive, determination, persistence, work ethic
Kashif Ahmed: if you just come out outright and say, listen, I just don't like talking to people,
this is not going to work, whether it's at my firm or any firm, you have to talk to people. This is not something that can be AIed away. This is not something that can be done by a robot. This causes a lot of anxiety in people and you have to be able to sit with them and hold their hand and say, "It's gonna be okay. We're here for you." So if you just don't have those people skills, and that's fine if you don't, right? You could be in other facets of wealth management maybe where you're not client facing, where you're not sitting with a person. You could be crunching the numbers behind the curtain, that's okay.
But for most people who aspire to be in that front role where they're like, this is my client, this is my relationship, you need to have those skills. Generally, if you don't have them, it's very difficult to acquire them.
Erica Mattison: So the people piece is extremely important in the work that you're doing. I imagine being able to build trust with people is extremely important as well.
Kashif Ahmed: Without trust, there's nothing, no matter the profession. First of all, people have to be able to say, well, I think this person is definitely competent. I can see the degrees on the wall. That's okay.
I do get a sense that they're ethical and yeah, the trust has to come and it has to be earned. If somebody has said, I trust you with my family's future, I've told you, here are my goals and aspirations, and I in turn have told you, I'll help you meet them, well I'd better!
I don't want this person many decades from today sitting on their porch somewhere. They're saying, "well, I thought I was gonna be on a yacht in the Mediterranean, and here I am, nowhere near that. Well, it's all his fault." I don't want that karma because I may even be dead by then, but that karma's gonna come back and affect my children.
Erica Mattison: Tell us a little bit more about how you did get into this kind of work.
Kashif Ahmed: I started with banking and then consulting, but when I had my first cub, I call my children, my cubs. When I had the first one, I wanted to hire a financial planner. Even though I teach this, I just wanted to offload it with somebody who does this every single day.
I was very sincere in that, but with each person that I met, I just got angrier and more disappointed and I said, "you know what? I better show them how to do this," and this is how it started, and here we are 20 years later.
Erica Mattison: How has your business evolved during that time?
Kashif Ahmed: I came into this profession much later than most people do.
I set a very strict standard for who could become a client as well as very high standards for myself. So it wasn't, "Hey, if you have a pulse, you know, we'll take you. We don't care where your money gave, we'll take you." No, no, no. We, we said, look, I'm build essentially the unwealth management firm, whatever you think wealth managers, financial planners do.
However they act, we're just not going to do. There's gonna be no song and dance. There's no wining and dining. If you need me, you know where to find me. I'm not going to come see you. We said, look, if you want to become a client, you have to convince me to take you. Not the other way around. And from the very start, I said, if somebody is willing to take time out during the day, it cannot be evenings, to come see me, you expended time, fuel, possibly, to get to where I am. You've already demonstrated some level of seriousness. And then to this day we say, look, if you want me to take you as a client, I have to be sufficiently convinced of several things. One, you understand, respect, and acknowledge that financial planning is a process and not a product.
It's not a one-time thing. I sell you something and it solves your problems. Oh, no, not at all. Number two, you respect that this is what I do and I'm very good at it. You will actually listen to my advice. Number three by taking you on you are taking me away from my Cubs and my existing clients. Tell me why.
Why is it fair to my existing clients that now I'm taking time away from them to work with you? And so what that does is it really only truly brings the people who are very serious about it because why should I bother being serious about your future if you are not? And it may sound a little bit, you know, harsh or arrogant, but it is what it is.
And I'm so blessed that the clients we have are the ones who actually want to be here and they respect what we do, so in that way, nothing has changed. I still write with a fountain pen, which I've done for as long as I can remember. I'm still a lined paper guy. We don't AI away anything. We are in the people business.
Erica Mattison: What was it that led you to be interested in this kind of work? Going back even further...
Kashif Ahmed: Finance is in my blood numbers and, and how things work, and I am a people person. I'm very outgoing, I'm very social. I like to be out and about and this particular profession allows me to combine both of those things.
At the same time, no day is the same. Every family that walks in the door, their situation is different. The people are different. Even within the same couple, the people are different. And I thrive on that because it's just exciting and it's fresh and this is why I love it. I love it. No day is the same.
Erica Mattison: So it sounds like you have a lot of variety and that's something that's very important to you for your career satisfaction.
Kashif Ahmed: Yeah, absolutely. I tell my students and people I mentor, if you don't absolutely madly love with what you do, why are you still doing? I am not the person who's like, ah, Monday or celebrating hump day.
'cause it's halfway through. No, no, no, no. On Friday I'm like, oh my God, I can't wait for Monday to come back.
Erica Mattison: That's awesome. As a coach, my work is focused on helping people connect with work that is going to be deeply gratifying to them. And of course for everybody that's different because of different personalities and goals, priorities, and so forth.
Once they're in a role, that's a good match for them, helping them thrive and lead with impact in those roles. You talked a lot about the importance of hard work and when you're doing something you love, oftentimes you don't mind that you're working a lot because you are so in it. Would you talk a little bit about your experience with being, as they say, in flow?
Kashif Ahmed: Yeah, so today, like I mentioned, one of the newest financial managers, this was his first day and we had back to back meetings with people who want to become his clients. I just left the office and I said, "this is awesome. I'm so energized, even though I haven't even had breakfast yet. I love this, that we are being productive."
Life is too, too, too short and unpredictable to just sit around. But somebody asked me once, you are involved in like a million things and they're all different too. In the morning I could be doing something super serious and in the evening I'm involved in something that's completely like the opposite.
I'm like, well, yeah, because at any point they could be laying me down in my grave, but when they do, I'm gonna say man. It was so much fun.
Erica Mattison: So do you make time for fun outside of work? Because I know your work is also fun for you.
Kashif Ahmed: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I'm very seriously into movies.
For me, movies are therapy. For me, a movie is an escape for two, three hours into another world. I want to just leave this behind. It's almost like you reboot. So I love movies and I love fantasy also, I love riding my motorcycle. There's nothing more peaceful than just being by yourself. It's just you and the wind.
I love cooking too, so for me, that's very relaxing.
Erica Mattison: What would you say to somebody who's in a situation in their career where they feel stuck? They feel like maybe what they're doing was once a good fit, but now it's not. They're scared, concerned, unsure about doing something different. Leaving, maybe they feel like maybe they're gonna have to take a pay cut or do something that is not desirable, but they know deep down that their situation is really not working for them.
What would you say to them?
Kashif Ahmed: It's like going to the gym and looking at a barbell on the floor and saying, "I can't lift it." I'm like, you haven't even tried yet. Maybe you can. So I'm not saying just tell your boss, I'm out of here, just randomly. No, but always be on the lookout and say, well, you know, I'm in this industry and this other in industry intrigues me.
Maybe network with people in that industry and see how they're doing. Right? That doesn't necessarily mean you're ready to quit, but you might say, well, geez, you know what? I really like how much they enjoy doing that, and I can see myself and maybe send out some feelers and see. You never know, have that network ready.
You also know if you're an employee somewhere, it's at will on both sides. So how many people have that wonderful surprise where they walk into work and they're like, this is your last day. I, I don't think you should be afraid of change. I'll tell you this, from somebody who's been blessed to live all around the world and experience different cultures and who actually comes from a different culture, this America, the country that I love so much.
This is the place where it's actually even possible to try different things. In many cultures, you're stuck in one place because, well, I belong to this part of the country. I'm my family's from this city. I'm gonna keep looking around here. Whereas in America, part of what make America so great and so prosperous is, okay, I'm from Massachusetts, but I got a wonderful opportunity in California.
All right, I'm out. People move. In other societies, people are very hesitant to move where they're from, right? So if you have an opportunity, go for it. Now, unless you've built a lifestyle that is absolutely dependent on the income that you have today, meaning you are just living on fumes 'cause everything you make, you spend a lot of it is choice for many people.
Even. Even if you take a small pay cut. How does that compare to the joy you may experience in the new place or the new thing you're doing? You cannot put a price on. You know what? If actually you get even happier and you're more content, you may actually even live longer. Try it. Don't be afraid. I shifted.
I went from pure finance to finance and people, and today I will say I'm just all people.
Erica Mattison: It's important to be curious. To try things, to reach out to people in your network and be meeting people and learning about different industries, different opportunities that could be out there. And just be open.
Kashif Ahmed: Absolutely be open. And I think a lot of people discount networking. Nothing really rubs me the wrong way when somebody I know hasn't talked to me in 25 years, but they all of a sudden they're all over me when they need something. The whole point of networking is to nurture those contacts and genuinely, sincerely say, "Hey, how you doing?"
Maybe wanna sit here? It's so easy to do. You can literally schedule it in your calendar. Reach out to Erica, "Hey, how you doing? How's the podcast coming along? How's your coaching?" So that when I actually need Erica, or even, even if I never need you, I meet with somebody who does. Okay, and I can make that introduction.
I'm now a resourceful person. And so many people are just so you know, in a tunnel. They get up in the morning, oatmeal, coffee, black. They have their routine, they go to work and they come home. Saturday mornings is a Costco run. Sunday, it's this, and that's it. That's just, you're a hamstrung away. And God forbid if you need somebody like, geez, I don't even know.
How about this. Everybody needs to know a plumber that's gonna take a call and come right over. A mechanic, a CPA. You need to be a resourceful person. You don't have network just because you expect to get something out of it. You should have a network, so you can be a resourceful person so you can make introductions for other people.
Karma.
Erica Mattison: Yeah. This really resonates Kash because I can't tell you how many times I've been meeting with clients and they'll say to me something like, "i've really neglected my network. I just haven't been in touch with many people while I've been at this organization the last 12 years. I've really let my network go.
I feel awkward reaching out to people now because I am exploring different opportunities and I haven't talked to them in so long." So I help them learn how they can break it down into manageable pieces and really start engaging with their network in an effective and authentic way.
Kashif Ahmed: You can network within your organization too. It doesn't have to be outside people. And again, goes back to the barbell example. You're like, I feel awkward. Well just try it. Maybe the other person won't feel that way. You will never know until you'll try it.
Erica Mattison: And I bet you have a lot of examples of stories of times that you built a connection with somebody not knowing where it may lead, and then wonderful things happened as a result.
Kashif Ahmed: Oh, I, I have so many stories. There's not enough time. You need to have this as a season just about me.
Erica Mattison: You'll come back on the show another time, Kash.
Kashif Ahmed: Absolutely. It's amazing how sometimes you can come full circle where people, when I first came to this country, helped me find an assignment or a job, and 20 some years later, I'm helping them because now I'm in a more influential position than they were, or I know somebody where they're looking. It's a wonderful feeling and this is what I try to instill in my cubs as well.
It's not just what you know, it's also who you know.
Erica Mattison: Definitely. And you mentioned AI, and I'll say that as AI has been gaining popularity it becomes even more important to invest in real human relationships because that's what helps us stand out from the bajillions of people just using AI to hit easy apply.
Kashif Ahmed: I came to America, I did my second master's and the internet was just a thing at the time, and it was very easy to fire off a resume. I would literally take them, I'm like, I have a monthly T pass. I might as well just walk it over. And I would have so many conversations with people.
They're like you gotta mail it in. I'm like, "but I'm right here. Do you have 15 minutes? We can talk now." And how many times people are like, you know what, actually come on in. Or how about you actually print out a resume and you mail it in? How many people actually do that? It's very easy to get carpet bombed by ai.
My inbox is just, it is unbelievable. As I always counsel people, even if you are working at norad, all you do is watch Russian missiles possibly coming over, you're still in the people business. That next promotion is gonna be decided by somebody who is a person. Actually knew somebody who's nicest person in the world, worked at a big blue chip firm for the longest time and worked from home. This is pre COVID. And I would always tell them, look, you gotta go and meet with your colleagues, your managers.
He goes, "why? I mean, I exceed whatever they assign me." I'm like, "listen, the office that you report to is not that far. Hop on a plane. There's sales happening all the time. Sometimes I would send him a link. "Look, look man, it's a hundred bucks round trip. Just go spend a day at the office. Because you know what? The next time there's gonna be cuts or reorganizations, you'll be a real person, not just a name on a list somewhere." Never listened to me. This is an Ivy League graduate with tons of experience. He got laid off by email and his colleague who does the exact same thing with less than a quarter of the experience, but who happens to be in the office was kept by that manager because you were just a thumbnail on a screen and they're like, "Hey, John's gotta go."
Erica Mattison: What do you see as some of the best practices that help people be effective and thrive in their lives in a holistic way?
Kashif Ahmed: People ask me all the time, "how do you get so much done?" It's very simple. I have a calendar and I say, "well, hey listen, between two and 3:00 PM I'm going to do emails today." Phone could blow up.
It'll ring so much. I'm not going to pick it up 'cause that's email time. It is very easy to get. A multitasking is rubbish. It's just a myth. If you're on the phone like this and there's a sandwich in your mouth and you're typing and you are on your walking pad at work to get your steps in, knock it off.
Stop it. Do one thing efficiently and really well at a time.
Erica Mattison: This reminds me of the book Deep Work by Cal Newport, which is one of my favorites. He talks about the importance of really focusing in doing what you're saying, Kash, which is time blocking and having these dedicated chunks of time, whether it's 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes. Setting aside time and really just focusing on whatever the task at hand is. What are some of the other best practices?
Kashif Ahmed: When it comes to money, I am stone cold, there's no emotion, there's nothing, and I think it's very important to separate the emotion from money itself and also the money decisions.
I think too many people get bogged down in one, either not addressing something or not talking about it, or when it comes to make a decision, either make an emotional one, which usually ends up being wrong or worse, not making any decision. From what I've seen over the decades of doing this, people's finances are a mess in this country.
For whatever reason, this society decided that talking about money is taboo, which therefore it's not taught. It's not talked about at home. How are you going to instill and teach your children to be financially and fiscally responsible if you don't even talk about it or if you yourself say, well, I'm a mess, but I let me introduce them to people who are not, whether it's through a podcast or whatever, but what I've seen is people get very emotional and it's usually two things.
It's either greed or fear. I like to remind people that those are noties. None of them are going to end well for too long, right? Greed is usually where people have these mythical Joneses next door that they must keep up with, or some influencer online, or some buddy at work who claims they were up 30% last year.
It's just rubbish, okay? They get burned from that, and then the fear prevents them from getting back on the horse. So the people I think who truly achieve financial independence and financial peace are the ones who are able to remove the emotion from their financial decisions and actually pay respect and honor the intersection of financial decisions.
And one step further. If they know that they're not capable of such management of their emotions, then outsource it to somebody like me who's a disinterested third.
Erica Mattison: Taking the emotions out of the money decisions
Kashif Ahmed: Critical, absolutely critical. Ben Franklin said, "even a small leak and sink a ship." People have no idea where their money goes. I run into people who have been saving in their retirement plan for decades, and when you ask them, well, how's it invest? Well, I don't wanna dig it outta my paycheck.
I'm like, "how could you not even bother to know where it's going?"
I'm busy. I'm like, "well, this is your money. Do you not care? Busy with what? What is more important than finding out how your money's invested, which you are going to rely on to eat and have in shelter for your retirement years?" But a lot of people are just like, "well, I'll figure it out later." Um, you're 42, when are you gonna figure it out?
Time's clicking. Have you not heard of time value of money and compounding? There is no rocket science in what I do. I manage your behavior. I make sure that I am the firewall between you and your worst instincts, number one. Number two, I get you to get going on this as early as possible. For my own cubs, we had investment accounts from the minute they got a social security number.
You can't start earlier than that. None of their investments that we put them in are not available to everybody else. There's nothing secret, there's nothing exclusive. It's just that we started much earlier and today my teenage daughters have more money than the average American 401k balance when they're about to retire.
It's not rocket science and to my immigrant friends, you know, I always tell them one of the first things I did when I landed in this country before I even went to my orientation, I opened an investment account. In those days, you didn't actually need a social security number. You could walk into a brokerage and open an account.
And I said, listen, I flew across the seven seas to come to the country that had the most advanced financial system in the history of mankind.
Erica Mattison: One of the things that's coming up for me is around people who have an entrepreneurial side, whether they realize it or not, but there's a lot of fear because of things like needing health insurance. How will I provide for myself, my family, what have you, if I don't have a job with a steady paycheck, with benefits provided to me by the employer.
Could you say a little bit about that?
Kashif Ahmed: Yeah. It's amazing what burning bridges and sinking ships does. If there is no retreat, there is no other choice but to move forward. And I had a nine month old when I started this. And at the time we had one car, so I had to drop my wife out of work and then borrow the car to go do my work and then got my baby from daycare.
We were both very young and she was also an immigrant. You need to just do it. And again, to my earlier point, you could stay in a job because there's a steady paycheck and there's a 401k match and they even give you a discounted T pass or all. Then you'll quickly become complacent and it'll become harder and harder to walk. If you try something and you fall flat on your face, this is the country where one, it's never frowned upon to try again.
And here in America, truly people will, will reach out and say, "oh, okay buddy. Grab my hand, let's do this again." If you're not willing to at least give it a shot here, then you're, then it's not for you. When I first started, a lot of people doubted me. The very first person that I told that I was starting a practice said, "oh my God, you shouldn't do that.
That's a terrible idea." I'm like, what? She goes, "oh, you look like those 9 11 guys. Nobody's gonna do business with you." I'm like, you watch me? Okay. So here I am, an immigrant with a non-traditional name going into a very traditional male, Caucasian business, right? I could have said, "I don't know. I need a steady paycheck.
I gotta pay, I need health insurance." No. All of those things will eventually work out if you just persist. That's the key. 30 years in this country, I'm still almost used to using Fahrenheit and not centigrade. Water boils at 212. At 211 it's just hot water. One degree that makes the difference between hot water and boiling, which creates steam, which can be used to turn that into electricity that powers every, it's one degree.
People usually give up at the very last moment, right before they're on the edge of make persistent. You also know if you have it in you. Many, many years ago, there was a young man who talked a big game. I was supposed to mentor him, and I said, all right, tell me what's been on your mind, all your wishlists, whatever you always wanted to buy.
I wanted, you know, this car with this interior. I wanted a Bose system for my house. And I said, all right, let's go. Let's hop in the car. He's like, where are we going? I'm like, well, let's go get all this stuff. He goes, what? I'm like, come on, let's go put it all on a credit card. He was pale. He was like, what the hell is going on?
At the end of the day, I'm like, all right, we got your Bose, you got your couches, you got all the things you wanted. Now you have no choice but to work. And it's amazing how fast you're able to run when you have to chase something. It's amazing when there is no retreat, but if you always say, Hey, let's just make sure there is a bridge that I can retreat on, and there is a net also under it as a second safety net, then you're never gonna get more. This picture of Jeff Bezos, he was working at some blue chip firm and he quit, and there's a picture of him sitting in his garage with a old rickety desk with one light bulb hanging from the ceiling and with a spray can. He wrote amazon.com on the wall. just one guy.
Persistent. Everybody said, "who's gonna buy books online?" I mean, yes, Amazon has evolved into everything since right when his wedding was happening and people complaining, oh, it's a hundred million dollars and Venice is getting shut down, or blah, blah, blah. I'm like, Hey, you can do whatever you want. Look at how many people's lives he's changed.
Yesterday I ordered an iPad from my mom and an hour and a half later it was on my doorstep. An hour and a half later, he can have all the billions equal people look at, with envy. The end result. They don't look at it all went through before, but everybody wants that end result. You have to be honest with yourself.
Look in the mirror and say. Am I willing? As I said to you, that's two wealth managers in my office this week. "Look, you want what I have? Well, that's 20 years of work, but here's how it's gonna get super easy. Cancel your life for the first five years. Work your butt off work like nobody else is willing to work because then you'll be able to live like most people are never going to get to live."
Erica Mattison: I imagine to some degree you had to believe in your ability to figure things out.
Kashif Ahmed: Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm my biggest cheerleader. I'm my biggest fan. People tell me, oh my God, you're so into yourself. I'm like, absolutely. I love myself. I don't care if anybody else does. I love myself. I can do anything that I want to do.
I will never be able to, or be willing to do something that people force me to do. But anything that I want to do, absolutely I'm gonna be.
Erica Mattison: What have we not yet talked about before we wrap up that you would like to talk about?
Kashif Ahmed: There are always gonna be people who are negative. There are always gonna be people who are going to sew doubt in you, stay away from them. And by the way. Don't try to be a people pleaser. That's a miserable existence. I am not a people pleaser, and yet the people who actually know me love me.
So if you want to go ahead and move forward, this is a beautiful country, and even somebody like me can come here in a short span of time be the American. If you have aspirations to change, pivot, become an entrepreneur, whatever. It's all possible in this country. Perhaps in no other. If you wanna do it as Phil Knight at Nike said, just do it.
Don't think about it. And it's okay to fail. I've failed on so many things. It's okay. That's where wisdom comes in. You learn from stuff that you failed at and you did wrong, and that's okay. Don't be ashamed.
Erica Mattison: I'm very interested in the concept of failure. For me, it's a question of what does failure mean?
Kashif Ahmed: I have only failed at one exam. Part of it was my teacher at the time I detested because he detested me for very foolish reasons. I corrected him on his English once. He just made it his life mission to make my life miserable.
For that reason, I started hating the subject. So failure, uh, for some people it could be the end because they never recover from it. And I think for other people it could be like, oh, whatever? I keep going back to America. Look, this is the place where you can feel, and it's not a big deal. It's only a big deal in your head and anybody else who makes it a big deal, ignore them. They're not your friends.
Erica Mattison: Have you noticed generational differences in terms of values around things like stability and risk tolerance?
Kashif Ahmed: This may be very surprising because it's actually the opposite of what you may think. I think it's the newer generation that wants the stability and not wanting to take the risk. Whereas what this country has become is because so many people wandered off into the sunset and said, Hey, what's on the other side of this continent?
Lemme go take a look or Let me build this railway took enormous risks and it's because of them. This country is what it is. I think today a lot of people are just not willing. I think there are a lot of people are just complacent. Part of it is I think in this country, and I speak from the standpoint of the stock markets and so on, there are many people who have never seen a bad time.
I grew up incredibly privileged with a very powerful father who was in very much in control in Kuwait, and within two hours we were on the run wanted by Saddam Hue. As a refugee, wandering the desert for weeks, that's a bad time. So for people, their perspective is very different. But as I tell my own children, are you gonna be somebody or are you just gonna be a statistic?
Will somebody even remember the day you die?
Erica Mattison: So what's next for Kash? What are you looking forward to?
Kashif Ahmed: Help nurture this next generation of wealth managers because again, this is an industry that still lacks a lot of diversity. It's still not something that people really seek out.
Like people still go, I can be an engineer, a doctor, et cetera, a lawyer. This is not really a clear path. So nurture and mentor this industry in this profession, but before anything is make sure that my own children grew up to be good human beings, global citizens. Good people. That's the only legacy you'll leave.
And while we've done well financially and all of that stuff, I'm the first one to tell you that a shroud doesn't have any pockets. You can't take anything with, you can't take anything with you. The only thing you leave behind, especially when it pertains to your children, is the memories they have, not the stuff you bought them.
So I want to just make sure that I am the best father that I can be and hopefully the best grandfather one can.
Erica Mattison: Thank you so much for your time.
Kashif Ahmed: Appreciate it.
Thanks for having me on. I enjoyed it.
Erica Mattison: You've been listening to Conversations with Erica. I'm your host, Erica Mattison. If this episode inspired you to explore career or leadership growth, visit ericamattison.com and let's get started.
