Eben Burr Is An Intentional Investor 

When you meet Eben Burr today, you meet him as the President of a New York City-based Behavioral Finance organization, with all these articulate stats and points, and you think - surely, this is the way it’s always been, he was born into this, and his life must have been a pretty straight path to land so neatly on this particular spot.

There are no accidents here, there can’t be. People like this have planned to end up in these positions. Eben Burr must have known a version of this future and understood, probably for his entire life, not just what he was steering towards down the road, but what he was speeding towards, all so he could be here today.

But then he talks about growing up in the D.C. punk scene. 

About being fascinated by the city itself, full of non-industrial workers, and the eclectic mix of kids he grew up with. 

About it being the governmental capital and the murder capital of the country at the same time.

About getting dropped off at “hardcore matinees” in sketchy corners of the city.

About hot summers, and about sneaking into the government buildings where they had air conditioning.

About how, years later as he was finishing college, when the tragic murder of his sister made him know he had to leave. How he picked Korea as far enough away to get. About how he left, for Korea, and never got back on the plane in France.

About how he ended up in Paris getting an architecture degree. 

About the time he was a male model for a brief period, touring the runways of the world. 

About how the end of his modeling career landed him in New York City, searching for intellectual stimulation.  

About the jobs he started with, that landed him in shared workspaces until somebody in flip-flops offered him a job in a quirky corner of the finance industry. 

About how a money manager got him thinking more broadly about behavioral psychology. 

And it just keeps going like this.

And then this, and then that.

And you realize just how much none of this is a remotely straight line. 

It’s like when you try to draw a perfect circle by hand you realize the joke is on you, because it’s impossible, and you should just admit it and have a laugh.  

That’s life. 

I’m realizing it now, 11 episodes in - 

The Intentional Investor is about just how unintentional, by design, real life really is. 

The Intentional Investor is also about how intentional, by design, our choices at each step are. Less a sort of architecture, more a sort of life architecting.

And Eben helped me to see it this way.

Intentionality in investing - in careers, intellectual pursuits, relationships, money, and across generations - it isn’t just about rolling snowballs down paths, it’s about building shapes and forts and stuff that is knowingly-meltable, but perfectly functional in uniquely present ways.

For ourselves, our families, and our communities. 

The key is that we architect these knowingly meltable creations for sake of creating memories and experiences and stories with others. With our others. For now and later.

Eben Burr has a ton to share about all of this. 

Watch now, on the Epsilon Theory YouTube channel, and give Eben a call to tell him what you think (seriously, he shares his phone number - he’s asking for it, don’t let him down).

h/t to Daniel Crosby for introducing me to Eben some time ago, be sure to watch Daniel’s Intentional Investor if you missed it. And, extra thanks to Eben to sharing these stories with us, he really ought to be interviewed more often, he’s a fascinating guy!