For years, I've been connecting with interesting people and documenting insights that might help my clients and myself. What was once private is now (mostly) public.

People often ask: "How do you know all these people?" and "How do you connect these (re: random) ideas?" The answer is simple: consistent relationship cultivation and thoughtful note taking. My north star is trusting my instincts, my maps are the constellations in these reflections.

This approach to multidisciplinary networking has helped dozens of clients, colleagues, and friends strengthen their networks and unlock new opportunities. Feel free to steal these ideas directly - that's what they're for! I can't promise you'll learn FROM me, but I guarantee you can learn something WITH me. Let's go. Count it off: 1-2-3-4!

Do you know Taylor Schulte? CFP®, founder of Define Financial, host of the Stay Wealthy Retirement Show, and co-founder of The AGC, a private community for financial advisors.

If not, allow me to introduce you. Taylor specializes in retirement and tax planning for people over 50, manages close to $400 million for about 130 families across 40 states, and thinks about the intersection of money and meaning in ways that most financial advisors never will.

I wanted to connect with Taylor because he embodies something I value deeply: the willingness to walk away from the prestigious path when it stops serving the people you actually care about - and the discipline to build something better in its place.

Our conversation is LIVE now on the Epsilon Theory YouTube channel. Listen and you'll hear the full story - from skateboarding and punk rock, to Morgan Stanley and compliance red markers, to the three-year legal battle over a house that nearly broke him, to building a firm that actually puts clients first, and the grandfathers who cast long shadows on everything he does.

In the meantime, I wanted to pull THREE KEY LESSONS from my time with Taylor to share with you (and drop into my Personal Archive).

Read on and you'll find a quote with a lesson and a reflection you can Take to work with you, Bring home with you, and Leave behind with your legacy.

Key Concept: Taylor's competitive nature isn't about winning against others - it's about the incremental pursuit of mastery in domains where mastery is impossible. Golf becomes the perfect metaphor because the game never yields; you just get slightly better. The insight applies across skateboarding, business, and life: the real work is loving the grind itself, not the destination. Stagnancy is his signal that it's time to get uncomfortable and learn something new.

Personal Archive Note-To-Self: I get bored so easily of things. Not because things are inherently boring - it’s kind of the opposite. I am insanely curious about all sorts of stupidity, but because there’s another thing, just out of focus, that I have to investigate. It’s an internal battle and it’s at the core of my competitiveness, much like Taylor’s here.

It’s an obsessive compulsive curiosity thing. Where monotony with nothing new is the enemy. But if you keep exploring and finding new details, it never gets monotonous, and whole new worlds regularly open up to you.

On face value, I used to worry a job like business or finance would be dreadful. Who could care about stuff like that all day? But the richness in the nuance, that’s what got it’s hooks in me, and by the sound of it, Taylor, too. No day is ever quite the same, even if some lessons rhyme. If you add in a desire to get better, you really never do step in the same proverbial river twice.

Work question for you: What's something you've been grinding on lately that you know you'll never fully master - and how is that actually fueling you?

Key Concept: Tony's acceptance of Taylor wasn't just emotional support - it was access. One person believing in you, including you, making space for you among people who matter, creates a kind of social currency that changes everything. Taylor went from invisible to invited. The principle isn't about popularity or being cool; it's about understanding that proximity to confidence is transformative. You don't need to be the cool one. You just need someone to vouch for you.

Personal Archive Note-To-Self: Social capital, the people we knew and the company we keep, has the added benefit of status. This is why cool friends are coveted. It’s also why we have to earn our way in to most social settings.

Yes there are the celebrity galas and events where money is both the motivating and determining factor. But in the rest of life it’s the friends we either make or fall into, without initial expectations, where any continued investment starts to payoff as time speeds on. Taylor was ready for somebody like Tony in his life. And he didn’t push him away or alienate the opportunity. He let it be and it altered the course of his life.

Social capital sounds like a big daunting investment idea. It’s really just the idea of having a definition of good in your mind and then keeping the good people you find around you.

Life question for you: Who has made you feel like you belonged when you didn't believe you did? And who are you doing that for now?

Key Concept: Taylor's grandfather landed in Pasadena with precision skills and no plan. Serendipity introduced him to an inventor. Together, they built something that saves lives - and then, when it was time to leave, he gave most of the wealth away. The legacy here isn't the money or even the invention; it's the decision to build something that mattered more than keeping everything he earned. That choice casts a long shadow on how Taylor thinks about his own work and what endures.

Personal Archive Note-To-Self: Sometimes you never get the answer. Sometimes you get to solve it, or reverse engineer it, or even come up with a strong case for an educated guess. But, alas, there’s still a lot of life that comes down to the simple admission of, “I don’t know.”

His grandfather’s choice - to give it all (or most of it) away - that’s not why Taylor became an advisor who thinks so deeply about wealth transfer. But, it definitely opened him up to understanding why people make the choices they do. Not everyone has a fully reasoned decision tree, or at least not everyone shares it. Sometimes people just decide and you have to respect not knowing why.

The reality is the lack of a major financial gift probably shaped his life in some way that’s helped get him to where he is today. It’s the thing he didn’t do, the watchmaker of all people, that helped life play out the way that it did. We can be confused all we want but at some point we have to move ourselves forward with the situation we have some small amount of control over.

You don’t have to be grateful if you got everything OR if you got nothing. You have a shot to do something. And that goes for yourself AND for others. That’s all that counts. Taylor lives this - you can see it in the legacy of both his grandparents and what people like Tony taught him by their actions, no matter how mysterious.

Legacy question for you: What are you building that will outlast your need for it? What would you give away?

You have a Personal Network and a Personal Archive just waiting for you to build them up stronger. Look at your work, look at your life, and look at your legacy - and then, start small in each category. Today it's one person and one reflection. Tomorrow? Who knows what connections you'll create.

Don't forget to click reply/click here and tell me who you're adding to your network and why! Plus, if you already have your own Personal Archive too, let me know, I'm creating a database.

Want more? Find my Personal Archive on CultishCreative.com, watch me build a better Personal Network on the Cultish Creative YouTube channel, and listen to Just Press Record on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, and follow me on social media (LinkedIn and X) - now distributed by Epsilon Theory.

You can also check out my work as Managing Director at Sunpointe, as a host on top investment YouTube channel Excess Returns, and as Senior Editor at Perscient.

ps. AI helped me pull and organize quotes from the transcript, structure the three lessons, and sharpen the Key Concepts. If you're curious about how I use AI while keeping editorial control and my own voice intact, I wrote about my personal rules here: Did AI Do That: Personal Rules