Rusty Guinn Is An Intentional Investor

In an alternate universe, Rusty Guinn becomes a Christian rock star. Or a video game music composer. Or, any scenario where he misses finance completely so that he could never become a… home schooling parent / GPT-enabled apple farmer / professional asset allocator / multi-instrumentalist / all the other things he is today.

I’ve been thinking about this Eels quote a lot again lately, “Life is funny, but not haha funny / peculiar, I guess.”

I’ve been thinking about the attentional awareness required to see the essence of a thing (the “soul” of a thing, borrowing from Daniel Crosby).

I’ve been thinking about how choices, pursuits (borrowing from Justin Castelli), and phases of life stack.

Rusty Guinn’s Intentional Investor could have been 6 hours and we still wouldn’t have covered half of it.

Talking to Rusty is funny and sometimes, but not always, haha funny. It’s often peculiar. It’s full of blind guesses and lots of follow-up questions.

He took me back to his grandparents and their ambitions - for not just their kids, but their grandkids’ lives.

How their Texan, local heavy industry driven career paths were hopefully intended to get a future generation closer to pursuing the arts.

How the ethic of following what you’re interested in, in at least a semi-practical way, with enough smarts to not quit when it gets hard - got imprinted on his parents, and eventually onto him.

How it showed up in his music. In picking where to go to college and later live. Lots of later’s and where’s to live by the way. Lots of instruments too. Lots of how it all follows today into how Rusty and his wife are raising their kids with an eye on their futures.

Yes, the stories about money and career are in here, but the big thread is relationships.

Rusty explains all of his relationships in terms of agency. Listen for it. Agency is an almost romantic calling to him. The freedom to choose. The notion each person’s callings are unique to them, and every life possesses this voice if you’re wiling to listen for it.

When agency goes wrong, it’s alienating. An identity can push you out. It can make you feel alone or disconnected.

But when agency goes well, it’s artistry. It binds you to the others. To your others. It connects you. It creates, with intention, the gifts (and investments) that keep on giving.

We never do it alone. Despite how it may feel at times. So how can we co-invest in a collective future, together, with agency intact?

Listen to The Intentional Investor: Rusty Guinn, on the Epsilon Theory YouTube channel.