The following in an excerpt from the November 10th JULY Team Connect Newsletter, written by JULY’s CEO, John Humphrey.
Over the last 5 years, and especially this past year, the Texas / Americana / Folk country music scene has taken a hit with the deaths of iconic singer songwriters like Jerry Jeff Walker, Waco native Billy Joe Shaver, John Prine, and Guy Clark, among others.
Whether or not you like “country music”, I would encourage everyone to sample the music of some of these non-traditional, soulful artists. They were colorful characters, and their sound and lyrics combine wit, history, humor, sadness, joy, and anger to make interesting and engaging stories that are relatable to life’s ups and down.
A few of my favorites include :
“That Old Time Feeling – Guy Clark”
“Mr. Bojangles – Jerry Jeff Walker”
“She is My Everything – John Prine”
“Ragged Old Truck – Billy Joe Shaver”.
And why am I writing about the Americana music scene in Team Connect? Well … I recently came across a song called “The Cape” by Guy Clark which struck me in both a personal and professional way. It starts out about a confident child with his “cape” and tells the story about him climbing on his garage thinking he could jump and fly. The song follows the unnamed character through adulthood and old age …
“Well, he’s one of those who knows that life is just a leap of faith. Spread your arms and hold your breath and always trust your cape”.
“He did not know he couldn’t fly and so he did.”
Personally, this song made me hope that my children and grandchildren will always trust their cape. And at JULY – we have a lot happening, and we face challenges, large technology projects, competitors, fee pressure, and an ever-changing industry that is complex and difficult. One thing we should never face is our own doubts. We have a tremendous team of people at JULY with expert-level knowledge and strong talent, and I am very proud of each of you.
We are working in an industry with a noble purpose – to help people achieve financial freedom – and our clients and participants need us to give our expertise, talents, and our best selves every day. As we move forward with growth, innovation and our company’s mission, I want to challenge each of us to have confidence in ourselves and in one another and let’s always remember to trust our cape.
About JULY:
JULY is a 401(k) services company specializing in hi-touch, tech-enabled retirement plan services. Our employees have served as plan experts to advisory firms, advisors, and employers in the small and micro 401(k) plan market for over 25 years. Over the last decade, our in-house software development team has built a host of proprietary technology solutions to streamline, automate, and simplify all facets of retirement planning to make processes rewarding and easy for our clients. For more information about JULY, visit our website https://www.julyservices.com.
