Three Questions For...Jon Hirtle

1. Hirtle & Co. emphasizes personal relationships. What do you hope people feel when they walk through our doors?

First of all, I'd like to recommend they do just that. Visit us! We are your investment office. Come see us in person. Get the feel of who we are and how we are working every day to wield our collective power and capability in the marketplace on your behalf. Second, I want families to sense how well we know them and care about their success. Our first cultural pillar is "Make it personal." Our work is not abstract. It's real work that affects each family, and their future, personally. The third lasting impression that I'd want each visitor to come away with is a sense of permanence, that they can count on us to be there. We have been in business for thirty-eight years. For the last ten years, we have poured time and money into planning for continuity by analyzing and articulating the culture that has permitted us to lead families to success in the past. We will be that same firm for decades to come.

So, there you go. I want each client who comes through our doors to know how hard we are working to be great at what we do. I want them to know that we care about them personally, and that we will always be there.

2. There is a sign in your office that says, "Good enough isn't." Where does that drive come from, and do you worry we are losing it as a society?

Drive is sometimes innate, but I have also been part of communities that reinforced drive. The Marine Corps. Goldman Sachs when it was still a small personal partnership. I received plenty of tough love from true mentors who settled for nothing less than my absolute best. One can become accustomed, even hooked, on the thrill of delivering at a high level.

Do I worry we are losing it as a society? I do think fewer people today have been pushed hard, held accountable and shown what excellence looks like. That matters. Not just in business. When things get hard, you fall back on what made you. If you have never been truly challenged, you have less to fall back on. General Eric Shinseki said, "If you don't like change, you are going to like irrelevance even less." The world does not slow down for people who have decided good enough is good enough. I never want to be that person, and I never want HC to be that firm.

In her book Grit, The Power of Passion and Perseverance, Angela Duckworth documents that true accomplishment most often comes from decades of compound, ever more enlightened effort. Like compound interest, getting better every day and embracing, "Good enough isn't" - year in, year out - can lead to great things over time. Today, we are a far stronger firm than we have ever been. Far more talent, far more purchasing power and far more reach, hence far more capability with an articulated professional culture that we live every day. Tomorrow, I expect us to be even better.

3. You are known among friends and colleagues for your deep interest in and knowledge of American history. What draws you to it?

There is a tremendously practical reason for us to study history. As professional investors, we are in the decision-making business. Every day. That requires sound judgment, even wisdom. Proverbs tells us, "Wisdom is the thing; and with all thy getting, get understanding." People with greater experience are generally thought to have better judgment. By studying history, we can learn from the experience of others as well as our own. Consequently, I believe we learn to make better decisions.

Beyond that, I just love stories. If you ask your grandparents how they met, you are likely to hear a great story - that's history. Then of course, one story leads to another.

As Americans, we are part of the greatest experiment and the most impactful nation in history. We are the natural successors, the beneficiaries, of the march of Western Civilization, traveling, roughly speaking, from the Fertile Crescent to the Ten Commandments, to the Athenian democracy, the Roman Republic, the Magna Carta, to our Declaration of Independence. Each one building on the one before. Our American Revolution may be the most significant event in human history. We changed the world, and it is still changing. Prior to The Revolution, people all over the world were subjects; after The Revolution, they became citizens. It's not always easy to be a citizen, but I'll take it.

Alongside the march of Western Civilization was the development of individual freedom, personal empowerment and eventually democratic capitalism, the most powerful economic engine in the history of the world. Nothing else has even come close. It provides opportunities for individual success that have not existed anywhere else. Many of our families are only-in-America stories - people who built something from nothing through optimism, hard work and a belief in free enterprise.

The 250th anniversary of our nation matters for exactly this reason: it is a moment to pause and understand what we inherited and what we are responsible for passing on. I am the rising board chair at the Museum of the American Revolution. I often think about figures like Washington, Lincoln, Eisenhower, King, Reagan ― people whose values were developed through hard times, and those values meant more to them than anything. Our Founders pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. How humbling is that!

President John F. Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." Every morning, when I look in the mirror, I ask myself whether I'm satisfied with what I've done for my country. So far, the answer is - not yet.