I have a secret I want to tell you. It’s not necessarily something I’m ashamed of, though I’m definitely not shouting it from the rooftops.

And it’s got everything to do with today’s message.

I secretly really like The Voice.

You know The Voice, right? The television show where people come on and sing and the judge can’t see you until they decide to pick you?

Well, the way the show works is each judge gets to pick 12 people on their team. When the teams are full the selection rounds end.

I’d always thought to myself when the last selection was made “what ever happened to the person that was supposed to be up next?”

And this season that question became unquestionably relevant.

You see, the eventual winner of the show was Chris Blue – he was on Alicia Keys’ team.

What makes his victory interesting to me was that he was the LAST PERSON picked to be on a team.

Everyone else’s team was full. Alicia had one spot. She picked Chris Blue and they moved on to the next round.

I started thinking “what if he was one person later? What if Alicia had made one more choice before him?”

And then it dawned on me – there wasn’t any luck or fate about it.

See, I’d watched the show the entire season, and, while I actually don’t watch much of the singing, what I do watch are all of the background pieces.

I am fascinated with the journey people take to get to where they are.

The drive.

The perseverance.

The determination.

The preparation.

Taking the fate of your life into your own hands.

If you take into account the journey of all of these people you see a common thread – they did the work when no one was looking.

They took action even when success was not certain.

They were playing a bigger game.

While I was thinking about this it dawned on me, “that’s why I love estate planning.”

The fact is, estate planning isn’t something you HAVE to do.

If you do nothing your life will still go on.

If something does happen to you, things will get worked out some how.

But, if you are working for something bigger estate planning is something you embrace.

You embrace the hard work and preparation.

You embrace knowing that success is not certain (i.e. the future is uncertain).

And you know that because of those things, not in spite of them, you are going to do whatever it takes to create a life of success for yourself and your family with your estate plan.

I don’t do what I do just to make sure you can avoid probate or hand your money down to your kids.

There is so much more to it than that, if you want it.

I’ll be talking more about this every week and letting you take a look behind the scenes at some of the fun stuff people are doing to secure their future now, build a legacy for the future, and create generational wealth.

And, they are doing all of this without breaking the bank (and in many cases actually coming out of the other side with MORE money).

I hope you have a great week.

Sincerely,

Christopher Small
CMS Law Firm LLC