Intangible Balance Sheet Episode 13: Marshall Sykes

Welcome to this week's Intangible Balance Sheet! Marshall Sykes joins me to share his experiences coming from a career in the United States Navy Civil Engineer Corps as well as Corporate America. His story is a gift and his vision for the future equally as encouraging. 

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JOSH KLOOZ, CFP®, MBA
WEALTH ADVISOR

Phone 281.719.0036
Text 281.699.8691
Fax 281.719.0156
jklooz@carsonwealth.com

1780 Hughes Landing | Suite 570
The Woodlands, TX 77380

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Transcript

Joshua Klooz  0:01  
Most people are aware of their own financial balance sheet. As soon as we buy our first car or house, we become aware of it. If you're of a certain personality type, you may track it quite a bit. But I'd submit to you that we're also unconsciously aware of another balance sheet. And this one is sometimes tricky to measure and even harder to manage. Sometimes we often find it hard to put into words, but it's real nonetheless. I call this our intangible balance sheet. What I mean by this are those life principles, experiences, memories and stories that given any amount of money, we wouldn't drain. They're the memories that bring tears of joy to our faces, because we simply can't imagine life without them. We feel fortunate to have had them. It could be our first jobs, proposals, wedding days, burrs, struggles, anxieties, or fears, and maybe even some hindsight. It's all those things that melt into a memory that bring a distance stare to our face, and maybe even a smile.

We feel lucky to have had them because they're what has made us us. So that's what I'm talking about when I talk about the intangible balance sheet. It's those moments in life that may be financially irrational, but which are indispensable parts of who we are. So, these episodes are focused on the stories that bring us joy, happiness, fulfillment, and ultimately may hold unnecessary keys that will direct the future for our family, friends, and maybe even neighbors. So listen in with us as we discover some of those stories that are meaningful to our guests. And maybe you'll even uncover hidden value on your own intangible balance sheet.

Welcome in again to the wisdom and wealth Podcast. I'm Josh Klooz, the senior wealth planner for Carson wealth here in The Woodlands Texas. In this is an intangible balance sheet episode with Marshall Sykes. I'm so excited and honored that Marshall joined us as our guest. But Marshall, welcome to the podcast and we're excited to dive in. Thanks, Josh, for having me. I really appreciate the time today. And again, the pleasure is ours. And

as always, to kind of set the table the design of these conversations. Our Our hope is that there'll be like the first chapter or the preface to your autobiography, you know, in a way

Marshall Sykes  2:56  
You're trying to encourage me to write my autobiography. That's, that's pretty cool. I think you can probably learn a lot on my own from my own self. I'll probably learn by writing it as well as people who read it actually.

Yeah, my upbringing. My dad was, was in the army. I grew up in kind of the first few, eight years or so it was part of the, I guess, in the army army bases. He retired when I was young, but he had so I have seven brothers and sisters. So it was a big team. We actually retired in North Carolina where I went through my school school years.

And then I went to NC State as an engineer. Was he stationed at Bragg. You know, I don't think he was stationed at Bragg maybe one time. But we did. We did grow up in Bragg and it's in Pinehurst, Southern pines, North Carolina. So on the the containment side of Bragg, if you will, not on the well, not on the main part of the where the where all the facilities are. It's more on the training area, I guess.

But we went to break quite often when I was young, to go to the commissary to exchange that type of thing, doctors, all that. But after, after graduating high school, I went to engineering school at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. And it was studied in a majored in materials engineering. It was difficult to kind of find jobs at that point, because mid 80s. And so I actually stayed and got a master's degree, which was a blessing in disguise, because my best friend from from school from high school was actually at NC State at that point, so we got to spend some really fun years together. And it was, it was a lot of fun. Looking back on I think, you know, it was that we had plenty of time, but now I haven't seen it. I mean, we don't see each other as much now as we did. But back then, of course, he lives in July.

I've lived all over the world. And now it's now it's just not, you know, stay in touch as much. But anyway, so it was really a blessing in disguise to do that, after, after I got my master's degree, I went into the Navy.

I was in a Civil Engineer Corps, where basically we built and maintained the military, the facilities on a military base. So we do all the planning, design and construction,

I've really enjoyed it, I thought I would just go in the Navy for four years and and really just get some experience and then get a job out of the Navy, but I loved it so much, it was very challenging. And I grew a lot I it challenged me everyday to be my best. And so I really enjoyed it and just continued to stay in the Navy for 25 years. That took us all around the US, of course, but also around the world as well. So I got to see a lot of things, it kind of brought out my adventure, adventure, some

aspects of my life, and I really, I really miss being loved being on an adventure, I always want to be on an adventure. So

we used to say when we left one, based in Gaza, the next duty station was it's time for a new adventure. So it was a lot of fun.

Joshua Klooz  6:27  
So I was in a lot of different parts of the US learned a lot about the US, you know, you grew up in one area, you don't you think you know what other people are like, or other states are like, and you know, when you go in the military, and you're exposed to everybody from every state, or let's just say, you really learn a lot about the different cultures and it breaks down the walls on cultures. Really? Yeah, we used to joke that there would be if somebody I was in the military as well, after college, and we always used to joke if somebody was picking on somebody that was in your group, like, you know, go find your own idiot, you know, it's like, Hey, he's mine, you know.

And it was all in good fun. But the point being like, you know, there were odd types, there were good types. It was just a very familial environment. So I'm curious.

Growing up in that type of environment, what what what did your dad do in the in the army? And what do you remember is kind of the formative?

Marshall Sykes  7:34  
What were some of those formative beliefs that that were instilled in you by your parents? That you can make? Right Good point. My dad was actually he was enlisted in the Army. He had some different broken service. So he was in the he went in at the end of World War Two interesting, interesting time. And then World War Two, he was like, 15. And he lied and said, Hey, I want to be I'm 18. I think then, after about six weeks, and they were like, now, it's time. So he kind of confessed. And I guess he got out at that point. But he went back in for the Korean War, actually, when he was 19 or 18. And then he went back in.

He was in the Korean War, and the Incheon invasion actually very interesting, because he was an Army and assigned with the Marines, I guess, to do the Inchon invasion.

And then he got out after that, finished his high school degree, and then started at school. But then they had a couple of kids at that point, my wife, my mom and him had couple kids. And so he went back in the army at that point. And then

he was he was an admin. He was in infantry. At times, he was an intelligence, I think he really enjoyed the intelligence base. He did very well with that.

But then he retired after his 20 is 21 years or so he retired.

We were we lived in different states at the time, mostly even south but we were actually in New Mexico part of the time, that's where I was born.

you know, we I wasn't charged want to walk in the door of a construction office, I was in charge of, you know, five big construction projects that I had to deal with contractors who were probably 55 years old running the run in those projects, and I'm, here I am in my mid 20s. running those projects, and, you know, you have to

Joshua Klooz  2:27  
is we talked about in the greenroom, I am one of these crazy people that believes everybody's got you know, an autobiography in them. If it's interesting to no one else other than your immediate family, then then it was worth it. And typically it is right and so to I find it's helpful when we have these conversations to dive in, share a little bit about your upbringing and and where you come from, and you know who you are, essentially.

Marshall Sykes  9:03  
So exposed a little bit. But the big thing I think, for those formative years for me learning was, and I didn't even understand it at the time, but you're one of eight kids, and you do a lot together. And I was number seven of eight. So I was one of the younger ones. And you realize that when you start teaching us team building in the military, I'm like, this is pretty normal. Because we had to grow up. We were in a team. I mean, I grew up in a team the whole time. So it was something that came very comes very natural to me collaboration, team building. All that is is just natural to me.

Joshua Klooz  9:47  
Yeah. I remember my dad always telling me to think ahead. Right. And I remember the first time it finally clicked in the military that that was Very highly valued. And encouraged, if not expected. And so to your point, like there's there's certain things that you don't you look back on and you're like, oh, gosh, like that. That makes 100% sense. Where do you call home? Like when you when you think of, you know, home growing up? What's the what's the area that you think of the most? Is it? Is it North Carolina?

Unknown Speaker  10:26  
Yeah. North Carolina. Yeah. Because my dad retired, I probably was eight at the time. And right before that he actually went to Vietnam, he did two different tours in Vietnam, when he was in Vietnam, we went back for some reason, back then the policy was, if you're in Vietnam, your family can't stay on the military base, they have to go somewhere else. It was kind of weird policy, but you would think it'd be the opposite of that. But we would, we would move back to North Carolina. So I actually went to start a school. I mean, I went to with same grades one through 12, with the same people, believe it or not, but we had, we started, I started in Texas, but we came in North Carolina when I was in first grade, then we left and second grade, went to South Carolina, and then came back here. So in third grade, so we actually I actually stayed with the same people throughout my whole years. But so North Carolina is where I consider home.

Joshua Klooz  11:25  
from a work perspective, I don't know if you're familiar with Arthur Brooks, but he talks in at length about the idea of urn success. And what he means by that terminology is that essentially, it's the first memory that you have of your being dependent upon, you have responsibility. And you kind of have ownership of success or failure. And it's really your first your first memory of work. But it's the it's the meaning that we construe on it or derive from it. That's most important. Do you have any memories about that, similar to that, or that correlate to that growing up?

Marshall Sykes  12:05  
Yeah, I mean, we are not dead when I don't know, I'll probably wasn't even a teenager at the time. But we, he got out and just and built houses is what he did when he got out of the army. But at some point, he bought 100 acres. And we build a house on that. But before we built the house, we actually kind of worked on the land, like we planted 1000 pine trees, I remember doing that. He just bought these little seedlings, and we we went out and planted them when one or two Saturdays my whole family did. So you'll learn how to one person would dig the hole, one person would plan it and another person probably behind me might might actually put the dirt back on it or something like that. It was something of that nature. And we had we had all throughout our on Saturdays, we always work together as a team. So that yeah, learning that at a young age is very important. And you're learning the you're we're learning what hard work is, but also what staying on task is and getting people to help you when you can't do something. That kind of thing. Now, when out since I was one of the younger ones, and when I got somebody to help me. I didn't know, I didn't always participate sometimes that led them to do they would get on to me about that. So that's another thing you got to learn, I guess is, is staying with the task. When somebody else else is helping you, you still have to kind of keep your pulse on it. You know,

Joshua Klooz  13:45  
I can't imagine being one of the older siblings, and then the expectation of keeping that many siblings actively and productively engaged from your your parents. That'd be some stress that I don't understand, you know, couldn't couldn't quite understand those expectations. Because I grew up in a family of five but I was similar to you. Yeah. Second to youngest. So. Yeah, keeping everybody moving would have been a challenge. I imagine.

Marshall Sykes  14:12  
I imagine. So I mean, I guess the first Born's are kind of a lot of times they're born with that nature, you know, being in the second you know, that helped to the parents, you know, type thing. Yeah, absolutely. That work that helped me out when I when I was 14, I started working on a golf course. Like one summer I work for the golf course and they helped me just a lot of a lot of what I did was independent I mean they put me out in an area and I worked on the course by myself and and they didn't have to watch over me or they didn't have people to watch over me a lot but I got the work done and they were they were surprised how fast I got the work done honestly, because you're you'll learn that work of your when you're younger.

Joshua Klooz  14:56  
Yeah. Did you like work growing up? What was your Did you? Is there a moment where you're like, where you that entrepreneurial spirit kind of kicked in? Or what what was your was it just kind of a means to an end or what was expected?

Marshall Sykes  15:10  
It was more amazed than expected. I like to play. I didn't like work, I was all about playing. Got it.

Joshua Klooz  15:19  
Got it. So fast forward, you're in the Navy. Tell us more about those early years, are there any memories that stick out to you, whether it be successes, or whether it be failures, or difficulties.

Marshall Sykes  15:34  
Um, I think early on, you know, when you're in the military early on, you're tested pretty, pretty strongly, you're given a lot of responsibility, particularly as an officer, but you,

you grow up quick, I guess is one one way and plus you have to rely on their, you know, the honesty, you have to be honest with them, they have to, you have to see if they you know, you trust them or not, that's your best way you don't want to, I guess for me, I'm much more about open and openness and trusting and and I did that with my contractors, and it paid off for me, I didn't have to micromanage them, you manage them plenty. But you know, especially with federal contracts, but you didn't, I didn't have to micromanage them. We have an inspection system, we go through that, you're gonna catch things that they don't do. But, you know, for the most part, if you have a good relationship with them, you get the project on my own time and budget. And without safety issues. And that's what you're looking for.

Joshua Klooz  17:05  
You ever remember having to call attention to shortcomings at all that first time where you just like, shoot, this isn't gonna be a fun conversation?

Marshall Sykes  17:14  
Well, yeah, you know, one of the things that any kind of any good good construction outfit is going to teach people is about safety, right? Safety is going to be paramount. It's an expectation of level of what you have to do. It's a baseline thing. And so we learned about safety and different aspects of safety. And when you when you're learning safety, sometimes you can't apply until you get to your job. So I guess it's easier to apply this on the job site. And but I remember specifically about when you're working on, when you're digging ditches or digging into a manhole or whatever, you have to have the safety consideration. So the dirt doesn't fall in, it's on somebody, whether you slope it or whether you put up forms, you have to do that. And when I walked on a job site, they I saw a guy in there, you know, who's six feet down daygame and not knowing the safety apparatus that you need. And so I immediately stopped, stopped the job site and told the guy had to get out of there. And so we shut down the job site like that. I mean, that was it's hard to do that. But just the right call, you know, you have to you have to get their attention that that hey, this is not this could turn out to be a tragedy you could you could get killed easily, but by the dirt. Because you can't they can't breathe once that happens. It's hard to get them out real fast.

Joshua Klooz  18:48  
Yeah. Were there any NCOs or noncommissioned officers or senior noncommissioned officers that stand out to you? Early in your your development as a junior officer?

Marshall Sykes  18:58  
Definitely. So right after my first my first duty station where it was in a construction office, mostly with civilian contractors and the federal employees, actually not very many military. But then I went into a military unit Seabees which is construction battalions. Navy Seabees out in California, and my first assignment there was in Guam, we would we deployed to Guam. But yeah, the senior enlisted the chiefs in the Navy, they teach you all kinds of things. So they, they're very talented and very much an expert in what how to do things and how to get the most out of people as well as just the technical technical items that are doing construction in my case, but also just living and relating to people and giving people second chances and things like that. I mean There's not a perfect world out there. So you they teach you how to manage to go through and to make the best of your, of your unit for us unit, I guess.

Joshua Klooz  20:13  
Yeah. So you had decided early on or you thought early on, hey, I'm gonna stand for just a few years and then move on. Do you remember the the decision matrix at the time of like, Hey, I'm gonna stay put, like, I like this, when did that shift happen?

Marshall Sykes  20:30  
You know, I think it after my first six years, I, first of all I got, we got my wife and I got married. And then we went to Italy for three years and so that

Joshua Klooz  20:44  
I gotta back up, then, how'd you were, this is post post college and you're, you've been in the military a while

Marshall Sykes  20:50  
or I've been in military six years. Okay, station, California met my wife out there. We got married and basically went on a three year honeymoon to Italy. So at that point, you know, you're, you enjoy seeing the different part, I had already been to Guam, Scotland, David Garcia, which is out in the middle. And in ocean, it's not small island out there near the Seychelles. And

Joshua Klooz  21:16  
that was a hardship tour.

Marshall Sykes  21:19  
Well, you're out, you're out there for a long time. But it was a beautiful place, no doubt about it. But then we went to Italy and says, we were in Sicily, actually. And really enjoyed it, enjoy the adventures of all those places. And that part kind of spurred me on to stay. And plus, it's not just the adventure of where you're at, but the people are terrific. You're You're, you're growing every day exponentially on almost the sames. And you're you're, you're in charge of a lot of things. And so it's kind of invigorating for young person to do that. I that at that point, coming, coming back from Italy, I went to the Navy seminary grad school for another year. At that point, you're kinda like, you got 10 years in, it's been fun. I think we can do another 10 years. And, you know, that's kind of how the military is set up to do a 20 year career, at least, if you're going to stay in a career was that there are people that get out of 10 years, no doubt about it. I've seen people get out even at 15, which is kind of surprising, but there's unique circumstances.

Joshua Klooz  22:29  
Yeah. As you look back on your time in the military, is there a experience that you look back on is kind of the hard times or was challenging for you whether it was personally or whether it was just the problem set that was put in front of you?

Marshall Sykes  22:53  
I think sometimes it's, it's, you know, they're teach you like, I guess I was probably career focused in some ways in my mind to I wanted to do what they wanted me to do. No career was and but sometimes you get confused on whether when they give you an assignment that maybe you don't like, or don't think it's going to help your career. For example, coming out of grad school, they know you, they have you for a couple more years and so they'll send you where you want to where they want to and they sent me to Louisville, Kentucky to close down a base there. There's a Navy base there's like a it's kind of a weapons base or a lot of heat treatment and that kind of thing. There were several there were several maybe seven or so interior Navy bases that were built in World War Two that would they would build weapons or build not just weapons but things on that where the Japanese or German subs could not attack so they were interior in the country. But yes, you know, the Navy is really on the coast. They were closing these down. And so I got we got stationed in Louisville, Kentucky, you're out the you're the only person out you know, only military out there, you're you're closing the base. And so you lose that FaceTime with your senior officers. And so you kind of think well, is this the right career move or not? But you know, my wife and I both love Louisville, Kentucky, and it's a it's a terrific place to live and really didn't want to leave honestly. But we wanted to continue to the Navy careers same time.

Joshua Klooz  24:32  
Was that hard I'm assuming civilian similar civilian contractor type base and you're having to basically shut everything down and tell everybody they gotta go find new work right and my my drawn to broad

Marshall Sykes  24:44  
now That's correct. That's correct. So you're you're at that point when I got I guess that took over for another person who probably went through some of that but at that we're not to over your, your cleaning up in. Mostly we're focused on environmental Going up, okay, can be a big issue can be a very much of a trigger issue to the community, God and so we're turning over the military base to the community to the county government or the city government. And that, that can be a trigger. So you I would have meetings once a month with the community to talk about the environment, environmental cleanup that we're doing, and explain it. I think if you don't when you're honest with that kind of stuff, it's it's a little less explosive, if you will. It's not. Yeah, it's not as threatening, because I know that you're focused on getting it cleaned up and moving on.

Joshua Klooz  25:43  
As you look back at your time, what's something that stands out to you is really rewarding.

Marshall Sykes  25:53  
You know, the one thing I guess for me on you know, the day to day actions of doing things in the military kind of each person's role dunk correctly, and kind of add up with all the rest of the Navy, right, you kind of work as a team, or, you know, and so, one of the things I was, I wasn't station in Norfolk, Virginia, and I was mainly the facilities guy, and I'm running facilities for the, for the captain. And when the USS Cole got bombed, I think the Iranians hit it with a SLR ship. And so it, I think seeing but it caused some deaths, and some of the sailors had to come back. And being able to, we were the support base for that kind of thing. So being able to be there for that and do my job to help give the support that they needed in their families needed in that situation was, that's very rewarding. It really is. I'll give you another example though. I was in Camp Pendleton, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in California. And we were doing around $200 million in construction when I got there a year. And all of a sudden, with the it was the height of the Iraqi war. And so the Marine Corps was doing they were they needed more forces. So they were this program called Grow the force, where we're adding a lot of Marines to the base, as well as we were trying to upgrades on the facility. So, for example, mainland was barracks focused on the barracks, while we were doing a lot of things, but barracks was one of the big things that always challenge the general challenge me on to increase to really improve basically, a lot of the barracks that were some of the barracks at least, we're still from the 1950s they were built during the Korean War. So they were 50 Man on each side of a squad Bay, and they had three or four toilets and sinks in the bathroom for at least 50 people. And not only that, they had four electrical outlets for this 50 people. As you imagine that they have electronics now that's kind of problems. Um, so and they didn't have a lounge or anything like that. So I would take Congressionals through there. And we they, you know, we said show them what these guys were living in and then and you know, they might have had a ratty old couch outside on the in the open air as their lounge, you know, so you know that the money started flooding and basically we got a billion and a half dollars for new barracks. And we the first one when we built was in that camp that had all those Korean War barracks. And when we had the ribbon cutting the one of the secretaries in the Navy was their Undersecretary of Navy and and we had a big thing but seeing those Marines coming from one of the old raggedy barracks to the new barracks and how modern it was and had a lot of amenities. It was just very rewarding to see those folks see get something that they deserve to live in when they're not deployed into Iraq or Afghanistan all the time. So that was just that was very rewarding to be able to do that for them.

Joshua Klooz  29:38  
The for outlets piece I'm envisioning, I don't even want to know how many extension cords and whatever else was daisy chained into that that thing to create as many different charging stations I can only imagine

Marshall Sykes  29:53  
and all the fights they had on who's going to have it first or whatever. Yeah, to get their iPhone set up. Yeah.

Joshua Klooz  30:00  
That's, that's funny. So this is a little bit unique to, in this specific to you. Can you talk to us a little bit about your transition from the military? And I personally, it took me some time leaving the military trying to find that same sense of camaraderie or purpose for for lack of a better analogy. What was that like when you when you finally said, Hey, I'm it's time to retire? And I'm moving on? What was that whole process like for you?

Marshall Sykes  30:35  
Yeah, after, after my 2425 years of military, I decided to move on. And, you know, trying to figure out what you want to do next is can be challenging, you reach out to different people and get advice and all that. But there were some things I wanted to be, I guess, for me, I didn't really want to, I wanted to be in corporate America for some reason. And so when I had an opportunity to interview with ExxonMobil, I took that and, and took a job with them, which was very nice. It's very good company. But the camaraderie piece, and they hire a lot of military ex military, but the camaraderie piece is, was still when you it's not the same, it's not the same. People are working on different things that you might be next to them in their office, but they're not working on the same project, you're, or the same task, you know, that type of thing. So it was a little different, a little a little hard for me, especially the first year. So it was, it was a little slow in my mind. And you're you're trying to figure out what's going on, you're trying to figure out how to fit into corporate America, that type of thing. But when I got on the project, it was a little different. You have everybody's on the same team, you're doing a big project together. This is a little more exciting, that type of thing. So I got I got a chance to it was, I mean, you think I'd been around the world already with the Navy. Excellent. And I really got a chance to go around the world. I did for my I had, I was able to get to work in Nigeria for four months and see what's going on there. Gave me a little bit exposure there. I was a short term assignment. And then I got a new assignment up in Calgary, Canada. So it was kind of fun to see Calgary, Calgary, Calgary is a great town, city, and it was a big project we had going on up there. And then then I was able to move to the Middle East, I lived in Dubai, for a few years and work in Iraq. It's funny because out when the military never went to Iraq, but was ExxonMobil that's kind of kind of funny. It was it was a great place and enjoyed the Iraqis. It was it was a lot of fun to work there. And build, you know, help them build up their, their capabilities there. And there's some of their fulfills. So the just, but being on a project was was good with that with the camaraderie and it's not nearly the same as the missional as you're doing in the military. And I really haven't found that but I decided, you know, you don't have to find that it's not going to be the same as in the military but you can you still have good relationships with people and for me, I have relationships with people all around the world now. So it's a it was it was interesting for me.

Joshua Klooz  33:45  
I remember similar to what you it's funny so much what you're saying resonates and it's you miss it's the camaraderie but she miss so many people sharing the same purpose, right? You never doubt what your purpose and what your mission is, when you're in the military. And there's no that everyone's clear on that. Right? And so it's just it doesn't mean this right, wrong or different in outside of the military. It's just not the same and it's just difficult, right? It's it's it's comparing apples to oranges to try to find the same thing and, you know, immaturely, I would say on my part, I tried to find that same, that same sense, outside of the military, and it took me a while to finally figure that out, too. So anyway, it's it's, I guess, a little bit reassuring. I guess, maybe this is to hear some of that come from you as well.

Marshall Sykes  34:42  
Well, it's really true though me in the military and especially in the military unit you were, you want everyone to have the same understanding of what the mission is and even so even like the CEO is challenged to walk and talk to the some of the junior enlisted to say Hey, what is the mission and see if they have heard it correctly from, you know, to make sure everybody understands. Whereas in corporate America, there's a lot of intentional reasons, they don't tell everybody everything, too. And so particularly if we're, I don't know, there's some kind of maybe securities rules, I don't know, or, or laws, or there's something within the my case with oil and gas, you're working with a lot of foreign governments to do things. And a lot of people are not, you're, you have an international crew. So you, you don't always share the same culture, and you don't, they don't always share this, tell everybody really some of the things that are going on, you generally know what's going on with the project. But you know, you know, every little detail of

Joshua Klooz  35:54  
things. Absolutely. So what a transition a little bit to what Arthur Brooks calls the happiness portfolio, and it's the first time anybody's ever kind of laid this out in this way. But it, it dovetails with what we within the 10 intangible balance sheet context are trying to do and studies have shown that, you know, our happiness in life depends partly on genetics, partly upon like big life events. And then to a smaller degree, our habits. In the West, there are four ways in which we can affect those those habits, and they fall loosely within our faith, our family, our community, or our friendship, and then meaningful work. You know, how we create value and, you know, in which people depend on us? Or be curious for your perspective, within those those four quadrants? How do you maintain those four those four pieces of life? In your

Marshall Sykes  36:55  
hands? Yeah, I may have to go through those four projects, I know habits, so

Joshua Klooz  37:01  
faith, or your faith community, your family? And then you're kind of your friendship community, or your neighbor community? And then meaningful work. Yeah, and in what what the research shows is that anytime one of those are affected by a big life event, ie, you know, you leave the military or you retire, you know, that messes with the meaningful work piece, or you move, you know, that that affects that community piece. You know, or there's a death in the family. How do you how do you overcome those? And how do you keep those those four quadrants in, in their proper alignment?

Marshall Sykes  37:44  
Yeah, I think this is a good thing to think through. It's kind of what someone told me when I was coming out of the military. You got it, if you have your beliefs, and what your what's going to make you not make you happy. But generally what you want to do your if you have those things set, you'll be able to figure out what job is going to make be okay with you or not, and then you're going to be okay with that job. And I think that's for kind of what you're getting to at this point. So God Family and country, I'm a big believer in that. So my faith in God is something that's gonna be first in my life, and it's gonna help me with maintaining that balance of good habits and that affect my, you know, my faith in our faith, my family, my friends and my work. Because I feel like that's the big piece of the guidance and wisdom that I need in my life, to be to be centered on God for that.

And let him do all the hard work, and I'm just there for the ride in some ways, but and I think that you know, just that those, what having that belief system and that principles

help you when something upsets that that app your applecart, it helps you stay grounded, to realize there's gonna be another day there's gonna be another challenge. And that you you're going to be okay to get through and I think some of that is your experience. I mean, just getting through those a few times, you know, you learn that a, you gain some wisdom on every one of those. And so you can apply that wisdom into the next experience. And you're also learned that it's okay to to have bad days and it but it's, it's good if you can reach out to God Do your family or friends and talk through those things that help you be a better person the next day?

Joshua Klooz  40:06  
I think we've we've hit several these these points pretty well, but within the community and our friendship. You know, research shows that being male, we are prone to not be very good at this, especially the older we get. So, do you have any creative ways in which you've been able to stay in touch with past friends and still build on in your friend community? You know, even today, like Have you found any anything that you'd like to pass on? In that regard?

Marshall Sykes  40:44  
Well, I think, first of all, you have to, you have to build, it has to be intentional, if, unless you're working with somebody or seeing them on a daily basis. I think, man, you're right. It's easy not to stay in touch as much. I can see that right now my 18 year old who just went to college this year, and the communication, I mean, he's busy doing his things, right. But then we're letting him enjoy that. But he's also starting to not communicate and very much already. So you can see that early on with men. I think it's, you have to be intentional, you have to put it in your calendar sometimes. And for me, I try I tend to overthink this sometimes, instead of just calling somebody for one or two minutes and saying hi, I think Well, I had to schedule 30 minutes for this or something like that. And that's not the case, you if you can just do a little of it at an over time, it does make a difference. To stay in touch with people.

Joshua Klooz  41:44  
I actually like that because in my mind, I'll talk myself out of it sometimes, if if there's even a question. There's like, Well, I gotta have some more than that to call about.

Marshall Sykes  42:00  
But generally, guys, that's how guys talk. They don't really talk about the deep things unless you talk about the little things. They don't know. They want you to talk about the little things and sometimes they won't even share that deep things until you you get off alone or you're out doing some tat something else. That's when they share

Joshua Klooz  42:25  
the the clues men, if you really want to get to know them and talk to them, typically, you've got to be working on something. So that resonates. So is Marshall as you as you think about your family and you think about you know, even your your parents, what are those reoccurring life principles that you want to make sure get passed on to the next generation? Not necessarily because of how well they've served you, but because they're who you are?

Marshall Sykes  43:05  
Well, I think, you know, I look at I used to always just, it was remarkable to me to see my parents sacrifice their time and their energy for all the kids. And I think, you know, they really didn't have a lot of friends outside of our family. And they didn't, they didn't spend a lot of time doing other things. So they because they focused on the family and they had to because so many of us but but that sacrificial living was something that really marked me early on and realizing that you're not, it's not all about you. And it's about it's about other people or about the community or about that what God wants in your life. It's not about you. And those are the kinds of things that try to instill in people that yeah, you have to live your life and contribute. But what you give to others is going to be more important than what you get gift because you're going to get something out of that just by giving to others, you know. So that's part of it. I think the other part is not just chasing not just chasing success in life, but trying to live a life of significance where you've made an impact others it's easy to get caught up in the success game because you can you can for one thing you can see you can see that more tangibly then you can significance. But and I've gotten caught up in into it as well in the success game. And I realized, you know, I was realizing in my second career with Exxon that I was trying to make the next rank all the time. And that's just not how that works and necessarily in corporate America, and I realized I was chasing success, and I was not very happy with going to work every day it was, I did my job I worked, but it wasn't in a happy place for me, at least, I may not have come across that way with for others, I don't know. But I realized that something had to change. So I had that Heart to Heart conversation with with God and, and really thought through that over a few months, and maybe even years, but thought through it, and I realized, I guess success isn't from for me, let let God decide if it's going to be if I'm gonna be at the next level or whatever. I'm gonna go in and impact others. And be a great teammate, or colleague, and help others be a better, better version of themselves. And once I made that mindset change, it was a game changer for me. Oh, my goodness, every day was so much more refreshing, so much more fun. And I really enjoyed my job and my performance actually improved as well. So if people do you see that, I think you got to focus not on success, but on significance. So I want my kids to, to, and others to be able to do that as well. I want to pass that on to them.

Joshua Klooz  46:26  
That's awesome. resonates. It's so many levels. Marshall, thank you so much for your time today. This has been really encouraging. And I trust that it will for our audience, our audience as well. Thank you again, and we wish you and your family all the best.

Marshall Sykes  46:42  
Thanks, Josh, for having me. It's been a pleasure, a lot of fun.

Joshua Klooz  46:47  
Thank you again for joining us for this week's conversation. We trust that your time has left you both enriched and inspired to better invest your own intangible balance sheet. As always, we wish you and your family continued truth, beauty and goodness on the road ahead. The opinions voiced in the wisdom and wealth podcast are Joshua Klooz For general information purposes only, and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. investing involves risk including possible loss of principal. No strategy assures success or protects against loss. Guests are not affiliated with Carson Wealth Management LLC. To determine what may be appropriate for you. Please consult with your attorney, accountant, financial or tax advisor prior to investing. Investment Advisory services are offered through CWM LLC and SEC registered investment advisor. Alright, dress locally is 1780 US landing Boulevard Suite five Saturday for Woodlands, Texas 77380

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