Change is created by setting the standards, not following them.
This is something I think about when designing all aspects of our firm, from client-facing procedures to the wording on our website to employee reviews and Monday meetings. With every new situation, I ask myself: How are things typically done on Wall Street? Do we care? Or will it serve us and our clients much better to do this completely differently?
Much more often than not, it is the latter case. What is typically done on Wall Street and what we want to do at LexION Capital lie in two different universes. We actually want to turn this industry on its head. We believe in building a female-friendly Wall Street that is inclusive for all, and that is not going to happen by following the long-entrenched rubric of traditional Wall Street’s old boys’ club ways.
By the same token, we also believe that through better, more transparent, more ethical asset management, we can change America’s expectations of Wall Street. I ultimately want all Americans to be able to access fiduciary wealth management services, and I want people to know to look for fiduciary wealth managers. I want people to demand and expect that standard of care. So, a large part of my own mission is to demystify the markets and the finance industry so that people can feel more comfortable, more confident, and more empowered to take charge of their financial lives.
We are overthrowing a 200-year-old financial dinosaur. We won’t achieve our goal overnight, but change is happening quickly, every single day. Major progress is built upon countless smaller victories. Creating change begins with vowing to do things differently and raising the standards day by day.
