Steve's Story

Steve manages portfolios for corporate pension fund managers. He is a Stanford MBA, one of the top people in his profession. He thought he "knew it all."

However, over the last few years he has lost some large accounts to "pension consultants," who are telling Steve's clients that his portfolio (typically generating a 15% return for his clients over a ten-year period, on average) is too risky for corporate pension funds.

After the pension consultants had talked his third big client into leaving, he knew that he had to make some changes. But what?

A friend had sent him a copy of Rivers of Revenue. Because of his recent loss, the subhead—"What to do when the money stops flowing"—got his attention.

As he opened the book and started reading the fable, he was thinking, "Nice story—but what does it have to do with me?" When he got to the part where Jack Riverside crosses his arms and says he isn't leaving the dried-up river, it hit him. I'm Jack Riverside!

Suddenly he realized that his own anger at the pension consultants had blinded him to new opportunities. He understood, on a deep and powerful level, the entire concept of "rivers of revenue" being all around him. He realized it was his own perspective that had been keeping him from seeing these new rivers of revenue. This was a major turning point for him, something he tells people when he talks about the book.

Now Steve knew what he had to do: start treating those consultants as potential sources of revenue—as allies, instead of enemies.

He got on the phone and interviewed them, using the methods described in the book. As he listened to them describe their own situation, he saw how he could help them. He realized that if he changed some aspects of his pricing, products, and positioning, he could "fit" into the risk/return "grid" that the pension consultants were pitching to pension fund managers.

The pension consultants loved his new approach. The very people Steve had viewed as "the enemy" are Steve's new sales force, selling his repositioned services to their clients.

But that was just the beginning.

"Once the book opened my eyes, I started seeing all kinds of opportunities," Steve says. "My next realization had to do with deferred compensation plans. Workers all over the country have them. Usually the money is put into mutual funds. But mutual fund companies are difficult to deal with. They act like the companies described in Rivers of Revenue—hiding behind voicemail systems and giving their customers headaches.

"I remembered that there are deferred compensation plans that allow their customers to invest in 'SMAs'--'separately managed accounts.' So I called the companies that offer deferred comp plans to see if I could get in. We are now the first SMA to be accepted in the deferred comp world. This is HUGE."

Steve quickly secured new business with the city and county employees in his metropolitan area, and all of the employees of a global shipping company.

Steve has now completely replaced the income lost due to pension consultants, only a few months after reading the book.

"It's beautiful," Steve says.