Not that anyone will believe me, but I wrote the August newsletter long before the August issue of Upscale Magazine named me a Sexy Bachelor in a nationwide search.  At any rate, I'll humbly accept the complement and keep it moving. However, I do encourage you all to grab this month's issue which is filled with interesting articles.  With the whole sexy thing out of the way, let's get back to business.

A liquidity event is what every investor looks forward to.  It is the day that you cash out after weeks, months or even years of diligent effort towards an investment or business.  There is a lot of ground work involved including quantitative and fundamental analysis and of course meetings-lots of meetings.  The last several weeks I've noticed that my more important meetings have been dominated by some very intelligent and assertive women which put me in strategic thinking mode for the next decade.

We'll start with Mrs. Hilda McIntosh, Edith Tucci and Doris Carroll a.k.a. The Willoughby Sisters (maiden name).   This trio who happens to be the aunts that helped raise billionaire in the making R. Donahue Peebles, invited me to a Sojourner Douglas College graduation ceremony in Baltimore.  Watching the graduates cross the stage, Mrs. Tucci turned to me and said, "Hey! There's one of you all!"  I didn't get it at first and if I wasn't seated right down front I would have probably not believed what I was seeing.  What she meant by "one of you all" was men.  The graduating class seemed to be by conservative estimates 95% women.  I was blown away.  Granted my graduating class at The Citadel was 100% men but it was an all male school. 

Weeks later, I was having lunch with one of my favorite people but since she's just as shy as she is tall, we'll just refer to her as the Immaculate Tall Girl.  I was explaining to her how I built an 8000 square foot house for 1.5 million but could have easily built a much nicer 10,000 sq. ft home in the same place for about $850,000 and it has nothing to do with the current recession.  As an investor, she took copious mental notes and was almost ready to leave the lunch table and get to work.  Watching her, I realized that women are not only taking notes, but most importantly taking action.  She went on to ask me how I could expect to gain any investment knowledge from the upcoming at the time, Venus Williams luncheon.  Going into the luncheon, the only thing I expected was to meet her in the V.I.P. room, take a picture or two and garner some small talk.  I had no idea that a woman seated next to me met Venus 15 years prior and knew then she'd be a star.  Then the woman not knowing who I was or what I did introduced me to the guy who manages both the Williams sister's investments, a brokering I never asked for or expected.  Venus is extraordinarily humble and sweet by the way. 

Following up on the investment manager's conversation, I had lunch with former Washington news anchor Kathleen Matthews who is now Executive VP to J.W. Marriott.  While talking with her about the Chinese hospitality industry, I was led to an all day meeting in Lancaster, PA.  There I sat in a hotel valuation class with the nations top hotel appraiser.  He owns several hotels around the world in addition to being the leading expert on hotel appraisals and manages a multi-million dollar private equity fund.  To my surprise, the class contained a large number of women. 

I could easily mention a number of other women like Annie Mickle, cancer survivor (The Investment Forum) who has founded the ARM Foundation where she's holding a fundraiser on August 14^th to raise money to help get students through the G.E.D. program.  Michelle Hannah, also a cancer survivor and founder of Celebrate Life Foundation, travels coast to coast like it's local to motivate other cancer patients to keep living even though she's under intense medication. Towanna Freeman, recent winner of the Outstanding Civilian Service Medal for Public Service in Hawaii, manages Girl Prep as if she's been living locally for the last year although she's commuting easily 10,000 miles round trip from her base.  Girl Prep inspires young women to be all they can be with conferences and workshops around the nation.

Still, I have to go back to Mrs. Hilda McIntosh, Washington Performing Arts Society, one of my all time favorites, who runs circles around anyone mentioned in this newsletter period.  At an energetic 70+ years old, she has brokered more meetings among more high ranking government officials, top business people and musicians than anyone I know and probably why the young Don became a household name.  Recently, I had breakfast with her and Jamaican born Shirley J. Thomas who is one of the most notorious classical music performers London has ever seen.  From the Queen of England's presence to the Sydney Opera house, New York to LA and many points in between, she's wowed them all in the most humble of ways.  She is the first woman in Europe to have composed and conducted a symphony in the last 35 years. 

The women won't need me to journalize any of this.  I often wondered with Oprah stepping away from her show, who do we have that can capture the hearts of the globe in the next decade and not necessarily fill her shoes but create a nonstandard size of their own?  Fortunately, I don't have to look far as I was lucky enough to work with LaConia Jenkins Dean, Associate Editor at Upscale Magazine out of Atlanta.  Dean can not only manage a campaign to connect hearts and minds around the country but also write and publish the stories all from a seemingly high tech Wonder Woman like space in Georgia without traversing the globe.  You don't have to take my word for it, just pick up any copy of Upscale Magazine and I'm sure you'll quickly realize what I'm talking about.   If this bit of information is in any way indicative of the new decade to come, "chasing skirt" may be about to take on a whole new meaning.