Feel Good Events

At a time when all the news you read about around here is bad, it was nice to attend not one but two feel-good events in Philadelphia. First, my firm was at the Union League downtown celebrating 30 years of existence. We were joined by clients, partners, media, and colleagues. The atmosphere was friendly, the laughter easy, and the attendees genuinely interested in us and each other. Thirty years is a long time – our founder and president noted that many of our current staff weren’t even born – and it was nice to mark the milestone with so many quality people who were happy to see us make it this far.

At the event’s halfway point, I had to cut out and hit the subway over to West Philadelphia and The Enterprise Center’s fourth annual Passing the Torch fundraiser. This has become a deeply meaningful celebration of entrepreneurs who have passed the torch of their business to the next generation, a significant milestone in the path to true wealth creation in our minority communities. The testimonials – from a teen entrepreneur, a daughter who took up the mantle of her ailing father’s business, and a CEO following in the daunting footsteps of a legend in the local African-American community – were powerful; let’s just say someone seemed to be cutting up some onions near our table. For those of us in this sort of line of work, this is the sort of thing we work day in and day out over, bearing personal cost and far too many defeats against far too many victories. So to bask in a few in the win column for one night was invigorating, to say the least.

I got home far later than usual: the kids were already in bed, I am usually in bed by that hour, and my bones were weary. But, on another level, I was pretty wired. A feel-good night, all in all, and so worth staying up for.