By Scott Ronalds

In our July Newsletter, we announced that we were giving away a Steadyhand cycling jersey to the individual who came up with the best analogy between cycling and investing.

We received a flood of submissions, which tells us two things: (1) Our clients are really passionate about cycling; and (2) It’s a really good looking jersey.

We’ve had a hard time choosing a winning submission, so we’ve decided to go with a full podium and select three winners.

We appreciate all the entries and thank those who took the time to craft such thoughtful analogies (we even received a few poems and a limerick). To give a sense of the quality of submissions we received, I’ve copied one of the winning entries below.

Road Cycling is a team sport. There is a team leader. There is a team goal. To win, a winning strategy is required. Interim points sprints do not count as wins. Mad dashes, flights off the front of the echelon and hopeless breakaways by individual riders may be sexy and gain attention, but only for a very short and limited time and always ensure race failure. Only the finish line counts. Preparation and planning will help avoid mechanical failure and will allow fast and effective response. Potholes are a certainty. Crashes happen. While a rider cannot win all races, with a good team, a good strategy, hard work and commitment to the team goal and race plan, a team and rider will always be competitive, will win its share of races and will reap the rewards of success. Success is defined by the long term. Seasons, not individual races. That’s what teams are all about. That’s what being a good rider and a strong team is all about. Winning is never guaranteed. A good team, however, will always give itself the best chance of winning. Investing is no different and in fact must reflect the same concepts and requirements to achieve success.

My goal and responsibility on the Steadyhand investment team, is to drop back into the echelon, keep my head down but be aware of the road around me, be a protected rider and keep turning my pedals to allow the team to move toward the finish line as fast as possible. Steadyhand provides the leadership, the plan and team support riders. You listen to my goals, my input and then formulate and implement the plan for race success.

Then the team clips into our bikes and we ride.

Well said. We’ll post the other two winning entries next week.

Ride on.