“When one has reached maturity in the art, one will have a formless form. It is like ice dissolving in water. When one has no form, one can be all forms; when one has no style, he can fit in with any style.” Bruce Lee

Over the past year I’ve been ruminating on the power and limitation of rules, assumptions, beliefs and habits. How our beliefs and assumptions shape our behaviors and outcomes. And how we are not just beneficiaries of beliefs, habits and assumptions, but also prisoners of them. They limit us. They are barriers to growth and change. They can serve us well and hold us back at the same time.

My investment education was fairly standard. I took a pile of business and economic courses at University (along with Chinese and Greek philosophy and psychology). Upon graduation, I completed Canada’s appropriate licensing courses to give financial advice. The Canadian Securities Course and Investment Funds Course. I went on to complete further courses in portfolio management, wealth management and financial planning. I took a pile of risk management and insurance courses. I wrote exams and earned a few professional designations such as the CFP, FCSI and FMA.

Pretty useful stuff. And pretty standard. Basically, I joined the ranks of tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands or millions) of professionals who are all taught to think the same way, about the same things.

Recipe for success? Perhaps. If enough brute force is applied. Certainly a recipe for grinding it out, over a long time frame, minimizing risk and taking the road often traveled. But what about the road less traveled? Remember Robert Frost?

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

It is hard to get off your road. Your path. Onto new ground, set out in a new direction. But, if we examine ‘what makes all the difference’ it is often not a brute force approach applied on the common paths of life (or business), but instead a simple, differing choice in direction. Easier done when not burdened by learned habits, rules and assumptions. But doable.

The DTM5 Strategy is, for me the road less traveled. It is where my experience – ‘Maturity’ in Bruce Lee’s words, is becoming ‘like ice dissolving in water’. To have no style, and taking on the form (opportunity) of what is beneficial.