One of the biggest questions we get about our investment portfolios centers around how one person’s investments are actually significant enough to impact monumental social causes. As individuals, we have a tendency to doubt our importance and settle into the fact that our choices might only trigger consequences in our own lives. Since we don’t value our ability to change the world we live in, we often don’t make choices that impact the change we want to see. Instead, we wait around for someone else to do it.
We see the same thinking applied to those who choose not to vote in general elections because they have lost faith in our political process and have settled into the false belief that their one vote doesn’t matter. That their opinion, in the scope of the entire nation, doesn’t matter. When you paint the picture of this altered thinking using only red and blue, it becomes a little more difficult to justify. The urgency you have right now to uplift these non-voters and shout their importance from the rooftops is the same urgency our team finds lurking within us when you tell us that your investment portfolio doesn’t really impact much.
Just because you believe you are small, doesn’t mean you aren’t capable of creating big waves.
The frequency in which we’ve been receiving these kinds of responses has, to be frank, disheartened our team. So, in hopes of turning some of our readers into full-fledged believers, we’ve decided to bring back one of our favorite articles from many moons ago.
Research on Small Wins
“Small Wins and Feeling Good” was an article published in 2011, by two wonderful writers at the Harvard Business Review. The article reflects on the research and writing done by Karl Weick, a psychologist from the University of Michigan, who analyzed small wins.
“A small win is a concrete, complete, implemented outcome of moderate importance. By itself, one small win may seem unimportant. A series of wins at small but significant tasks, however, reveals a pattern that may attract allies, deter opponents, and lower resistance to subsequent proposals. Small wins are controllable opportunities that produce visible results.”
Karl Weick, Small Wins: Redefining the Scale of Social Problems
The article details the importance of celebrating small victories whether it’s in a professional setting or your personal life. A small win is just what it sounds like, it’s looking at a larger goal and acknowledging each small step you take that gets you closer to completing it.
One particular point that we love to revisit is embodied in this quote: “large social problems are best broken down into smaller ones with concrete achievable goals.” Take for example the concept of saving the planet from the effects of climate change. So many factors go into that mission, from water conservation to fossil fuels, it seems like too daunting of a task to take on as your personal mission. However, if you take the opportunity to contribute in small ways, like donating to conservation efforts, minimizing your own carbon footprint, or investing in the companies who share your values, saving the earth seems a bit more tangible.
Portfolios, Impacts, and Wins
At Invested Interests, we ensure that the funds we include in our portfolios meet the necessary ESG or SRI standards required. Essentially, we vet the companies you’ll be investing in so that you don’t have to. No matter what your personal mission is, we’re confident that we can create a portfolio that supports it. Currently, our main portfolios focus on the environment, peace efforts, or human rights and diversity. However, we have no problem combining or adding to one of those selections to really encapsulate what matters to you.
When you invest with our team, you can celebrate the fact that your hard-earned money is not only working for you, but it is also contributing to companies who have a passion to change the world in the same way you do. So, if you feel like you’re needing to increase how many small wins you’re celebrating our monthly investment updates might be the solution to your problem.
Whether you’re ready to start saving for retirement, or you’ve decided towards investing for another purpose, we’d love to get to know your story and help you reach your goals. To learn more about our portfolios, who we are, and how your investments create impact please reach out to us here. We’re excited to hear from you!
