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                                                     July 2, 2010

Dear Bank of Prairie Village Clients and Shareholders~

 As we feel the first hot breezes of what will undoubtedly be the coming dog days of summer, we wanted to check in.  It hardly seems like six months since we were sending our New Year’s Greetings.

 In trying to remember the time flash since that cold New Year’s Eve, one conjures recollections and quickly identifies memories of a long grey winter punctuated by a tumultuous basketball season, Valentine’s Day, Spring Break, an abbreviated spring season (which included a healthy dose of rain), a beautiful blossoming of flowering trees, graduations, a long Memorial Day weekend, and the opening of the pool season.

 The apparent blur and speed of these past months makes the July half year mark a good time to recalibrate and reflect.

  Although optimistic the recent financial reform legislation will address the greed and malfeasance perpetuated by the Wall Street oligarchies, my gut says that the miscreants have insinuated themselves too deep into the Capitol Hill campaign coffers to risk meaningful oversight. 

Commercial banking should be a ground-up, community based and locally-driven enterprise ~closely supervised for safety and soundness. Unfortunately, under bi-partisan deregulation, many operated the banking industry from a top down pyramid to harvest almost predatory short-term profits and unsustainable growth.

     One would have hoped that banking regulators would have held the industry to higher standards and that banking consumers would have been more conscientious in selecting their banking relationships. 

 Many banking customers simply allowed their accounts and banks to be bought and sold like prized cattle at the regional stockyard, blindly staying with the successive institutions like lemmings lock stepping into the Arctic Ocean. For many such lock stepping lemmings the presumed “distraction” of switching automatic debits from the big bank is perceived as too great of hassle. Like any abusive relationship victim, they stay trapped in the malignant jaws of their big bank rather than taking the liberating action necessary to seek consumer appreciation.

 Given all the bank consolidation, assets today continue to concentrate further into the cadre ownership of politically connected Wall Street and foreign investment houses~ i.e. the parochially myopic  New York types who recognize small businesses and visit Main Street Middle America only by watching their Madison Avenue created bank television commercials.

 Whether the financial reform bill accomplishes its purpose is open to doubt and suspicion. In the end, our capitalistic economic system will survive only if anti-trust laws are enforced, regulations equally applied and the Wall Street monopoly on capital allocation and cronyism neutralized.

Accordingly, we think of our community bank and our beloved clients as doing just that. Specifically, we think of ourselves as serving as a small but critical bulwark against a Wall Street monopoly that concentrates capital with impunity and allocates it with disastrous consequences—often at the taxpayers’ expense.

  In this fashion you should feel that as our client you are taking back your economic power from the Wall Street oligarchies and returning it to Main Street-where common sense and honesty are far more prevalent. 

  My best~ and as always~ thank you for giving us the opportunity to be your bank and bankers.

June 2, 2010

Dear Bank of Prairie Village Clients and Shareholders~

Thirty some years ago I remember a beautiful late Autumn Sunday morning, sitting on the front porch of my fraternity house nursing a rather large cup of coffee.  I vaguely recollect thinking that if I stared at the coffee cup long enough it would reveal the mystery of where I had left my car the night before.

Up the fraternity circular driveway came one of those enormously long luxury cars of the late 1970’s. It was of the old Detroit variety –the type that had both a hood and trunk roughly equal to the size of a formal dinning room table. I can’t remember if it was a Cadillac El Dorado or a Lincoln Continental —but I did know it was not the type of car a college student could afford.

 I was surprised as the driver stepped out.  Instead of the expected sports coat or business suit, the 50s something hard looking man was wearing a cowboy hat, western cut coat, and boots.  The face was wind burned and weather lined.  Even with a pounding brain, I summoned the manners (reinforced by the prior year’s pledge training) to stand up and welcome him.

 The visitor looked at me and my coffee cup.  Nodding in my direction, he simultaneously pulled a cigarette and Zippo flip-top lighter from his pockets, lit up and repocketed the lighter in one swift, practiced motion. 

 He took a long drag and while exhaling said, “Son, you can sit there all day staring at the coffee cup. I suggest you find some of the dog that bit you, take a long slug and start doing something useful.”  With that he turned, looked at the front door of the fraternity and requested I “go rouse up” his son and “bring him out to daylight.”

 I found his son buried deep under the covers of his third floor rack.  With much shaking and cajoling, I managed to convey that his dad was on the front porch. 

 It was then that I witnessed one of the fastest adrenaline fused sobriety recoveries of my collegiate career. In an instant the previously prone young man jumped from the bunk bed, grabbed his clothes and managed to completely dress himself while rushing down three flights of stairs. 

 By the time I stumbled back down to the front porch for my coffee, the cowboy dad and his son had more or less finished their conversation.   Placing his arm on his boy’s shoulder and in a deep tobacco cured voice, the cowboy dad commented loud enough for me to hear, “Now remember son, don’t let your schooling get in the way of your education.” 

 I spent the rest of the morning sipping my coffee, contemplating the cowboy dad’s remark, (and still trying to remember where I left my car).  I later learned the cowboy dad was one of the largest ranchers and among the most astute businessmen in the state of Kansas.

 Thirty years later I can not tell you what classes I took that Fall semester or whether I have ever utilized anything from them in my professional career.  However, I do know the rancher’s admonishment to recognize the difference between schooling and education has both stuck to and served me well. 

Through college, law school and beyond, I realized one can learn as much in the hallways as in the classroom.  Although I had many fine professors at the University of Kansas, the University of Virginia and Georgetown—I have benefited equally, if not more, from the common sense observations and insights of various barbers, shoe shinemen, doormen, cabbies, and others of all trades and backgrounds which serendipity has brought into my parochial orbit. Each has passed on their nuggets of wisdom and life perceptions.

As a banker, one of the great job benefits is to interact with various business owners, busy parents, entrepreneurs, professionals and retirees- all who share their insights, experiences and advice~ which I try to record in my nightly journal. Collectively, it is as if I am experiencing the opportunity to take a daily ongoing continuing education course.

It is with this in mind that we came across a terrific book, Lunchmeat and Life Lessons, by Mary Lucas, the sister of one of our clients. Mary details the philosophies and hard earned observations of her father, John Bichelmeyer –the butcher who founded the famous Bichelmeyer meat market in Kansas City, Kansas.  Rarely have I found so much “education” complied into one small book. If you are interest in the book, write me and we’ll see if we can’t send you a copy.

Now that we are in the Summer Season, we wish for cool, but sunny days.  My best and as always, thank you for giving us the opportunity to be your bank and Bankers.

March 1, 2010

Dear Bank of Prairie Village Clients and Shareholders~

One of the reasons I love being a community banker is the fact that you live and work within your community. The other reason is that you do not have some distant corporate “planning” officer dictating how your bank lobby is going to look and how it must be decorated.

Since I spend more time in our bank lobby than waking hours in my own home, I want for our bank lobby to have the same feel as my home study. Both of these points came alive last Fall during a most unusual course of events.

Driving to the bank one morning and cutting through a Mission Hills side street, I noticed an unadvertised estate sale.

The estate sale had a great large gilded antique mirror, which I thought would look good in the bank lobby.

Unfortunately, I had no cash.  My only negotiable asset was an old, well-worn blank check that I’d kept tucked in my wallet for emergencies (Yes, it is true ~ the cobbler’s children never have shoes).

I approached the guy running the estate sale and offered him full price for the mirror if he would only take my check.  Dubiously, the gentleman looked down at my proffered but crinkled blank check.  With a wary smile he said, “I have lived in this area for a long time. How come I’ve never heard of your bank?”  I promptly responded, “Clearly all of our bank advertising must be of questionable effectiveness.”

I then gave him my business card and assured him the bank on which the check was drawn would honor it.

During our conversation, I realized that the gentleman running the estate sale was the son of the recently deceased homeowner.  I remembered her obituary from the paper. I told him his mother was a most accomplished woman to be admired.

 In visiting with him I learned that he was equally accomplished. He served as a United States Air Force pilot flying Special Forces drops into Laos and piloting an AC-130 Spectre Gunship on the Ho Chi Minh trail.  I thanked him for his service to our country. I then took the antique mirror to the bank lobby.  Yes, we do shop at estate sales for our bank lobby’s furnishings.  Being frugal is part of being a good banker.

I had forgotten the incident until later that next week when my new friend came to the lobby wanting to open an account.  I was thrilled at the serendipity of meeting someone at a local estate sale and then having him as a new bank client.  This is exactly why community banking is so much fun.

Only months later when my friend wrote a book and obliquely referenced the incident did I learn, as Paul Harvey made famous, “the rest of the story.”

Apparently, my friend took the proceeds of his mother’s estate sale to the Prairie Village branch of what used to be a real local community bank. Now, alas, it is only the scrubbed corporate front for a faceless national banking organization.

They accepted his big bills which he carried in an old cigar box.  However, with regard to the cigar box coins, they told him he would have to take his coinage to another location.

Incredulous, he sputtered, “Are you telling me as a bank client you will not accept my coins?”  In typical big bank Orwellian fashion, the teller mindlessly referenced a new corporate-wide “coinage policy”  (Undoubtedly, some newly-minted MBA genius in the big bank’s corporate headquarters must have suffered a flash of inspiration in mandating that loose coins are a bad thing for their local branches to accept - hence their new national “coinage policy”).

Incensed, my friend found my business card in the bottom of his cigar box and came to our bank.  In his book (yes, he is an author too), he noted the contrast between his previous banking experience and his Bank of Prairie Village experience – my jumping up from my desk when he entered our lobby, shaking his hand, and following through with a handwritten note telling him how much I looked forward to being his new bank and banker.

  He contrasted our community bank experience with his attempt to get the Big Bank teller to pull herself away from her internet surfing for just long enough to robotically recite their “new coinage” policy.

 My friend and author ended his book with the admonishment to his readers that cute national television ads repeatedly aired to the point of nausea throughout the Winter Olympics coverage (probably paid for with TARP money) do not overcome robotic tellers, coinage policies, and “human free” client “assistance” numbers.

 Among the lessons learned from this story that I relate to our young bankers are that ~  1) a warm firm handshake, 2) the good manners to stand when someone approaches your bank desk, and 3) the use of actual people to answer telephone customer service inquires ~ should be mandatory in your habits and thought processes.

 These simple lessons are no more than common business sense and good social practices.  However, they seem to have been eliminated from today’s business school and MBA curriculums.

I can assure you that the day our bank says that we are not interested in taking your coins is the day we will have a management change and I start looking for an alternative career.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to be your bank and bankers.

~Dan Bolen

January 20, 2010

Dear Bank of Prairie Village Clients and Shareholders,

                Just prior to this past Thanksgiving Day, I made the comment to my mother that I was going to have to get up early and return to Kansas City the Friday after Thanksgiving because the bank would be short staffed without me.

Assuming I would receive motherly consolation and a compliment on my work ethic, I was surprised when Mom immediately replied, “Dan, do you know how many unemployed bankers would like to get up and have a bank where they can go to work this Friday?”  

Mom’s comment struck like a battering ram’s blow.  Suddenly just having a bank to which I could return generated a new sense of meaning and purpose.  Every bank client I thought of during the three hour early morning drive became that much more cherished.

Often with continued success, one forgets and starts viewing as “dreary” those daily tasks which are in fact hard-earned blessings. As someone said, if you don’t think everyday is a “great” day to be alive, try skipping one.

This insight brings to mind a conversation I had with my grandfather and namesake, Dan Bolen, in Salina, Kansas during my last year in law school.  I was visiting him for what we both knew would be the last time.  My grandfather was in bed and I was leaned over him, doing most of the talking.

 Suddenly my grandfather reached up and grabbed my overcoat lapel, pulling me down close to his face.  

There was a spark in his eyes and his recently slurred diction became very clear. In a low whisper, he said he wanted me “every day to wear a suit and tie to the office.” Without hesitating, he then whispered, “This family worked for generations on railroad gangs so you can wear a suit and tie. Don’t screw it up and don’t ever forget it.”  

From that perspective, wearing a suit and tie becomes not a burden, but rather a privilege. As you can imagine, our young officers are swiftly instructed as to why suit and ties are both expected and required for our profession-- at least as it is practiced at the Bank of Prairie Village.

We could not continue achieving our performance without your support. I have attached a client letter that I enclosed with our year end clients’ statements that underscores this point. We are most pleased to be your Bank and Bankers.  Thank you for giving us this opportunity.

~Dan Bolen           

October 5, 2009

 Recently while watching television I noticed an advertisement by a large bank showing the announcer dressed for a golf trip, suggesting that their bank made home equity loans so “easy” that borrowers can enjoy the “more important things in life.” This “cute” advertisement essentially encourages borrowers to take the equity from their homes and spend it on vacations and golf.

 This humorous advertisement shot a surge of anger through me. I wasn’t sure why it invoked such a strong negative reaction.  To “get in touch with my feelings,” I followed my tried and true routine of putting the dog on her leash and heading out for a long evening walk.

 The more I thought about the home equity ad, the more I understood why it infuriated me. First and foremost, we have all spent the last year listening to Congressional debates- and paying for federal bailouts associated with the housing debacle. Every week—today was no exception - the newspapers carry front page stories about home foreclosures and the attendant heartbreaks.

 Given this backdrop of foreclosures and bailouts, my first thought was of the poor taste and ill timing of a media campaign suggesting that one’s home equity be used for vacation spending money.

 Every real banker understands that providing credit is a serious business. In many respects, a banker is like a doctor prescribing pain medication after a surgery. Yes, the patient loves you when you “prescribe the medication” (or make the loan), but when it comes time to take the patient off of the medication, or in our case, request that the credit be paid down, the patient’s good will immediately turns to animosity.

 Like doctors, we learn not to take such animosity personally.  In such cases, the doctor and the banker knows their directive to end the pain medication to avoid addiction or request credit reduction to avoid overwhelming debt is for the patient’s well being.  Nevertheless, it does not make the job any easier.

 I remember well my freshman year in college.  I was on the swimming team.  The team doctor prescribed some pain medication for an inflamed shoulder. I could have hugged the man when I received my little bottle of pain pills.   I found that on the pain mediation, the long winter workouts went much better.  The heavy arms and cramped muscles during the distant swims no longer bothered me.  In fact, I almost enjoyed the workouts for one blissful week.

 Unfortunately, at week’s end I found my precious medication bottle empty. I went back to my favorite doctor to ask for just one more refill. The doctor smiled but firmly refused my request.  Being eighteen, somewhat exhausted, and naturally belligerent, I promptly inflicted on the once friendly doctor some choice collegiate discord, slamming the door on my way out.  Workouts went back to being pain-filled ordeals. I directed all of my resentment against that once likable team doctor. Only with age and reflection do I realize that the doctor had my best interests at heart. He was not the Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde I had conjured –he was a professional with my best interests at heart.

 We all love witty and memorable advertisements.  Who can forget those great Benson and Hedges cigarette ads “just a silly millimeter longer,” the Camels “I’d Walk a Mile,” and of course the legendary “Marlboro” man with the guitar music always strumming in the background as he rode that never ending prairie.  Nevertheless, purveying cigarettes with humor and wit is no longer socially acceptable –or for that matter legal. This is probably for good measure. Serious products such as cigarettes, pain medication and yes consumer credit should not be marketed in an arbitrary and capricious manner.

 One has to begin to wonder if the time has not come to end credit card advertisements highlighting crazy looking Vikings and home equity loans being championed by gaudily dressed golfers (I won’t even begin to comment about insurance products peddled by green lizards).

 Pain medication and credit—particularly home equity credit- if used appropriately, can be most useful for very limited and specific purposes.  However, like everything else, if taken or given without forethought of purpose –these useful tools can become most corrupting resulting inevitability in abuse and ruin.

 The banker or banking institution that trivializes the extension of home equity credit through funny media campaigns does a disservice to society and insults a thinking person’s intelligence. In the long run, such banking institutions will reap what they sow—and most likely find themselves at the federal bailout window asking for taxpayer assistance. They are like the cigarette executives of old, pushing a potentially dangerous product with catchy jingles and seductive wit, only to eventually suffer the subsequent backlash when the butcher’s bill comes due.

 Prudence was once a word associated with commercial bankers. Unfortunately, in the rush for short term profits and fast growth, many fellow bankers shed their prudent temperament (along with their suit jackets in the lobby and white handkerchiefs in the breast pockets). Sound lending principles were replaced by catchy media campaigns and easy credit extensions directed toward the uninformed and desperate.

 Our bank maintains our 5 Star Safety and Soundness Rating from the Bauer Rating service. In addition to the 5 Star rating, we received the two highest designations for Kansas City banks by two other rating agencies Bankrate.com and TheStreet.com.  We could not continue achieving our performance without your support. We are most pleased to be your Bank and Bankers.

~Dan Bolen

September 9, 2009

Recently, I noticed several newspaper and television ads by larger banks offering cash checking rewards for opening new accounts.  As I read the fine print I am struck that the cash value “rewards” are really points toward banking services that most banks used to give for free.

 My reaction is that making a big deal giving client checking “rewards” for what used to be complimentary services is kind of like asking guy to remove his hat in church—you are glad that he does it—but kind of makes you wonder why you had to ask him in the first place. 

 We are pleased to welcome new private banker, Brooke Myers, a KU Business School graduate, former KU cheerleader and member of the Pi Beta Phi Sorority.  When away from the bank Brooke is also the assistant varsity cheerleading coach at Shawnee Mission East.  In addition to Brooke, we would also like to welcome our new SME after school intern, Mary Kate McCandless. Mary Kate carries a strong GPA at East, is interested in business and when not studying or working at the bank is a SME varsity cheerleader.  

 It is also with great pleasure that we would like to recognize our client, Mady and Me located in the Prairie Village Shopping Center for being named best Children’s Boutique by Kansas City Magazine.

             I would be remiss if I failed to mention that 1) we now offer Safety Deposit Boxes, 2) we have updated our Website, 3) we are looking forward to Amanda’s Dog Festival on Sunday September 13^th in Prairie Village’s Porter Park and 4) we miss all our student clients and summer interns who have headed back to college.

~Dan Bolen

                                                                      August 16, 2009

Re: Our Summer Interns, Facebook, and "Old Dogs"

Having sharp college interns reminds me of how I inevitably feel after speaking to MBA classes.  To the surprise of both students and lecturer, we tend to learn something from each other.

 You can imagine one intern’s surprise when we told him to cut his hair and raise his sideburns.  Likewise, we detected bewilderment when explaining to another intern that suit jackets with white handkerchief were always to be worn in our bank lobby.

 That being said, you can visualize my agitation when the interns came en masse to my desk suggesting the bank create its own “FaceBook Webpage.”   Just as I was about to cut off this nonsense --they shot an arrow straight to my heart. One commented, “Mr. Bolen you are always stressing the importance of staying in touch with clients.  Why don’t you view this as one more way of staying in touch?” 

 At that moment—I realized both interns and Chairman had learned something from each other.  They grasped the concept of always staying in touch ~and I grasped that there are always new ways to do so.   

 Accordingly, the second surprise of this Summer Season, besides the cool weather, is that we now have a Bank Facebook page. Yes, I guess you can teach an old dog new ways to chew a bone.

~Dan Bolen

July 9, 2009

I recently noticed that the nation’s largest retail bank carried ads at two ballparks, calling itself the “Official Bank” of both the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.

I am not sure how much the bank paid for what must have been these incredibly expensive advertisements, but I could not help but think of such advertising as a giant waste.

 Even the most obtuse politician knows that one cannot legitimately claim support for both the Yankees and the Red Sox, given the animosity between these two teams and their respective fan bases.  Such waste of advertising money is probably why their “Official Bank” totters and lives on government bailout assistance.

Such grandiose expenditures were silly and sad when the money came from the bank’s shareholder base.  They become disheartening now that they come from the American taxpayer and small banks such as us that must pay higher FDIC assessments for such folly.

Our bank maintains our 5 Star Safety and Soundness Rating from the Bauer Rating service. We could not continue achieving our performance without your support.  We are most pleased to be your Bank and Bankers.

~Dan Bolen

             June 1, 2009

Dear Bank of Prairie Village Friends,

           Recently my sister sent me an email she received “Detailing 8 Safety Points for Women to Remember” shortly after learning of the tragic disappearance of the Overland Park coed, Kelsey Smith.  

          I took the time to read it.  It made several good points.  Many of these points have been conveyed to our staff during our required bank security training sessions.

          It struck me that we often include various “stuffers” in our bank statements regarding new bank products and events.  I am never sure what is and is not appropriate to include in statements regarding non-bank information.  Nevertheless, in light of the recent tragedy here in Kansas City, I thought it would be appropriate to include this information to our clients.  Again, several of the points have been made to our bank staff during security training so I believe these 8 simple points are both of value and demonstrate common sense.    

          These points aside, remember buckling your seatbelt everyday is the single most important action you can take to keep yourself safe from what is the highest risk you constantly and daily confront.

           All my best for a terrific summer

~Dan Bolen

       February 3, 2009

With our current manic/depressant stock and mutual fund markets~ we have encouraged our clients to think of our Bank as a “Giant Safety Box” for protecting their money.   

            To follow through on this mindset, and accommodate several client requests that we “liberate” them from the last vestiges of their big banks~ we added Safety Deposit Boxes.  Yes~ you can rent your own Safety Deposit Box here at the Bank of Prairie Village.    Simply call Leibie or Denise at 913~713~0300 and they will arrange your own Safety Deposit Box. 

           Speaking of Big Banks—one of our clients commented he wanted his Bank President to know more clients than lobbyists.  I agreed most heartily.  Perhaps if Bank Presidents knew more clients than lobbyists –they would not have to prevail on their lobbyists to secure government bailout assistance—or as many now call the program~ bank welfare.

          Our Best to you and your family for this Valentines Day Season

~Dan Bolen       

January 14, 2009 

During the past year, Bank of Prairie Village was one of three Kansas City banks rated 5 Stars for “Safety and Soundness” by both Bankrate.com and the Bauer Financial Report.

 As we focus on 2009, we must remember that the poison of success is hubris.  As Cicero bemoaned, “Vanity my old foe, in the end you defeat me.” 

It would be easy to simply rely on the success we achieved in 2008 as a harbinger of 2009.  Unfortunately, the financial markets dictate that we will have to work twice as hard in 2009 to even remotely emulate our 2008 performance.

 During the last quarter of 2008, a number of non- banking institutions successfully applied for and received Bank Holding Company status.  Many did so to qualify for a draw from the taxpayer bailout.  Many found they needed this government assistance because of ill- advised leverage and strategic miscalculations. 

 It can be disheartening to a banker to watch entities be given bank charters after engaging in less than prudent lending activities.  Overnight, the number of banking competitors seems to have doubled.

 That being said, I am reminded of the Battle of Waterloo.  At the battle’s climax, Napoleons’ Old Guard Brigade marched up the hill through fire and cannon to break what they believed to be the thin red line of British resistance.  Upon reaching the crest, the Old Guard realized that British resistance, although still thin, was greater than expected. This unexpected variable caused the Old Guard to panic and then flee down the very hill from which they valiantly marched. The battle and Napoleon were forever lost.

 The irony was that had the Old Guard simply kept their heads down and continued marching forward, they would have easily crushed the Duke of Wellington’s last defenses.  

The lesson of Waterloo to today’s banking environment is that rather than fretting over unexpected competitive variables, it is probably better to keep one’s head down and continue marching to the tune that has repeatedly brought us success.  As Rudyard Kipling observed, the key is to “Keep one’s head when everyone around you is losing theirs.”

 The tune that has brought us competitive success is remaining close and in contact with our client base.  On a daily basis, we are asked about plans to build another branch location.  Our response has been that we prefer to have our competitors reviewing carpet samples for their new branches while we review our client lists. As my mother repeatedly reminded me—“one should make new friends—but keep the old—one is silver the other gold.”

 My father and grandfather owned a successful real estate and insurance agency in Salina, Kansas for over 50 years.  Having read a best selling marketing book, I asked my dad about his thoughts on “Cold Calling.”  Dad replied that over the 50 years he and my grandfather owned the agency, they were so busy taking care of clients and friends that they never had time to get around to “Cold Calling.”  At that instant I realized their success formula. 

 My father-in-law ran the Griffith Family bank in Manhattan, Kansas.  I asked one of the former bank employees about working for my father-in-law.  He told the story of my father-in-law walking into the office of a business development officer and telling him the phone repairman would be coming in that afternoon.  When the bank officer replied that his phone was not broken, my father-in-law responded that it must be broken since the officer was sitting in the office and not using it to talk with his clients.

 Like a cold beer on a hot summer afternoon—our client-focused approach may be simple—but it sure is effective.  

 Being simple should not be confused with being easy.  Every business person knows that staying in touch with clients is critical, just like every basketball coach knows that making free throws will often determine a close game.  The problem is that practicing free throws requires persistent repetition and consistent focus well before, during, and after the scrimmages and organized workouts.  As college basketball coach Rick Pitino observed, the championships in March are determined in sweaty gyms and rank weight rooms the preceding summer.   

 Andrew Carnegie once commented that “you can take or destroy all my plants, inventory, and real estate –but so long as you leave my associates and client lists I can rebuild it all in five years.”

 Too often bankers focus exclusively on hard assets.  They talk in terms of buildings, technology, franchises, trademarks, branches, business lines –almost everything but clients and associates.  Let us not make that mistake.  We have two successful attributes—our clients and our associates. 

~Dan Bolen