Tim Gandy

My Story

Hey, I’m Tim, I live for random and sporadic displays of love, generosity and kindness. I’m an author, a financial advisor, triathlete, Iron Man, traveler, wine enthusiast, son, father, brother, husband, grandfather and I have a tremendous love for life.

I come from a very loving and large midwest family with midwest values being number five of six boys. The way I describe my family is upper lower middle class with attitudinal leanings towards upward mobility. Education, discipline, humor, respect and responsibility were all equally important in the modest Gandy household. Realizing at the tender age of 17 that, while I was blessed with halfway decent brain power, I lacked the self discipline to go straight from high school to college, so I enlisted in the navy. After ten years of service and seven years without a promotion (post Cold War troop reduction), I decided to try my luck in the private sector as a financial advisor. That was the beginning of several tremendous life lessons.  

I’ve learned so much from my clients. The more I’ve learned about my clients, the more interesting and creative ways I’ve found to give. There are infinite ways to give, and everyone has something to give. What struck me was that my most successful clients were the ones who did not necessarily make the most money but the ones who gave the most of themselves. They gave their time, their talents and their energy.

Before my mental shift I could not understand why.

The “aha moment” came when a client told me “I can’t believe they pay me for doing this, I feel like I should be paying them.” When asked about a charity where they volunteered a tremendous amount of time and energy.

On the surface it would appear that none of what I learned in the navy as an avionics technician applied to being a financial advisor but, I learned responsibility and how to be both dependable and to depend on others. One of the most important lessons learned was to cease trying to control things over which I have no control.

Lesson in humility:  Within 18 months of me becoming a financial advisor I was homeless and living in my 1989 Dodge Grand Caravan.

“When all else fails, turn to prayer”. During one particularly bleak Christmas holiday where I found myself alone, lonely, broke and angry my inner rage became a meltdown. At the absolute core of this meltdown came an epiphany. The realization was that I and I alone, owned complete responsibility for my problems, both real and imagined. And just like that, I stopped blaming others for all my problems and took responsibility for myself, my thoughts, words and deeds. Realizing self delusion/you are not good enough had been playing on an endless loop in my head I began the arduous task of self reprogramming.

At the time my motives and goals were very much not in alignment with what I was put here to do.

Once I realized that sales is not something you do TO someone but FOR someone my life changed for the better. I went from homeless to homeowner over the next 18 months.