How can retirement plan sponsors and participants know the right answers if they don’t ask the right questions? Allow me to start my answer by telling you a story.
A man by the name of Chaerephon (can’t pronounce it? it doesn’t matter because you’ll never see it again) asked the Oracle of Delphi if there was no man wiser than his friend Socrates. The priestess pondered then answered, “There is no man wiser.” When told this, Socrates didn’t believe it, “I know that I have no wisdom, small or great.”
So he travelled the land searching all those he thought wiser. One by one he met them and, with each disappointment, Socrates began to see the wisdom of the Oracle’s remark. Unlike Socrates, all these other men thought they knew everything. Socrates alone knew he didn’t know what he didn’t know. In other words, knowing he wasn’t wise made him the wisest of all men.
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Christopher Carosa
Chris Carosa has been writing a weekly article and monthly column for BenefitsPRO online and BenefitsPRO Magazine since 2011 and is a nationally recognized award-winning writer, researcher and speaker. He’s written seven books, including From Cradle to Retire: The Child IRA; Hey! What’s My Number? – How to Increase the Odds You Will Retire in Comfort; A Pizza The Action: Everything I Ever Learned About Business I Learned By Working in a Pizza Stand at the Erie County Fair; and the widely acclaimed 401(k) Fiduciary Solutions. Carosa is also Chief Contributing Editor of the authoritative trade journal FiduciaryNews.com and publisher of the Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel, a weekly community newspaper he founded in 1989. Currently serving as President of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and with more than 1,000 articles published in various publications, he appears regularly in the national media. A “parallel” entrepreneur, he actively runs a handful of businesses, including a small boutique investment adviser, providing hands-on experience for his writing. A trained astrophysicist, he also holds an MBA and has been designated a Certified Trust and Financial Advisor. Share your thoughts and story ideas with him through Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/christophercarosa/)and Twitter (https://twitter.com/ChrisCarosa).
