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Rick Smyth
College of Business
College of Business
Adjunct Professor
rsmyth@andersonuniversity.edu
(864) 559-8477
- rsmyth@andersonuniversity.edu
- (864) 559-8477
Academic Background
MBA, University of Chicago
BA, University of Southern California
Executive Education, Standford Law School
Certified Financial Planner Program, University of California at Los Angeles
Teaching at AU
What year did you start teacing at AU?
2022
How would you describe your classes to someone who has never attended one?
My approach will combine theoretical foundations with significant practical experiences to prepare students with skills, knowledge, and confidence to contribute in their post academic careers immediately, with impact, influence, effectiveness, and success.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, I do believe that there are “bad” questions if they can be answered independently with effort. Self reliance, initiative, and resourcefulness will be recognized and rewarded, hopefully in life, definitely in my classroom. Paradoxically, your success will be driven by your ability to collaborate, work effectively with others, and lead yourselves with humility. Interweaving with this apparent contradiction, is that you have to learn how to fail successfully: not repeating but learning from your mistakes to succeed with resiliency, grit, and perseverance.
Finally, a person can calculate- and know- the price of everything but the value of nothing. My goal is to help students develop critical analytical skills to understand the value any investable asset, and most importantly, life.
Contact
rsmyth@andersonuniversity.edu
Phone
(864) 559-8477
Fast Facts
My approach will combine theoretical foundations with significant practical experiences to prepare students with skills, knowledge, and confidence to contribute in their post academic careers immediately, with impact, influence, effectiveness, and success.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, I do believe that there are “bad” questions if they can be answered independently with effort. Self reliance, initiative, and resourcefulness will be recognized and rewarded, hopefully in life, definitely in my classroom. Paradoxically, your success will be driven by your ability to collaborate, work effectively with others, and lead yourselves with humility. Interweaving with this apparent contradiction, is that you have to learn how to fail successfully: not repeating but learning from your mistakes to succeed with resiliency, grit, and perseverance.
Finally, a person can calculate- and know- the price of everything but the value of nothing. My goal is to help students develop critical analytical skills to understand the value any investable asset, and most importantly, life.
Finance 320
The proposition of teaching in a setting that encourages students to lead with conviction from Christian principles, values, and perspectives resonates on every level when our world- and culture that seems so abjectly void of a grounded moral compass- can help prepare and teach leaders of corporations, government, organizations, and society that we desperately need. Where else in this world will there be a business school housed in the same building as the school of divinity? It is a perfect combination and model for shaping leaders of the next generation.
Sir John Templeton famously summed up investing by stating that “bull markets are born on pessimism, grown on skepticism, mature on optimism, and die on euphoria. The point of maximum pessimism is the best time to buy, and the moment of maximum optimism is the best time to sell.”
Extrapolating Templeton’s maxim to life, love and career: when things feel like they will continue on an unending, uninterrupted ever increasing upward positive trend, or the corollary, of feeling like things will never get better when times are tough, the true leader will block out the noise, stay grounded, and maintain focus to make thoughtful, considered decisions.
Cognitive biases and heuristics impact effective decision making that requires a commitment to learning about behavioral economics and decision sciences to overcome blind spots, groupthink, and hubris to improve outcomes, achieve objectives, and sustain success.