#199 - Find What Makes You Happy, And Do It!

Go Tour Luxe, a concierge/luxury travel and event company is the culmination of founder Todd Stella's professional and personal journey -- and a shift in career and lifestyle precipitated by heart surgery. Todd graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in Economics and spent a long career in investment banking, stock brokerage, private banking, and wealth management. Fresh out of school, his entrepreneurial spirit was behind his creation of a company that developed early technology and allowed real estate photographs to be aggregated and shared online.

The tech boom saw Todd move to San Francisco and join the prominent investment bank Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette -- which was eventually purchased by Credit Suisse. Subsequently, Todd worked for Morgan Stanley and then Home Savings of America, where he ran the western sales division. He moved to Los Angeles and joined Neuberger Berman, a division of Lehman Brothers. Following the recession of 2008, Todd transitioned into private wealth/banking at UBS.

After decades in this field and major surgery on his heart, Todd felt the pull of his entrepreneurial roots. He founded Go Tour Luxe in 2017 to immerse himself in his favorite activity - exploring the world. Go Tour Luxe enjoys partnerships with well-known global travel powerhouses such as Virtuoso. Their team works out of Southern California and coordinates personal and group travel for individuals and companies of all sizes, including clients on the Fortune 100 list.

In addition to his work, Todd also enjoys investing in several early and mid-level start-up companies and giving to charities such as the American Heart Association, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and the United Way. He is a former Board member of the Venice Family Clinic in Los Angeles, one of the country's largest community-based public health centers.

Todd feels the best part of owning Go Tour Luxe and working for yourself is the ability to determine with whom you work because it makes life more enjoyable. Two of his favorite quotes are by famous prose satirist and author Jonathan Swift:

When a great genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign; that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.

Live every day as your last, because one of these days, it will be.

Todd resides in his hometown of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with his wife and travel companion, Caitlin.