HAPPY Holidays to my readers. I hope you stay healthy and happy, and enjoy the holiday season, especially given the unusually uncertain times we face globally. I am grateful you read my column and hope to be worthy of your readership, even if at times, like with most writers, the results may be varied and uneven. I say 'Happy Holidays' as, while I assume most of my readers are at least nominally Christian, the holidays are for everyone regardless of creed or the lack of it. Many traditions and creeds celebrate the year-end as a time to give thanks for the year that passed and that we are still here, and hope the year to come is a good one.

I want to share my experiences in giving. I have often been told by some of my subordinates after I became a senior banker that it was hard to get me something, as 'I have everything,' which I don't, but I am very grateful I have much more than enough and do not have to struggle, as too many unfortunately do. What I invariably told them is often the best gift, especially to those in a high position but who one wants to show appreciation and gratitude for is not a luxurious gift, but a personal and well-thought-out one. Let me share three gifts I gave to three different people at different times to show that. Even with the best of intentions, I often fail at this lofty goal, but at those three times, they were not very expensive or luxurious but succeeded.