Introducing the Argent Financial Group Employee Spotlight! Every two weeks, a different employee will be featured.
For our first Q&A, meet Lance Johnson.
Q: What led you to Argent and what makes it unique?
A: In 2014, Heritage Trust’s Oklahoma City oil and gas division had an issue arise and the VP of the department recruited me and another professional to help — we’ve both been here since. Argent and Heritage is a combination of equals, and its family atmosphere makes it unique. Many firms descend into corporateness, but Argent has steadfastly maintained its close internal family/relationship business model.
Q: Why do you enjoy working at Argent?
A: One, for the unique reason above, but most of all because our department’s president, David Luke, is a macro manager. He expects and respects hard work, a willingness to tackle big issues and commitment to the myriad of tasks required to effectively operate a successful, client-oriented oil and gas department. And he empowers all his staff members to accomplish these goals.
Q: What does the company mean to you?
A: It means a daily opportunity to enter a beautiful building, provide a large number of client requirements and interact with top-quality business professionals who also enjoy the company — as shown in their demeanor and attitudes.
Q: Share a favorite memory from your time at Argent?
A: It is a collective memory — having a small, but very satisfying role in helping families maximize the financial benefits from their oil and gas mineral ownership.
Q: If you could have any other job for one day, what would it be?
A: A Big 5 Photo Safari guide in Kruger National Park, South Africa.
Q: What is your favorite quote?
A: “The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer. A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticize work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life’s realities — all these are marks, not … of superiority but of weakness. It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt, April 23, 1910, 3 p.m. at the Sorbonne, Paris.
