Why I... love gaming

"I was at a launch event a few weeks ago, chatting to a CEO, and a principal law firm owner, all of us talking about which games we love to play."
by Chris Broome

My earliest memory of gaming was as a very young lad playing on our household’s bright orange Atari Pong game. Super basic in principle but what followed was a love affair for gaming, computers and all things tech.

As I rack my memory I remember sitting at our household’s PC, playing around with the early versions of Microsoft DOS and attempting to learn how it all worked. This would then evolve into PC gaming, and then the introduction to my brother’s Omega and Atari ST.

Mind blown. A world of unrivalled games; hours of wasted (or not) time; and having to accept the painfully slow loading times.

Fast forward 30 years: Segas; PlayStations; Xboxes; gaming with my brothers and friends. And now with my 11-year-old nephew, online, being shown up on Fortnite.

For me, embracing my inner gaming geek has been a Godsend. I get to spend 30-60 minutes most weeks online with my nephew and brother; catching up on all things school/work/Liverpool FC, all whilst enjoying virtual family time. Clearly we still see each other in real life, but not as frequently as we’d all like. Advances in online gaming has bridged that gap.

Professionally, I love finding out which of my partners not-so-secretly game. I was only at a launch event a few weeks ago; chatting to a CEO, and a principal law firm owner, all of us talking about which games we love to play if we can create time of an evening.

Fast forward to the present today. I’m a gaming geek, we know this. But it was the genesis for what became a love affair for all things tech and motorsport. This has led to me opening a financial planning practice located on Silverstone Park; overlooking the F1 circuit; where we have a natural and authentic niche advising my fellow tech and engineering residents.

Just for fun I also launched a tech-focused podcast; aptly named Inside Silverstone; where we interview the members of a specialist Silverstone Technology Cluster that we’re a proud member of.

For those reading this thinking why reveal such a love? To them I say, embrace who you are, you never know what amazing clients you’ll attract because of it.

more stories

The secret lives of financial planners

From opera singing to acting, desert-running to war-gaming, it turns out Britain's financial planners and paraplanners are embroiled in a world of passions and past-times – and few of us even knew...until now.

"Why I...." is a series of stories about the surprising and wonderful ways in which financial advisers spend their free time.
What unifies these professionals is that their time is precious and we ask some of the best-known in the industry how they make the most of it. What factors drive them to give irreplaceable hours to a particular pursuit, week in, week out – sometimes for years on end? And how do these interests teach them to be better advisers to their clients?

If you want to get involved in this series, or know someone we should be talking to, email us at .

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