I've Been Wrong

Coming close to the one year mark since I was hired here in Manulife, there hasn't been much progress. To date I've done mostly family related stuff, and some stuff for friends. I've been told that financial advising is a hard industry to get started in, but this is slower then I expected.

I thought about it for a while, and have tried to get different points of view from different people, and I've come to the conclusion that I've been conducting my business wrong. Since I started I've treated this job as a regular nine to five job. I am self employed, I am a financial advisor, I am my own boss; I shouldn't be here twirling my thumbs waiting for business to pop up out of thin air, I should be doing something to get myself known.

I know how to plan, I know how to crunch numbers, I know how to work around scenarios, but I don't know the first step. All the steps that come after mean nothing if I can't find any clients.

I will take the rest of this week to revise my plan of action. I'm going to have to lose this 'employee mentality' and think outside of the box. I've always prided myself on my creativity, now is the time to prove that I am indeed a thinker.

I have been thinking about my daily activities for a while now, and after speaking to another advisor, I'm now sure that I'm doing things wrong. It was great to have the chance to speak to her, she pointed me in the right direction, and gave me some positive feedback as well. Telling it as it is she told me I lacked confidence and I don't talk all that much, but at certain times she has seen great potential in me.

One moment that stood out for her was when we worked together manning a booth at Tinseltown for Chinese New Years. I wasn't talking to everyone during that weekend (because they were mostly asian and didn't speak english), but when I was talking to the right person she thought I looked "amazing," that's right she used the word amazing. Like Spider-man, I'm freakin amazing. But at other times I'm not so amazing but let's focus on when I am amazing. Wow I just used the word amazing 5 times, that is either really bad english or really amazing use of the word amazing.

Thinking like an employee is engraved into my memories, it's what we're taught as kids, by our parents and by our education system: 'work hard for your employer for the chance to move up.' Losing this psyche will be hard, but I have the chance to break the chains of command here and quitting now is not an option for me.