George Mentz , Counselor of Law, Wealth Management Professor, AAFM ®

Throughout life, there is always a celebrated group of financial professionals who succeed while many others fail. It doesn’t matter if you’re working in M&A, or Asset Management, whether you’re a risk manager or a Wealth Advisor, the financial services sector is one of the most competitive industries on the planet and it can be divided into two distinct groups, the winners and the losers. The questions are what is it that separates those two groups and how do you get into the former and not the latter?

As an avid reader of success literature and research, I’ve learned there are many psychological, human potential, and even metaphysical strategies advocated to improve your performance or to reinvigorate your potential. The irony to life is that we will all need to grow, improve, and change our character and capabilities in just about any career that we engage in.

How to have a successful career

To begin this discussion, let us start with the premise that most great successful careers begin with three key ingredients: an idea, a desire and a plan.

A strong desire is usually what can bring your idea into a reality. So, if you began your idea with the strong purpose to succeed and never look back, you will be victorious if you maintain the persistence to continue through the inevitable cycles of growth.

Most of us begin our careers with some sort of plan of action to grow our careers. Some of us had very detailed plans and others did not. Planning is crucial because most people do not define what they’ll do and are too timid to write down exactly what they want to achieve as well as how they’ll realize the goal to any degree of specificity.

Thus, having definite objectives and a specific plan along with a strong desire for success is generally what is needed to accomplish great things and have a successful career in financial markets or any field for that matter.

How to be in the winners group

Here’s what you need to be a winner: – A burning desire – Be willing to take action on that desire – Create an action plan – Have Faith or Belief in your ability to make it happen – Break from the past and move forward with your objectives and desires – Focus attention and positive emotions almost exclusively on career goals and never give up •- Engage your stated objectives while maintaining positive thoughts, enthusiasm, and persistence that is built upon honesty and integrity

Doing all of this can and will propel your career to new heights and catapult you into the winners group.

How to create a plan that leads to a successful career

There are a number of methods of creating a plan that will clearly lay out what you want to achieve in your financial career. Here are some specific items to include in your plan: – Your career goals along with your desired title and salary – What service, time commitment, and value you will give to earn and deserve the outcome – How you will conduct and arrange your life and career to allow the calculated receipt of prosperity and compensation. – The date your career goal will be achieved. – Sign and date the written plan or contract with yourself – Read the plan daily upon beginning your workday and before retiring for the evening. – Frequently feel “in your minds eye” that you have achieved success in heart and mind and harvest that emotion of attainment. – Imagine what you will do with your success after you acquire success, and decide how it will help you and others. – Believe that the desire result or something better will materialize for you and be open to varying opportunities in relation to your goals.

Metaphysical Aspects of Success

Many professionals and athletes use this meditative visualization technique for a few minutes a day to reaffirm their personal faith and success mentality so that they will indeed accomplish what they desire. – Find a quiet spot to relax for a few minutes. – Read your plan or your written statements of desire (think about your personal objectives in you mind’s eye) – Practice forming mental images of your personal success in your spare time. – Project the image of your success on the subconscious mind using a heart felt emotion. See that you have success already in your imagination: For example, imagine yourself with a salary 5 times what it is today and feel the emotions of this reality and achieving that goal at year-end. We suggest that you do this daily. – Affirmations of reading aloud the professional and successful attributes that you desire such as: “I am a great (insert your profession, Investment Banker, Fund Manager, etc.) and deserve to have a great career. (or you could simply read your personal successful career plan frequently) – Cultivate gratitude and thankfulness of heart. In Contrast, complaining and being negative is a waste of everyone’s time and energy. – Be thankful … for your job, your career, your clients, your health and so forth. This will create an energy of attraction that will bring you more positive outcomes, happiness, and success. – Contemplate the good and the opportunities in your life while relaxing and having a sense of well-being. – Combine your successful career plan with action, action and more action.

Putting your successful career plan into action

– Your daily actions must be persistent. This means that we should be proactive in building new career opportunities while maintaining your current career. – Avoid lack of decision and procrastination, and stick with your choices and plan. An example of this would be to leave a bad job if is consistently sapping away your time and energy without any rewards. – Write down each day what you will do to move forward with your career. Be efficient and effective. Do all you can do each day without haste and don’t worry about yesterday or tomorrow. – Today, you should accomplish all you can “one thing at a time.” Over time, this adds up, and you will see positive results. – Strong thoughts of gratitude and enthusiasm will bring about change for the better in you and your environment. This simply means to focus on what you desire and on being the best. Contemplate thinking about the best for you, your family, and your career. – Organize your affairs so that you can receive the rewards of a better career. Thus, allow for promotions and raises. Believe that you deserve them. This may mean acquiring greater tools, administrative assistance, infrastructure use, and ways to capture income. This may entail learning about and offering a broader line of products or services. – In any event, be prepared to provide solutions and do the homework before asking for the raise or promotion. – Surround yourself with encouraging professional mentors or advisors who want to work efficiently and succeed. – Know in your heart that an outcome similar to what you expect or something even better will come to you at the right time. – Communicate, monitor, diagnose, improve, recommend, implement, and revisit to adjust your plan to stay on track toward your goals.

Successful financial professionals have mentors and support groups

– Develop a group of friends who can give you professional insight and feedback and will support your goals and share their own personal experiences and success tactics. – You should be willing to help all members in this group of professional friends with your knowledge, skill, and support. – Meet often for planning and to obtain and give feedback to your group. – You must always speak and act to maintain harmonious relations with this group with positive and encouraging conversation. Thus, never belittle or contradict your group members. Offer solutions and ideas, not criticism.

Believe in yourself

Believe that you are as good or, better, than anyone competing in your field. Know the details of your profession and be able to articulate the benefits of your service. Chances are that what you have to offer is as good as your competitor. Do not be afraid to go for the next position on your career ladder, because someone else will do this if you don’t.

Being Successful

In my career, I have helped thousands of professionals and customers, and taught over 200 college courses and professional seminars to students in over 50 countries. I have worked with the richest of the rich and feel great joy in contributing to or preserving anyone’s financial freedom. Moreover, I realize that many of you are already great successes and commend all of you for your diligence and expertise.

With success, there is usually hard work and many people who depend on you. Remember, there will be times when you just need to rest, relax, or take some time off. There will be seasons where you may need to rejuvenate your enthusiasm for your profession by becoming creative and innovative with your career choices.

Also, family and community should remain your priority. With all of that being said, your physical and mental well-being is the most important thing to maintain so that you may continue all of your good works as the successful financial professional you have or will become. Therefore, we must all try to preserve a balance of body, mind and spirit while incorporating exercise, diet, leisure, learning, and relaxation into our daily lives.

And finally, when all is said and done, success in its truest form is essentially a state of mind.

George Mentz , JD, MBA, CILS, MFP – International Lawyer, Wealth Management Professor, Founder of the AAFM American Academy of Financial Management ® . Mentz holds a Doctorate in Jurisprudence in International Law, an MBA, and various certifications and designations in finance. Mentz is an award winning professor and author based in the United States where he is a licensed attorney and notary public. Mentz and his company have assisted thousands of professionals worlwide with executive professional development and accredited education. Professor Mentz founded the CWM® Chartered Wealth Manager Program which includes thousands of professional certifeid members from Asia, India, Africa, Latin America, USA and the EU. In the United States, candidates can complete the accredited law school’s online LLM courses and assessment to achieve certification. http://llmprogram.tjsl.edu For other books and education, see National Underwriter