Get To The Top!

It is common for financial professionals to go through challenging times. I know that in my career I have had struggles with staying focused and have a clear direction. I always felt like there was a better way to do business. After becoming fascinated with documentaries of people doing extraordinary things, there was only one person that really stood out to me. His name is Nimsdai Purji. He is a Nepalese mountain climber who set out to break the record for climbing the world’s 14th highest mountains which previously took 7 years by Reinhold Messner from 1979 to 1986. Purji was able to accomplish this feat in less than 7 months.

The Netflix documentary is “Nothing is Impossible,” and it is a must watch. The purpose of me telling you about this was to tell you something else. More people are getting to the top of Mount Everest than ever before. There are many reasons for these numbers. The first reason is that the more climbers get to the top, the more experienced climbers that there are to help others get to the top. This is the same for financial services. The more advisors that have success, the more experts there are to teach others. The second reason would be climbers have found the easiest routes. After years of trying diverse ways to the top, Climbers can now map out the easiest routes. This is the same in financial services. Over time, we tend to find the easiest routes to success. Copy what someone else is doing and have the same success. This only makes sense, right? The problem with these statements is that we all have different educational backgrounds, and different skill sets. Copying the world’s best salesperson is not going to make me exactly like them. I may pick up the language. I may pick up the ways to say certain things, but I will never be that person. To think this model is replicable will only lead to failure. This is one of the main problems in any sales industry. We are all different, so it makes it extremely difficult to copy what someone else is doing. I have seen this in our industry numerous times. The top salesperson teaches the class, and very few can copy what they do and get the same results. If this were true, then I should be able to take Tiger Woods’ Golf clubs and coach and break course records. My game may improve drastically, but I will never be as good as Tiger Woods. We must create a system that can be replicable, and experts to surround ourselves with. This is how you climb Everest.

Climbing Everest is one thing, but our goal is not to climb the mountain. The goal is to climb the mountain and come back down. The interesting stat about the death rate at Everest is that 80% of the deaths happen on the way down. Around 80% of all business owners fail as well, and I feel there is a direct relationship between these numbers. The technical term is called the Pareto Principle, or the 80/20 rule. I call it dedication and preparation. I really do not think that anyone that climbs Everest or opens a business, plans to fail. Everyone is dedicated to the success of their journey. I do feel the failure rate is due to the lack of preparation. You must know what is ahead of you to be prepared but also plan for what you do not know. Our jobs are to help clients reach their maximum potential while reducing risk so they can focus their efforts on their tasks at hand. Their job is to execute their skillset. Together we want to maximize their potential and help reduce risks for the client.

This playbook is going to show you how to laser in on Focus, Dedication, Preparation, and how to surround yourself with experts so that you can climb your Everest.