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You

You answered a unique advertisement when you applied for a career as a stockbroker. Wanted: Someone willing to work hard. Someone willing to talk to a lot of people. No prior experience necessary. No selling experience required. No knowledge of the industry required. No capital investment. No specific skills. No time clock. Unlimited income potential. Benefits. You control promotions. You control your work schedule. Golf and tennis skills desirable but not necessary. You will be paid exactly what you are worth.

Why are you where you are? Scared? Fear of Failure? You have the desire. You have the education. You have the training. You have passed some tests. You know product, sort of. You are afraid the prospect knows more than you and will ask questions you cannot answer. You are not clear on the steps involved to convert a random person to specific client. Now you are at your desk......Alone! "What do I do?" "How do I fit in?" "What have I done?" "How will I ever make it?" "I feel felony stupid!" "How will I ever do enough business to cover my draw, let alone make a lot of money?"

You know the words: positive thinking, positive believing, and how to advise. You have heard the dream: Zig Ziglar......... "See You At The Top," Robert Schuller........... "Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do," Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf.......... " Leadership: From The War Room To The Board Room," and Mary Lou Retton..... "The Competitive Edge." You were given the knowledge with training, experience, and support. You use the financial markets; stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc. Some of you even invested in the technology with computers, programs, and contact management systems. "Wow!...Exciting!.....Rich!.....Famous!.......Fantastic!...By far the best!....Two thumbs up, way up!...I can use this in my business!....Wait until tomorrow!" But, you have experienced the reality. Tomorrow has come "Good stuff.: But, now I am in my office, Alone!".... "I'll get started.....next week, next month,"..... "What was it that they said?".... "Just wait until tomorrow!"

I know exactly how you feel. I also know exactly what you must do.

Me

I have been helping people become successful stockbrokers for forty years.

I do not know what you are doing or how well you are doing; however, if you want to be good, better, or best, let me take a little of your time.

My initial exposure to the world of advising was as a stockbroker. It was not a pleasant one. I was fresh out of college and the Peace Corps, applied at Dean Witter and Company, and was turned down.

Told to get one year of selling experience under my belt before becoming a broker, I went to a newer company called Xerox.

Independent, shy, no sales aptitude, and scared to death, I started selling with Xerox. I learned the selling process and I still remember the sales pitch. "This is the Xerox 914 copier. It produces the highest quality copies with the greatest ease and convenience of any copier on the market today. And, it uses ordinary paper!"

I returned to Dean Witter & Co. after a year, reapplied, and I was accepted as a broker trainee. After passing all the tests, I was at my desk alone, scared, and with a strong scent of failure in the air.

$520.00 a month draw. No way to ever cover that! No way to bring in that much money from a new account or generate that much in commissions let alone actually earn that much.

I did what I knew I must do with a passion. I did it with blinders on, fearing failure and being fired. I did it six days a week without exception; for a little over a year at a very intense level. I went from the very bottom of the class to very near the top. What did I do? What do I do?

I have made some observations on why people succeed or fail in this business. I have come to the personal conclusion that the answer is a very simple one.

If you were preparing to watch the Super Bowl and, in the pre-game interview, the coach was asked what his game plan was and he said:

Chaos and crazy? Absolutely! But that is precisely how many conduct their daily lives in our business. No practice, no plan, no plays, no rules, and no chance!

The definition of insanity is "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." If you do not like the path you are on or if you want more out of life, you must change. E+R=O. E=The events in our lives over which we have no control. R=Our response to those events. O=The outcome. We do not have control over the events in our lives, the things that happen to us. The only way we can change the outcome is to change what we have complete control over, our response to the events in our lives. Accepting full responsibility for what you get by managing your response to events is the key to your personal development.

No Ifs, Ands, Buts, Ors, Nors, Excuses, Exceptions, Feelings, Intuitions, Revelations, Tomorrows, Next Weeks, Probablys, Most Likelys, Think About Its, Sounds Good, In The Event Ofs, Let Me Sleep On Its, or anything your mind can contrive to postpone your responsibility to do what you must do. Failure is never the fault of: The Market, The Product, The Firm, or The Weather. Success is in your control.
Our Business

There are two life forms in our business:

Some Get It, Most Don't
1% of These:	That talk about portfolios, their skills, process, performance, the future, foresight, and fundamentals.	That are knowledgeable and skilled, that are in control, that compete, that trample 'Those,' that are serving and help them,		and that flourish on this:
99% of Those:	That talk products, the skills of others, transactions, price targets, beta, the past, and pie charts.	That are uninformed and unskilled, that are out of control, that are never really in our business, that choose to be trampled by 'These,' that are self-serving and use them,		and that flounder on this:

The wonderful part of our business is that when you start in our business or at any time while you are in our business, you, by your own choosing and by your own actions, have absolute control over being either one of the above life forms; the big one or the little one.