Here are some sample sections from Financial Mistakes of New College Graduates:
“Example: let’s compound out between now and retirement age, real quick, paying taxes every year, or letting the money accumulate in a tax shield. For simplicity let’s say taxes are going to be 33%, and you put aside $5k a year, earn 9% per year like clockwork, and it sits there for 40 years. If you do this, it’s called a Roth IRA by the way, you would have $1,689,412. If you pay taxes every year along the way, so the 9% really becomes 6% after one third goes to the taxman, you have after 40 years (drum roll please)….$773,810! A difference of almost a million dollars for just being a little smarter! That’s real money ladies and gentlemen. You get that, in your pocket, for just taking advantage of what is in the Code, but doing everything else exactly the same as your buddy who wasn’t quite as smart. Think of the money they have to pay as the stupid tax.”
or
“Now, we don’t want too much cash sitting around, because at the top of the Savings level is the Inflation Line. Things cost more over time, which is the way of the world. What did a beer cost when you were a freshman? Now? I remember quarter drafts on Mug Night! Ten bucks doesn’t buy what it used to. Things below the Inflation Line lose ground over time.”
and of course, to abuse the Red Sox Nation:
“And remember that there are two ways to make money: people at work and money at work. Money at work is much more efficient than people because my money that is in the market is still working when I am sleeping or watching the Yankees thump the Sawx.”
And here are some from the new book “Do You Want To Make MDRT, Or Not?”, co-authored by Dr. John Stolk.
THESE ARE SECTIONS TAKEN FROM BOOK TO GIVE
YOU AN IDEA OF IT.
2011, The Unique Minds Consulting Group, LLC
All Rights Reserved.
You are going to fail in this business. There, we said it. We hope
you were told this before you decided to enter this field, but
management “didn’t want to scare you” as we have been told by
several offices. Better for you to hear the cold hard truth before it
blindsides you. You are going to fail. You are going to fail in this
business every single day, hopefully multiple times. And that is a
good thing.
Quick: who is the non steroids tainted Home Run King of Major
League Baseball? That’s right, Hammerin’ Hank Aaron with 762
home runs. Did you realize that he had more strikeouts than
home runs? That the greatest hitters ever (Cobb, Williams, Ruth)
failed to get on base over half the time! Every single baseball
player who has had enough opportunities (plate appearances) that
their output can not be attributed to pure dumb luck (or better
hitting through chemistry like Bonds) has failed at a significant
rate. As will you.
EXCERPT
You Are Valuable
One thing that REALLY bothers us is when we see young
financial Representatives begging for referrals and discounting
themselves until they are essentially crawling on the floor.
“Please help me stay in business by throwing me a bone and
meeting with me at seven at night! I’ll do anything to get just one
introduction from you!”
Grow a backbone, stand up, and be a man. Or a woman. But be a
professional! You are a well trained, licensed, and regulated
professional. Stop crawling on your belly in the dirt and look the
potential client in the eye and KNOW that you are important and
will make their life better and as such are highly valuable.
Believe in yourself and what you do and proudly talk about it
with them so that they can believe in you and what you do too.
EXCERPT
The secret process of success is to follow the planning cycle (also
called the sales cycle). Just like harvesting crops can only follow
the plowing and sowing of the fields, then the nurturing of the
crops in their natural order, so too does selling financial products
naturally follow fact finding and problem discovery and closing.
It is the natural order of things, and when you try to violate the
natural order you create chaos and abominations. Embrace and
adopt the sales cycle, trust in it and you will be well served
because your activities will naturally lead to sales and success.
Always maintain the integrity of your process and you will have a
high probability of success in any particular client engagement.
EXCERPT
Let’s get something perfectly clear. Referrals are the only way to
build a business. Cold calling is for people that like to get
punched in the face again and again and again. As martial artists
we have learned that not getting hit is better than getting hit, not
because of the effect of any particular punch or kick but the
accumulated effect. Repeated blows to the head cause brain
damage. If you get hung up on or told NO! one hundred times a
day (which is the threshold to survive in a cold call environment),
either you are a masochist or it will suck away your will to live
and self esteem. It will literally damage your psyche to try and
survive just by cold calling. It also wastes time, because all the
studies have shown that working on an introductory basis is many
times more effective than cold calling. You can literally be told
NO one tenth as often while building a more successful practice
and business if you transition to introductory based relationships
with clients. That is probably a much more efficient and fun way
to go about your career.
But if you want to continue to buy the same lead lists as everyone
else or call the people in the paper having babies and buying
houses, feel free. Knock yourself out, since you have about as
much chance of success as pulling the Ace of Spades from a deck.
While you are at it, just go to the casino and put it all on 00 on the
roulette wheel and get through your misery and go broke quicker,
as you have about that much of a chance of building a sustainable
MDRT level business if you are cold calling for appointments.
Might as well stand on a street corner and ask everyone that walks
by “Hey buddy, wanna buy some life insurance?” because it will
be about as effective.
