As a new financial advisor (new FA) sometimes you just find yourself in a bad situation. After weeks and weeks of licensing efforts maybe you are behind in production, or perhaps the portion of your income that is steady is about to run out. You might be frustrated and wondering how you worked yourself into this position. You have to remind yourself one simple thing…
It’s not your fault.
There is a very well oiled machine that brought you to this point. The machine is doing its job — it is recruiting qualified people into an organization. You can take some comfort knowing that dozens or hundreds of other people in your recruiting class had to pass the same entrance qualifications that you did. For every person who made it to where you are know, 22 others didn’t make the cut. Maybe they didn’t pass the original assessment that you passed. Maybe they didn’t pass the interview that you passed. Maybe they didn’t pass all the licensing exams that you passed. You made it. They didn’t.
Even though you survived the cut you may be thinking that you wish you hadn’t. You may not have fully understood what you were signing up for. Sure, you were probably told at some point that you were going to have to reach a production hurdle, but how do you gauge that when you’ve never been in production before? If you were given a number, did you fully understand what that meant for you? Did you really know what assets under management (AUM), production credits, or accumulated base commission (ABC) meant for you as far was your workload was concerned? If you answered “no” to this question, don’t despair. Most people don’t really know what they are signing up for when they say “yes” to this job.