Now that I’ve been officially retired for a full year I wanted to look back on some realities about work and working. It’s surprising to find out later that it’s really not the big breaks that define our success, it’s more the small things that we do each day/each week, those mundane activities/duties that elevate us to a finality – the successful conclusion to one’s work and career. I think a notion exists out there that one has to be lucky to retire on time. That first you must land the “big one” – that big account, big client, big company position. I really don’t believe this is based on reality, at least not from my 52,000 ft. view of things. Look, lots of people retire who were never physicians, or accountants, or money managers, or engineers, or even lawyers. Then how did they do it? That’s what I want to talk about here, I think there are some fundamental principles operating out there in the stratosphere [for lack of a better term] that some of us do very well. My question for you – Are You Doing These Things? Let’s take a look…

Before I get to the meat of the subject matter I want to dispel a fable. While it’s obvious that it helps to “like” what you do for a living you may be surprised to find out that this is not an “absolute condition” of financial success. Let’s say you love your career, absolutely love what you do. Well guess what? That’s all going to become a mundane ritual one day in the future. Pretty soon every brain you scan as a Doctor, after scanning 1,000’s of them they will begin to all look the same. Same thing for heart transplants and courtroom cases as an attorney and tax returns as a tax advisor, and you name it – they-all-begin-to-look-the-damn-same! 🙂 Every installation you do once you’ve done 1,000’s of them, or how about those 1,000’s of client meetings? Whatever your work involves, they all begin to look the same. What has changed? You became more efficient at what you do over time and boredom will eventually set in. It’s just how we humans are wired. Some of us get to this familiar place in our careers before others, but suffice to say, it will happen to all of us. So don’t have this attitude of “I’ll do the right things once I land that job I really want!” No, start now, start today. It’s never too late to begin doing what will eventually lead you to a successful retirement. Some people obtain a great work ethic naturally while others of us need to be “reminded” from time to time of some fundamentals operating behind the scenes. Presented below are some reminders of things operating in the background:

Dress Up and Show Up – This is not about your wardrobe, it’s about your dependability. Being 100% dependable means just that, you bring discipline and focus to your job and tasks and you arrive on time, always! You know how many days I dragged myself into the office after a night of heavy drinking, or even that all-nighter where I never even went home? It happened, and probably a handful of times. In fact, I would walk back into the office the following morning [always on time] wearing the exact same thing I was wearing the day before. Of course I was single at the time. Now, to be honest, on those days I couldn’t wait for the closing bell to ring so I could just go home and sleep. But I always kept something in the back of my mind, work was more important than the fact that I decided to party the night before. People like my boss and my clients depended on me and I wasn’t going to let them down just because I decided to pull an all-nighter, that was on me. So here’s a call to get your ass up and get to work every day – rain or shine. So important!

Don’t Job Hop When Your Income Depends on Building Relationships – Here’s one lesson I learned the hard way. Don’t move from firm to firm on promises of a bigger payout or better conditions, especially when your income stream is dependent on clients staying with you and providing you with referrals. This is very valuable advice really for anyone who is selling their knowledge, their products and their services. Longevity in any position and with any one firm is key. Making money has little to do with luck for 95% of us, and longevity in one place is how those big bucks are made. Once your customer base gets to know you and identifies you with the company and/or service you provide and they know they can count on you always being there to help them, and you will never have to worry about your income growing larger over time!

Always Live Within Your Means – You’ve heard this one before, but it’s true. You should always save at least 10% of your income, even more if you can. It’s not to say that from time to time things won’t happen that can destroy a certain savings goal, however, as long as you get back on track it will all work out to your benefit.

Don’t Waste Time Always Trying to Land the Big One – Some people out there are just waiting to land the big one. They think if they could just make this one big sale, or capture this one big account then everything will work out. Wrong! First of all anyone that comes to you that’s real big is going to want you to work for a lower fee. I personally got to a place at work where I realized it wasn’t worth going after that super-wealthy client. There is such a thing known as “velocity” in fee revenue. And some of these guys around the office that had 8-10 of these super-big clients and almost no middle-sized and smaller relationships, and guess what? They left themselves and their income streams very vulnerable. If one or two of these clients walk out the door [or even die], which eventually happens, how soon can they replace that large chunk of income stream? The answer is not very soon. Also, that whole time the velocity of their fees were much lower than the average producer in the firm because they only focused on very large client relationships. I learned that I could actually make more money, and keep my velocity of income much higher [and maintain my sanity] by concentrating on affluent households rather than the super-wealthy, and it worked beautifully! In a world [of all things financial] where fees [for what we do] are being compressed daily I structured my practice where I was efficient, profitable, busy, and I could still sleep at night – so important!

In closing, it doesn’t matter as much what you do for a living, or even where you choose to do it, as long as you are cognizant of and taking care of some basic fundamentals, “dress up and show up”, and “don’t job hop” are two great starts to a successful exit plan in the future. Don’t worry about money, it might take some time but the money will come if you just focus on these two things, trust me. It’s those that ignore these fundamental truths that will have a more difficult time. This is not to say that others will not get to the promised land when they ignore the fundamentals, it’s just that the road for them will not be nearly as smooth. 😉

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