Maybe This Is What Success Feels Like

As our emerging profession matures I’m noticing some small fissures in the relationship between the different generations.

Owners moan about the next generations a little bit.

• “They only work 9-5”
• “They expect great pay and a route to ownership, but they don’t demonstrate any commitment” (by that, owners mean working longer than 9-5 every day)
• “I wanted it more than they do and back in the day I put in the hours to show it”

And like all of these things, maybe there’s a bit of truth in it and also a bit of nostalgia.

I don’t know about you, but I was ambitious and worked long hours to prove it.

What an idiot!

It took me a long time to learn that “less is more”. Hard work can make you stupid by just grinding away and never searching for the smarter way to solve a recurring problem.

So maybe the following generations have got this exactly right. Work smarter, not harder.

And as AI takes over many of the tasks that kept us ‘always busy’, it’s those who embrace thinking smarter that will win out.

Also, if I’m honest, I made lots of mistakes in the first decade (or more) of my career. Now I call it “experience” and it’s really valuable to me as I help my clients find their next business breakthrough.

All of this got me thinking about a few ideas that might be helpful to you as you attempt to attract and retain good-quality talent.

💡 Idea 1: Modeling failure

Being experienced, knowing lots of work-specific stuff and having a degree of mastery over your profession is super cool. That experience was hard won, so why shouldn’t you feel good about it?

However, if all you do is model excellence, it’s really hard for the next generation of aspiring leaders in your business to believe they could ever do what you do.

I spend my life talking to very experienced business owners who are a bit lonely and unsure of their next steps. So pretending that we know all the answers is not even true or authentic.

Maybe it’s time to let your team see that often you are unsure of what the right decision is – but you make a decision anyway, knowing that if it’s wrong, it will show up as wrong pretty darn quick and you can change course.

Alternatively, you might share stories when something goes wrong for you to let people see that, like everyone else on this planet, you’re happily failing your way to success.

It lets them see that you’re human. Which many of us find hard to do.

And it will free up your staff to know they can take decisions and not be afraid if they’re not perfect.

Success is not thinking we have to be right in everything we do.

💡 Idea 2: Maybe this is what success feels like

A friend of mine used to be a performer.

One time on a trip to New York, she got invited to a workshop with a guy called David Friedman. David ran small group workshops in his apartment in Manhattan.

One young person in the group shared how she’d just landed her first leading role on Broadway and despite that being the absolute pinnacle of her ambition at this stage of her life, she didn’t feel like she thought she would feel.

David’s response?

“Maybe this is what success feels like.”

When I heard that story it kind of blew my mind.

What a great response.

We’re all imagining that when we “get there” (wherever ‘there’ is for you), it’s going to feel amazing. Yet often it doesn’t and we’re left wondering why.

Maybe this is what success feels like.

In a similar vein, I heard an interview with Meryl Streep, who has been described as “the best actress of her generation” with 3 Oscars and 8 Golden Globes. Streep described how she didn’t take a holiday for the first 20 years of her career because she was afraid it would all come to an end. (And if she was the best – how was everyone else feeling?)

Maybe you can share what it feels like to be the owner of a business worth millions. (Hint: A bit hollow. You can’t eat paper millions).

And don’t judge your insides by others’ outsides. What people show you is their public persona, not how they are feeling.

Where does your personal success lie?

💡 Idea 3: Identifying top-tier talent

Whilst I’m happy to defend different views on work/life balance from the next generations, there is a place for showing your commitment and energy if you want to get on in life.

Here is an interesting perspective from Ted Lamade, Managing Director at The Carnegie Institution for Science, called Find The Savages.

Ted had an enlightening discussion with a guy called Rick who recruited for a top Wall Street bank. Although Rick’s firm had the pick of the top candidates from the best colleges in the US, he was struggling to find the ‘right’ talent.

“Rick described how at some point during the past few years, the balance started to shift from these new recruits feeling as if they owed the firm something to a belief that it owed them. The job was simply a short-term pit stop on their way to the next part of their careers. As a result, their effort, enthusiasm, and productivity had deteriorated materially versus prior “classes”. Remote work only accelerated and accentuated this trend.”

The bottom line was that Rick changed tack and “targeted large universities across the country with students from a wide range of backgrounds [not just the top colleges they’d used traditionally]. Within these schools, he looked for those who had put themselves in leadership positions…so long as they had taken ownership of something. Preferably, he wanted to see examples of resilience and persistence in these pursuits.”

While the article clearly has a US focus, the underlying themes apply to up-and-coming talent here too.

No one owes us anything.

But, if we can adopt a mindset of “how can I make a contribution” rather than “what can this firm do for me?” we’ll find our career grows exponentially – and it’s nothing to do with the hours worked. It’s a mindset and a way of being.

The fastest and easiest way to get a pay rise is to be fucking amazing and giving it 100% (in the hours we choose to work).

🚀 Creating the basis for success

For the financial planning businesses looking to be great?

Make yourself a magnet for people who want to work in a client-centric and dynamic organisation that is brilliant at developing top-tier talent.

Maybe you’ve achieved all you set out to achieve as a financial planner. Now it’s time to see how great your business can become by creating an environment where talent can thrive.

Let me know how you go.

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