Looking carefully at the most successful professionals working with the affluent, a number of characteristics become very obvious. For example, they derive a preponderance of new, wealthy clients from centers of influence. They’re also very attuned to their affluent clients working hard to anticipate needs and wants.
Another very pronounced characteristic of these ultra-successful professionals is that they’re highly centered. Being highly centered means being in touch with themselves and their responsibilities, clear about their expertise, talents and abilities and how to best leverage them toward a specific set of goals—being able to focus on the key challenges and obligations in front of them, armed with the resolve, confidence and determination to do so. In essence, these are professionals that can focus on keeping their businesses on track.
Being highly centered translates into greater personal wealth. From hedge fund managers to celebrities and from business owners to venture capitalists, those that are highly centered are appreciably wealthier than those that are not. This is also empirically validated when looking at financial advisors. Overall, only 6.5 percent of 611 financial advisors surveyed by Prince Associates recently were highly centered, compared with a third of those earning more than $500,000.
While a certain amount of diverse information and abilities are often necessary in building a business based on working with the affluent, highly centered professionals have certain proclivities and talents that can be leveraged. It’s a matter of knowing what they do well and concentrating their efforts in those areas.
The real complications arise when professionals are pulled in a number of different directions, resulting in them not being able to focus their efforts on their strengths. The answer for these professionals is to find support structures that deal with these other matters, enabling them to do what they do best.
Many professionals are much better relationship managers, for instance, than they are technicians. It behooves these professionals to align themselves with the requisite technical expertise and concentrate on bringing in new affluent clients as well as enhancing their relationship with current affluent clients. Unfortunately, this is often not the way these business endeavors are structured.
To a large degree, many professionals—intentionally or not—fail to effectively capitalize on their true talents. They’re not highly centered.
There is a caveat to becoming wealthy by being highly centered. What you do best must be something that makes money. Moreover, you need to structure your business activities in such a way that you’re going to profit by concentrating your efforts. So, if you’re motivated to become seriously rich, it’s a necessity to do what you do best.
