"Do not be feverish about success, if your aim is clear and you have the patience to move towards it, nature will support you" - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Wright Brothers who marked a date of revolution for the generations to come on December 17, 1903, are a perfect example of "Patience is a key element of success". Wilbur and Orville Wright were no scholars in Physics or Engineering, rather they grew up in a small side street in Ohio having minimal education. They were gifted a toy helicopter by their father when they were kids, they were so inspired by the toy that they wanted to make a machine through which humans could fly and they took their passion to the extreme level. The brothers made a living and pursued their mission by initially running a printing business and later a bicycle repair and sales shop followed by manufacturing cycles. They kept working towards their mission: humans can fly. And after decades of struggle, persistence and patience, they landed with one of the biggest inventions in the history of mankind: the first airplane.

The story depicts the worth of patience and how having patience will help you live your dream. There is a long list of prerequisites and skills required to become a successful financial advisor, and Patience holds a prominent position amongst the various components of the list. It is widely accepted by the financial advisor fraternity that Patience plays a key role in the advancement of their business, yet it is one of the most difficult to follow.

For our advisor brothers, we would like to call your attention to the fact that is no shortcut to success, efforts are required from your end in all phases of your business. You must maintain patience when you enter the business, when you are trying to grow your business and even when you are running a large setup with many clients and employees.

Just imagine, you have been standing in an Aarti for an hour, you haven't eaten anything since morning and finally it is the time for the Prasad distribution, and you have to stand in a long queue to get the Prasad. The people standing ahead of you are the obstacles that you have to face to reach your destination, and you are waiting for your turn patiently. You finally reached the destination and it gives immense pleasure when you are the leader of the queue, standing tall, getting the Prasad, and every else is looking upto you, following your steps.

Similar is the life of an advisor, Patience is not the ability to wait but how you act while you are waiting in the line. If you give up when you first see the obstacles lying ahead, or you give up in the middle because you just can't handle the hardships anymore, you will never be able to get the Prasad (achieve your target). You have to maintain Patience throughout the queue to satiate your hunger.

The most difficult and crucial stage of advisory business is the 'icebreaker stage'. You are new, you may not know much about the business, you'll commit the maximum mistakes during this time. You have to put in extraordinary efforts to enable yourself stand steady. You have to meet people, make contacts, tell people about what you have for them, and then there will be people who may not trust you because you are new. Yes these circumstances may be irritating, but you have to patient, you have to be focused and you don't have to loose your smile.

Once you have moved ahead in the line and you are somewhere in the middle stage, you'll have either of the two reasonings:

1. When you turn, you may realize, 'I have crossed so many obstacles, I have to be patient, I can see my target and I'll move ahead by overcoming the forthcoming obstacles'

OR

2.You may look ahead and realize, 'Oh my God, there are so many obstacles ahead, I might collapse in between, I can't do it, I'd better leave the line'

You have to decide which path you will follow in the middle of your advisory career, the one which requires patience but will lead you to become the leader or the one where you lose focus and patience, and not reach your target at all. If your choice is Option 1, then you have to be patient build your reputation, you have to maintain the business that you have achieved as well as enter the expansion stage. At any time you do not have to loose focus.

Once you are in near the target stage, you must not forget the value of the obstacles which you crossed. It is because of the humility and composure, you maintained throughout, that you are here. So you must not loose these essential virtues at the peak.

There are types of patience which you should maintain:

• Patience with others: There will be times when the markets are falling and your customers panic, they call you and pester you with questions. You have to step into your clients' shoes to understand their position, it's their hard earned money which is at stake, and they are bound to be agitated. You must be gentle and be patient with them, respond to their calls and explain to them that harsh times will pass and they must trust you and their investments.
• Patience with the universe: Expected the unexpected. Things will not always flow in the pattern you are prepared for. There will be times when your efforts would go futile. A client may confirm a meeting, and you have cancelled an important commitment because you are expecting a big investment from and he doesn't show up, or even after four meetings he gives the investment to someone else. At such points, you must not loose your calm, you have to be Patient with your clients at all times.
• Patience with Self: Having patience within ourselves is the most difficult and crucial. Things will come in eventually. You must not loose heart any any stage of life and business. You must be patient and confident within yourself. If things are not working out today, tomorrow they will. Throughout your journey, you must maintain calm and conquer the obstructions.

You have to be patient with yourself, your clients, your staff, the government agencies, etc., you deal with, because you cannot succeed alone.

Your composure during the most demanding times will be the biggest contributor to your success!

“We all need people who will give us feedback. That's how we improve.” - Bill Gates

Ashima & Apoorv Sahni, are married since three months. Both of them are too fond of each other and they go out of their way to keep each other happy. Ashima gets up early in the morning to prepare and pack lunch for Apoorv. However, Apoorv finds the food cooked by Ashima overly spicy and at times, he gives it away to the office boy and calls for a pizza. But he has never told his wife about his distaste because he feels she puts in immense efforts and she won't appreciate any criticism. So, what is happening here is Ashima is trying hard to please her husband's palette but her efforts are going in vain day after day, as she is unaware that she's going offtrack. The solution to the couple's problem is simple, A Feedback, Apoorv has to tell Ashima that the food is spicy, and with a minor alteration in her cooking, she just has to take a smaller spoon for the masalas, things will be sorted.

This tale reveals the importance of feedback, how it helps us decode our everyday riddles, and imparts peace and harmony into our lives. Like this couple, we all need feedbacks, it helps us identify flaws in our ways, it extends an opportunity to improve. In Financial Advisory business, there is a substantial human element involved, therefore the role of feedback becomes paramount for an unfaltering growth of the advisor. There is often a huge disparity between the advisors' judgment of clients' preferences and actual client choices. Despite the fact, many advisors are reluctant and keep on deferring the feedback solicitation activity for years, may be because they are apprehensive about negative comments. But in reality a negative feedback is an opportunity to correct our practices, to improve, and to evolve into a better business.

Client's feedback is the Report Card of your performance. This report card will show you where you stand, what are your strengths and what are the weak areas that you need to improve. Like Ashima in the above story, all advisors go the extra mile to keep our clients happy, but many times there are gaps between what we impart and what they expect. Feedback tells you:

What you don't need to do: Feedback helps you identify gaps in your service and offerings. Say for instance, an advisor is committed to provide optimum service to his clients at all times, and in the course of his mission, he at times goes overboard in trying to please his clients. This risk the investors, but they don't really express their displeasure. This gap in service can be filled only when enlightenment dawns upon the advisor, and that will happen only when he gets a feedback.

What you need to do: There are also times when, although we are trying our best to protect the investor's interests, we are not able to stand upto their expectations, there can be a shortfall in service quality, product, knowledge or the advice itself. We'll be able to fill in the blank only when we are able to see the blank. We'll see the blank when someone shows us the blank by giving us a feedback.

The process builds client's confidence: Feedback not only gives you an opportunity to improve but also creates customer satisfaction. When you ask a client for his feedback, he feels important, he feels being heard, and it leads to greater client engagement, which lies at the core of any client driven practice. Asking for feedback from investors also gives a positive impression, investors can sense your genuineness and that you care for them. You can further strengthen their confidence by sending a progress report on their feedback. Our service practices are aimed at gaining customer confidence, and asking for feedback works as a super tool in this respect.

The above paragraphs explain why is client feedback so important for the success of a financial advisor. However, when a client is dissatisfied, you would know only when he switches to a different advisor. Clients are disgruntled but you would seldom face a client who specifically shows up just to give you an assessment report. So it is the advisors' responsibility to step out of their comfort zone to gauge their clients' dissatisfaction by asking for a Feedback. You can club the feedback solicitation activity in your regular investor meets, or you can ask for a feedback or suggestions in your one on one meetings, but make sure you do it at regular intervals. All the best for surprises!

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Learning is a never ending process. We learn all our lives, in the form of formal education, practical education, experiences and life lessons in general. While learning and growing is important for everyone, as advisors, it is of utmost importance.

The word advisor itself signifies that your job is to advice individuals regarding their investments and financial planning. However, to give good advice, one has to be good with understanding the basics and also whatever update that happens. The financial industry is very dynamic and everyday there is something new to learn from it. Thus, to keep your edge, to be good at what one does, an advisor has to continuously keep on updating oneself.

Apart from the fact that you should be updated because your job is to advise someone, emerging competition from online and digital advisors is another reason why you shouldn't undermine the importance of continued education and knowledge. Even clients these days are more aware and mature and have certain expectations from their advisors. In fact, as an advisor, you also have a duty to educate your client and make them more aware, this is only possible when you yourself are aware and evolved.

Thus, to help you be better and maintain your edge, here are a few tips that will help you become more aware:

1. Keep updated on daily developments

No one expects you to be reading 10 different newspapers and magazines everyday and to be aware about everything, but as someone who's business evolves around the workings of the financial markets, it is important that you keep yourself updated on developments.

Thus, make a habit of reading a few articles everyday and understanding the direction of the market, whatever is the latest happenings and why is it happening. For example, recently the market experienced a slump because of the IL&FS crisis, now as an an individual who invests, anyone would be a little tense and thus would call up their advisor. Now, in this case, if the advisor himself/herself is not aware of the reasons, having him would make no sense to the investor. Therefore, not only is it advisable, it mandatory for an advisor to be updated with the daily developments.

2. Learn about new products

Your job is to tell an individual where he or she should invest. Thus you should know what all are the options that one can invest in. While, it is impossible to keep track of every new investment instrument that exists in the market or is newly launched, one should definitely learn about the instruments which can help your clients achieve their goals.

Also, stay updated on the performances of the current products and their relativeness to the client. Basically, stay updated with the performances of not only the products that you have suggested but also on the products that you have not suggested. This is because, you can only judge performances in a better manner when judging them in relation to other products.

3. Engage in meaningful conversations with your colleagues and industry experts

You learn not just from the traditional medium and your experiences but also from the experiences of others. Engage in conversations with other advisers, understand what outlook they have and what they are doing. Attend as many meetings and conferences as you can because you never know what you learn and also, engaging with others gives you a chance to gauge yourself, to know how deep in the water are you.

But, also, make sure that you are cutting the noise. When in the market, you will hear and listen to a lot of things, learn to chaff the wheat. Don't accept everything and also don't reject everything. Attend conferences, even we at NJ arrange for periodical sessions which can help you understand the market and the workings better, attend them, be active in them and take lessons home.

4. Meet your clients regularly

How will meeting your clients help you with getting better? It will help you understand your clients' needs and his perspective better, which in turn will help you understand the direction you need to take to serve them better. Also, educate your client, help him or her understand what is going on, this will help both of you in the future and also give you a better sense of confidence in your advice when you realise that you and your clients are on the same page.

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