[quote=ribsnwhiskey]

  Did you wear a dark suit, white shirt and red tie while putting the one of the original 21 flavors in a cone? 

[/quote]

you'll need a jerry garcia tie if you're serving 31 flavors-- for the freaks and to camoflage the stains....and don't forget to slip the customer a new client form to sign at the same time they're signing their credit card receipts....

You’re doing so poorly you have to charge an ice cream cone?

[quote=NASD Newbie]You're doing so poorly you have to charge an ice cream cone?[/quote]

no, it's when i start following your marketing advise seriously, you'll need to worry about me...

errrr...you were joking about the serving-ice-cream-in-a-tie-thingy, right?

The noun is advice, the verb is advise.  Please children don’t strut your stupidity as if you are peacocks.

Take your own advice old man.

[quote=NASD Newbie]The noun is advice, the verb is advise.  Please children don't strut your stupidity as if you are peacocks.[/quote]

i know, i just can't type it consistantly correctly for some reason...that it upsets you, is only a collateral benefit.

[quote=TexasRep]

[quote=NASD Newbie]The noun is advice, the verb is advise.  Please children don't strut your stupidity as if you are peacocks.[/quote]

i know, i just can't type it consistantly correctly for some reason...that it upsets you, is only a collateral benefit.

[/quote]

Don't flatter yourself--I've been around long enough to not let anything upset me.

[quote=NASD Newbie]

Chris, you really should learn to write–what you presented above reveals an immature kid.

That carries over to the rest of your world.

Poor Chris--he started a message board and nobody came.

Any wonder why with all that anger.

NASD Newbie

well, i suppose most people who try to be in this business or actually become successful in this business are egotistical to a certain extent. I can write very effectively with absolutely no spelling or grammatical mistakes. people in my office tell me all the time that they thought i was older than 22 at initial meeting/intro. i am not immature and conduct appointments and phone conversations in a very professional manner.

i haven’t been checking this board because i’m busy prospecting.

last friday i had a good close:

1. $160k wrap account
2. $12k life insurance annual premium
3. $50k variable annuity

this was from a cold call! but i most definitely need to push my marketing, which up to this point has been nonexistent.

it’s funny … i really don’t care when anyone says i’m too young to be in this business. my skin is pretty thick and i actually think there are a few advantages to being young. half the battle of survival in the financial services industry (or any sales field) is maintaining a positive attitude at all times. so to wrap up, nasd newbie, let’s encourage each other and not bash people on a freakin forum.

Why don’t you know that sentences begin with a capital letter?

After asking for encouragement, you are still behaving like an immature child. I hope you don’t treat clients this way.

I have a couple of questions for you:

1. How long have you been in the business? (Losers always complain and are afraid of losing. Winners put crap behind them and aren’t afraid to lose. )
2. Why are you posting on this forum 24/7 and not growing your business? (1000 posts in approximately 2 weeks  )
3. How many spelling bees have you won as a child? (I won 2 competitions. )

*edit - I was mistaken. You’ve been a member since Aug '05. So you have 1000 posts in 1 year. But you love to tease 1 minute after I put up a post.

registeredchris,

Your odds are more against your when you are young, but that shouldn't discourage you.  There are older advisors who fail too who don't have as much energy as you do and who are not as flexible.  I find that the ones who made it being young penetrated a niche market.  Rather than market to every person out there, focus on a group that you build the best rapport with. 

If you are apart of a tight knit country club, I'd milk the heck out those people.  If you have lots of engineering friends in corporations, I'd penetrate that.  If you have medical school friends, I'd piggy back off of them. 

If you focus on the quality of the relationship with people you naturally would be friends with, you will gather more assets and not feel miserable doing so. 

[quote=JimmytheRocker]

registeredchris,

Your odds are more against your when you are young, but that shouldn't discourage you.  There are older advisors who fail too who don't have as much energy as you do and who are not as flexible.  I find that the ones who made it being young penetrated a niche market.  Rather than market to every person out there, focus on a group that you build the best rapport with. 

If you are apart of a tight knit country club, I'd milk the heck out those people.  If you have lots of engineering friends in corporations, I'd penetrate that.  If you have medical school friends, I'd piggy back off of them. 

If you focus on the quality of the relationship with people you naturally would be friends with, you will gather more assets and not feel miserable doing so. 

[/quote]

If you're 22 and a "part" of a country club you're probably the kid who rakes the sand traps--you'll have zero credibility with the 55 year old guys who you see around the putting green.

If you're 22 and you have engineer friends those friends are also starting their careers and will have approximately zero investable income, and even less influence with the older engineers with whom they work.  Those older engineers almost certainly have a broker already, so why would they want to meet the friend of one of their junior associates?

If you're 22 and you have friends in medical school you have friends who have no time, or money to invest.  They won't know anybody to refer you to who has any time or money.

What you do is you wait.  You come into this business when you're at a point in your life when you have some investable assets because if you don't there is no reason to think your peer group does either.

Give it the Mom and Dad test--if they wouldn't trust you with their retirement why should somebody else's Mom ann Dad trust you either?

There are two twenty-two year old kids.  One goes to work at Smith Barney as an assistant on a team.  The other goes to work at Prudental Insurance.

Thirteen years later the kid who went to Smith Barney has left Smith Barney and is working at Prudential with his buddy.  The buddy, having not already failed at Smith Barney, is recruited by them and by the time he's 45 he's crusing.

Meanwhile the other buddy, who is still at Prudential is doing OK, in fact not bad at all.  But he's disappointed that he failed as a stock broker and ended up as an insurance agent--instead of the other way around.

Do it right, and you'll only do it once.

I’d say a 22 year old who looks 26 or 27 can work with those between the ages of 22 to 35.  To survive, he’ll be selling lots of cash value life insurance.  Most in this age bracket are not going to have 100s of thousands of dollars to move around, but can definitely save $300/month.  If suitable, have them dump it all in a whole life policy and that’s $3k commission right there.  Closing 4-6 accounts a month is not bad for a 22 year old.

I have a 25 year old friend who is Japanese american, who struggled his first year.  Now he would never consider talking to a 55 year old white male in a country club about financial planning. He gets in where other brokers could not.  Other japanese americans...since that market is underserved, he sweeps through like a wild fire. 

[quote=JimmytheRocker]

I have a 25 year old friend who is Japanese american, who struggled his first year.  Now he would never consider talking to a 55 year old white male in a country club about financial planning. He gets in where other brokers could not.  Other japanese americans...since that market is underserved, he sweeps through like a wild fire. 

[/quote]

Let me see if I have this right.  You're using the example of a 25 year old Japanese kid sweeping through the Japanese community to suggest that a 25 year old American kid can similarly sweep through the American community?

Maybe if he's in Japan servicing the American ex-pats who are there--but 25 year old American kids are fairly common in Baltimore--even in Denver.

Please do not listen to NASD Newbie and his pathetic syntax. You can succeed in this business if you are young. I am 24 years old at MS and I have been in the business for two years, I have 30mm under management and I am looking to add another 12mm this year.

I have been following some of his responses and I have troube finding one positive insight that he has to offer. I do not think his wife or his kids like him because God knows that no one on this discussion board does. I cannot speak for him but I would not model anything that I do after him.

You want to be successful in this business this is how you do it, no matter what your age is.

(1) Business plan - You must have a business plan, develop your target market and stick to the plan. Some are broad and some are very specific. Mine was broad because I wanted to adapt to changes and implement them as needed.

(2) Don’t waste time - Who gives a flip what the market is doing. Educate yourself about the market at home, not at work. Remain active and be in contact with people. The more people you talk to, the better your chances of having success quickly.

(3) Work, work, work - Success in any industry is not easy. Do you think it was easy for me to graduate from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan? Hell no, I had to bust my ass. Let me tell you though, I thought it was a lot harder than this business is. The people that tell you that it is hard have probably never been challenged much in life. Born with a silver spoon in their mouth I am sure. This is not an 8 - 5 your first 5 years.

(4) Be optimistic - Do not listen to people on this board who want to bring you down and say sh*t like, you will fail because of your age blah, blah, blah. That is a load of crap. Your age does not matter, maturity perhaps. Then this is where NASD Newbie comes back and says, “how many 24 year olds do you know that are mature?”. Well dildo, I know alot, but I also know 30, 40, and 50 year olds that are not very mature also.

Success or failure hinders on your ATTITUDE. The formula for success is preparation.

God Bless

What does, "Success or failure hinders on your ATTITUDE" mean?

Regardless of what this child has to say, it is stupid to attempt this business until you're at least thirty--and being thirty five would be even better.

It takes a hell of a lot more than hard work and attitude.

Also remember, anybody can come on here and say anything they want.  Ross School of Business at Michigan?  Maybe, who knows.

$30 million AUM?  Perhaps, who knows.

Morgan Stanley?  Who knows.

What you do know is there are several older guys who have said that if they could do it again they'd wait till they were older--and there are thousands of younger guys who took their Series 7 test when they were twenty-two.  Then proceded to wash out within five years.

As I mentioned earlier, it seems so curious that kids will ask advice then ignore it as if those of us who really know what it's all about are crazy, and that only the two year veteran 24 year olds know the truth.