How My First Paying Work Prepared Me to Be a Successful Advisor

Think about your first paying work. Not your first formal job, but the first work for which you expected and received payment.

Maybe it was mowing lawns, babysitting, delivering newspapers, or a retail or fast-food gig. It’s easy to underestimate how foundational these early work experiences are for our future careers.

This Labor Day, we asked a dozen financial advisors to link the lessons they took from their first paying work experiences to their success as financial services professionals today. We hope these stories will inspire you to remember your first paying work and consider how much of your professional success was instilled long before you formally started your career.