Success as a Financial Advisor For Dummies

Chapter 2

Deciding Whether You’re Geared to Be a Financial Advisor

IN THIS CHAPTER

Figuring out whether you have the right personality for the job

Ensuring that you want to be a financial advisor for the right reasons

Making the commitment to lead and serve

Prior to making any career decision, conduct a self-assessment to ensure that the financial-advisory career is right for you and that you’re likely to be a good fit for it. Many people spend a great deal of time and money pursuing a career that they’re not well suited for only to discover later that they don’t like the work or aren’t qualified to do it.

Being a successful financial advisor requires the right mix of nature and nurture. Nature and formative life experience provide the personality traits, values, and motivation required to be successful in the field. Nurture (education, training, and job experience) provides the knowledge and skills. Although you can acquire knowledge and skills later in life, personality, values, and motivation can be difficult to change. For example, if humility and supportiveness aren’t built into your DNA, they can be tough to develop.

In this chapter, I provide guidance for performing a self-assessment ...