What's your definition of success?

Success has different meanings for different individuals. For a teacher, becoming a principal one day is success; For an amateur photographer owning a studio is success; For a class X student, scoring 90% is success, for one of his classmates 65% is success; for a mother of two raising kind and modest human beings is success.

Success is a subjective term, it can be quantity or quality, it can be financial or moral, it can be tangible or intangible, it is simply “our estimation” of “our capabilities”. It is us who define as well as conclude our success. For a financial advisor too, there may be parameters determining his/her success, and amongst them, one universal measure of success is “Assets under Management”. So, for the purpose of this passage, we'll take AUM, the strongest parameter in financial advisory practice, for defining Success.

So what's your definition of success?

Rs 10 Cr AUM?

Rs 100 Cr AUM?

Or Rs 1,000 Cr AUM?

The definition of success for any business comprises the following crucial elements:

1. The long term Vision of the business

2. The breakdown of the Vision into short term and medium term targets

And 3. The pace at which the business is heading towards the Vision, measured by the advancement made in respect of the short term and medium term targets.

So, how should a financial advisor go about defining his success and work towards achieving his success?

The first thing to do in this direction is identifying your Vision. How big do you want to become? Our success will depend upon the horizon of our thoughts and the perimeter of our strength to engineer the thoughts into reality.

So, what is Vision?

Vision is the picture of your business that you would want to see over the years. Vision is a very long term goal, and the short and medium term targets are set based on the Vision. Your vision will give you a clear view of the ultimate destination, so that you do not lose direction midway.

Based on your vision, devise a broad strategy for your business and then a step by step action plan to fulfill the vision. It is important that your vision is communicated throughout your organization, it runs in the blood of your employees and the words and actions of everyone in your organization are in sync with the vision. To effectuate this, it's important that you pen down your vision statement and communicate it extensively among your people, so that everybody is clear about what you are aspiring for.

Revisit the vision: Vision is not something that you set and forget. As your business grows, your vision must also evolve so that it does not lose relevance over time. So, when you start your advisory practice, your vision could be becoming the biggest financial distributor of your city, if you tread at a good pace in the direction of the vision, after ten years, may be your vision should be amended to becoming the biggest financial distributor of your state, or country.

Set Bigger, Realistic targets: The key ingredient in the recipe to success is not doing what is convenient, rather it depends on how much you can stretch yourself. So, if you want to become big, you must dream big, and then break your big dream into small targets and strive to achieve those targets.

Always set your sales targets a certain percentage above your existing capacity. However, do not go too overboard, do not set targets which are unachievable, it will only work to demoralize you and your team.

Monitor your progress towards the targets: Once you set your targets and start working in that direction, it's extremely important to check your progress. The review should be done regularly, like weekly or monthly, and then devise a necessary action plan to get back on track. On your Partner Desk, there is a tool, Partner Planning Utility, which can aid you in monitoring your progress. When you regularly meet your targets, you are gradually moving towards your Vision, towards your Success.

So, for every financial advisor, however big or small he/she may be, the advisors should know at all times that how far they are from their Success Point. It's essential to have a vision in mind, and then leaving no stone unturned in the Mission to achieve the Vision, is the open secret to Success.

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