CHRISISM #4 - Job vs Opportunity

24 November 2015

In a job who determines your income? Your employer i.e. somebody else, and unless you happen to have large amounts of inherited wealth, it will be your income that determines your lifestyle i.e. where you live, what car you drive, where you go on holiday etc. So if somebody else is determining your income, who is determining your lifestyle? Somebody else.

An opportunity turns this model on its head. In an opportunity, YOU determine your lifestyle i.e. where you live, what car you drive, where you go on holiday etc. and as a direct result of those lifestyle choices, you go out and do what is necessary to generate the income required.

Can you spot the difference between these two scenarios? It can be summed up by one word, namely CONTROL. I have realised ever since I became a financial adviser that I was in complete control of how much income I generated, because my income would be determined by the number of clients I took on board, which in turn would be determined by the number of people I sat in front of, which in turn would be determined by the number of invitations I extended to people to come and see me, which would be purely down to my level of activity. Who has always been in control of my activity? ME. Therefore who has always been in control of my income? ME.

So financial services has always been a vehicle that can take you wherever you want to go, but even if you are sitting in the driving seat of a vehicle that can take you wherever you want to go, where is it going to take you if you don’t know where that is? Nowhere.     

And that gives rise to the importance of purpose and goals - but that is for another day.

The Risk Workshop by Chris Unwin

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