A tale of two advisors

Here’s one of my favorite hypothetical scenarios: Let’s imagine two professionals in the same field. We’ll call them Advisor A and Advisor B. They have the same educational background, the same training and the same resources and connections. They even have similar personalities and work ethics. But when we put them out in the field, Advisor A does better than Advisor B.

If these advisors are virtually identical in every respect, how can their results be so much different? The simplest explanation is that for each, the way his world is occurring to him is fundamentally different. Each views his work, the people he interacts with and, of course, himself through an entirely different prism.

Advisor A might see his work as being important to the people he works with—something they need in their lives. He may believe that the world is as a safe and friendly place, where what he has to offer is welcome. He may see clients and prospects as open and interested to doing what they need to do for their families. And he may see the people he works with as good people who are there to support him.

Advisor B, on the other hand, may have a different view of his world. Maybe his world is a difficult, unfriendly place, where he has to struggle to succeed. Maybe he sees himself as a “salesperson,” someone who bothers his prospects when he contacts them. Perhaps he sees clients and prospects as closed, difficult and deceitful and the people he works with as making his life more difficult.

When Advisor B feels he is not succeeding, he tries to imitate Advisor A or enrolls in yet another course to learn another way to do what he already knows how to do. He experiments with the latest and most advanced strategies and language nuances and finds that none of them work.