A while ago I was stuck.
I’d heard the saying “Money always flows to where it finds the most value” and I’d built my business around this philosophy, finding the best outcomes at the lowest cost for clients with great success.
But at the same time my own costs were increasing, and I was either going to have to pass these costs on to my clients or go broke helping them. Added to this pressure, new players (robot advisers, wealth coaches etc..) had entered the space of financial services offering even lower cost advice products (albeit with less services) and in all honesty I couldn’t compete.
My choices were:
Buy/merge become a bigger business, then seek to find and implement efficiencies, competitiveness and scale, so to remain profitable. Something that really wasn’t desirable to me if I was to be true to myself and clients, read more The Fisherman and the Banker.
Compete with these lower cost competitors; however, this would be a race to the bottom, with no winners and increased compliance risks, read more Extraordinary You
Sell out. Also, not an option because I love helping others, and I think I’m pretty darn good at delivering on my promise to help people achieve financial independence and living their ideal lives with greater confidence, read more Why Your Legacy is Greater than Your Currency
So, I was dumping this dilemma and woes on my friend David, when he said “Good, Fast, Cheap, Pick Two”. “What do you mean?” I asked.
He repeated, “You can only pick two”, smiling back at me. “Good & Cheap but won’t be Fast. Fast & Good but won’t be Cheap, and Cheap & Fast, but it won’t be Good”.
“That’s gold” I replied, and also quietly I thought “what if I could deliver on all these” i.e., Good, Fast & Cheap.
Since then, I’ve been constantly processing and trying to solve this conundrum, whist experiencing even more profound realisations.
Finding the solution has kept me up at night, helped me revaluate my choices and improve my self-confidence when dealing with difficult people. But I found it!
The solution is Trust. Trust to paraphrase Dennis Denuto in the Castle, “it’s just the vibe of it”.
It’s shared in every single individual, relationship, family, team, company, economy, country and nation.
It’s the one thing, that if removed will destroy the most powerful governments, successful business, greatest friendships and the deepest love. On the other hand, if developed and leveraged trust has the potential to create unparalleled success and prosperity in every dimension life has to offer.
And what makes trust, you may be asking? It’s simple, but not easy. Trust requires equal parts character and competence delivered in equal parts, character (what we do) & competence (how we do it), and maintaining focus of the three qualities of Good, Fast and Cheap simultaneously, and delivering greater value, every single time.
Better still, greater trust = lower costs/ cheapness, because the greater the trust the more effecient the process and the ability to reduce costs, for everyone.
And this is our mission, our value proposition, our crusade and goal. To be come the trusted advisor for everyone we work with; our clients, staff, colleagues, and industry participants whilst at the same time holding our own mirror up to ourselves.
Helping others make smarter choices about their money, for the reasons important to them, so to improve their quality of life, is a bold statement, however its also the best call to action, because an inch of action will always move a further forward than our miles of good intentions.
Moving forward I realised that the solution to my stuckness, was to be better, not bigger, and the currency of trust is far more valuable, certain and appealing than trying to compete on price alone.
Better still I had found my solution to staying in business and continue doing what I love i.e., helping others achieve financial independence and improving their quality of life.
So, if you’re stuck like I was, start by asking yourself what’s important to you, and why? And trust within yourself that you already have the answer, you just may need to ask yourself a better question, because by doing so your results will be more certain, empowering and add more value to others lives too.
If you’re still stuck in a funk or you’re lost in a cloud of complexity, feel free to contact me. Most often in life we just need someone to talk things through and to lighten our load a little.
This post was written by Me, as such they are my personal views and not financial or general advice.
You should always seek independent financial advice when it comes to choices about your personal finances. This is one area of your life where it’s worth paying for it to be done right.
Comments