Holiday Inspiration

As the year winds down I like to re-charge my own batteries by re-connecting with the people who inspire me most. This being a particularly tough year I decided it was time to make my intellectual pilgrimage to The Source...the one man who seems to reach me on the deepest level in this industry...my career-long mentor, Nick Murray. I've been re-reading some of Nick's work and listening to his CDs and I can feel the energy and passion coming back.

If you haven't read "The Game of Numbers", or "Simple Wealth, Inevitable Wealth", or listened to his CD set "On Managing Investor Behavior"...I think you should do so immediately! If you can find "Serious Money: The Art of Marketing Mutual Funds" I would read that too. Add to that "The Excellent Investment Advisor" and "The New Financial Advisor" and you have the makings of a great library.

Nick speaks to my DNA. Maybe because we are both New Yorkers, but he has a way of thinking about things and then putting those ideas into words that communicate at a sub-atomic level of common sense. I find myself listening and saying "Of course!" about a dozen times on each page or CD track.

That's not to say that his ideas are obvious...because they are not. But they make so much sense that you wonder how you could have ever thought anything else and why everyone doesn't understand this.

I talk about Nick at every meeting I do and usually I get an appropriately reverential response from the crowd. But recently I mentioned his name and got a few blank stares. That disturbed me so I had to probe further. What I discovered was that several younger/newer advisors had not heard about Nick nor read his books. This cannot be allowed!

Simply put, in my opinion you are not a legitimate financial professional unless and until you read Nick Murray's work. You are free to reject any or all of his ideas (if you wish to run the extraordinary career risk,) but you cannot be ignorant of them. More likely however you will be enlightened, entertained and excited. You may feel a renewed confidence and a hightened sense of purpose.

And don't spend time worrying about which book to read...read them all. The older ones especially will give you a deeper understanding of the history of our amazing profession which did not begin the day you were anointed with a Series 6 or 7. This understanding of recent history seems to be a huge gap in many advisors' skill set and it's an easy fix.

As I have been reading and listening these past few days I admit that I've found myself questioning some of Nick's ideas. Is this the time, I wondered to myself, to be thinking so positively and acting so assertively given all the economic uncertainty and market volatility? Are Nick's recommendations to advisors out of date, out of step, tired, old or incompatible with today's new era of financial fear and quasi-depression we seem to find oursleves in?

Then slowly the warmth began to wash over me. A small tingle at first became a wave of joy and realization. This is absolutely the time!

Folks...get ready for the ride of your lives! The next few years are going to be an explosive growth time for us. We are more valuable and necessary than ever before in human history and the time for boldness is NOW. Your clients need a confident, passionate, intelligent leader at the helm of their ship. Someone who can cut through the dense fog of media-sponsored confusion and get them home. I will continue to do my small part to help you, but I urge you to dive into the world of Nick Murray. Launch yourself from the shoulders of this great thinker and start or re-start having the career and the fun you deserve.

Thanks for the recharge Nick...and Happy Holidays to all!

You can find Nick Murray's extraordinary body of work at nickmurray.com