The Right Time to Seize an Opportunity

When is it the right or appropriate time to seize an opportunity? I think that it is when everything is aligned in such a way that you have the greatest ability to maximize said opportunity. Having said that, let’s consider where we are today at HBW.

First, we have developed the most amazing compensation system ever devised. This system is unique in that it rewards our most productive producers, base shop builders and organizational builders. An 8 generation override structure and increasing compensation as your production grows. Add to that the Charter designation with the ability to combine all production for higher comp and revenue sharing among other things, and you have a powerful formula for success.

Next we have our own exclusive product from American General, HBW Income Advantage Term, that gives us a distinct edge in the term insurance market. This product was designed for us because of our long-term commitment to AG and our history of large amounts of quality production. This product gives us the ability to provide true income replacement for our clients, as well as the lump sums needed to handle a premature death.

Now, in addition to our Broker/Dealer, HBW Securities LLC, we have added HBW Advisory Services LLC, one of the most exciting businesses I have ever seen and one of the most compelling. Giving our associates the opportunity to develop assets under management and the resulting steady stream of income is an absolute game-changer in the commission only world we have lived in. Also, because it is so compelling, we are able to recruit many new people who may have previously been uninterested in some of the other things available at HBW.

When you consider all the innovations and developments at HBW over the last couple of years and further realize that we operate in a learning culture, always looking for new ways to innovate and develop better methods of growing a business, it seems to me that now is the absolute best time to focus on building the business of your dreams!

Planning for Success

It has been my observation over the years that many people seem somewhat cavalier about their success. They never really make specific plans or decide what is important as they drift through life. Much of this in my opinion is due to the lack of a long-term vision in conjunction with too much focus on the immediate gratification reflex which we all have. It appears to me that there is also often a natural fear of failure that manifests itself in acting “cool” possibly to hide these personal insecurities.

On the other hand, the most successful people make a plan, focusing on what they want to accomplish, and diligently follow that plan to meet their objectives. Incidentally, I am not just talking about success in monetary terms. Successful families have a plan for how they want to raise their children and the expectations for same. The same can be said for successful marriages; something as simple as never taking for granted a great relationship is integral for long-term marital success.

Are you treating your success and business in a cavalier manner and just drifting along, hoping something good will happen? Or, are you focused diligently on your goals, specific in what you are trying to accomplish and taking steps to plan for the future?

To give you some examples, HBW as a company, has long-term goals, which are very specific on what we would like to accomplish. We have a goal of developing 5,000 Charter Vice Presidents throughout the United States which would make us the largest independent distribution in the country. In order to accomplish this goal, a great amount of planning has gone and continues to go into developing relationships, systems, compensation models, infrastructure and so much more.

We also have shorter-term goals that require specific, intense planning. This includes such things as our regional FasTrack meetings scheduled on all across the country throughout the year, as well as an annual incentive trip and training convention. These meetings take months and sometimes years in planning.

Are you planning on attending these events which are so critical to your success? For us, this is just an everyday, regular part of business and business planning, seeking every opportunity to help our associates maximize their opportunities.

Are you planning for your success? Are you looking ahead one month, 1 year and even 5 years to project where you want to be? This is absolutely critical for your success. It is difficult to arrive at a destination if you have no idea where you want to go and what you plan to do to get there!

As we have always said, “Most people don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan.”

Attitude

Recently, I gave a talk where I asked the audience a few of questions and the response was extremely revealing to me. Let me say in advance that I believe that reading books, particularly biographies, studying successful people is a huge key to success. Learning from their experiences, and their attitudes about business, life and what makes them tick gives us perspective on what we need to do to experience that success ourselves. The first question was, how many of you read the newspapers and practically every hand went up. The next question was how many of you watch the news and practically every hand went up again. The final question was how many of you have read the last book I placed on our website, “How I Raised Myself From Failure To Success In Selling” by Frank Bettger and practically no hands went up.

The point is that what you put in your head matters. What we think about is what we get. If we watch the news and read the newspapers, we get all the problems and troubles in the world. If you don’t believe me, look at the front page of your newspaper today. Tell me if you think that war, budget cuts, plane crashes, job losses, murders, political partisanship battles, etc is helping you build your business. Yes, you say, but I need to know what is going on in the world. My reply is why? Are you in public office? How is filling your head with that stuff going to help you succeed? If it is really important, believe me, everyone will be talking about it and trying to make sure you are as miserable as they are.

In 1980 I attended a three day sales training class conducted by Tom Hopkins. Besides sales techniques, Tom taught about the attitude people needed to develop in order to become top sales producers. He talked about how to reduce and stop the habit of worrying and about how to deal with the “no’s”. He also spoke about how, if you want to be successful you must stop watching the news and reading the newspaper in order to maintain a positive attitude because you can’t succeed in sales without a positive attitude. The news and newspapers will absolutely destroy that positive attitude you need to succeed. From that point forward I stopped watching the news and reading the newspaper except, the sports section until even that became too negative with drugs and the malice and mayhem of professional sports.



I have spent years focusing on what I want while eliminating thoughts about what I don’t want and all the negativity that bombards us daily. In order to get what I want, which is to be part of the building of a great company, I focus on that and ignore the reasons why people will tell me it can’t be done. I have become very adept at fighting off negativity and the people who attempt to deliver that news.

As I have said for years, you will win in spite of your circumstances, not because of them. Regardless of the economy, winners will find a way to win and others will make excuses as to why they can’t succeed. Winners will continue to stay positive by reading every book they can find on how others have and continue to win and go to every possible meeting and training event they can find in order to accomplish their goals. Others will make excuses about why they can’t afford to buy that book or attend that meeting and training. They will say that they have “heard it all before”.

My reply is that they obviously haven’t heard it all before because if they had really heard what the successful people were saying, they would far less likely be in the situation they are of not being able or willing to read the books or attend events.

In closing, if you want your world to change, you need to change. Remember that your brain is a computer and the expression GIGO, garbage in, garbage out, remains true. Read every book that you can, the library has almost every one we recommend. Attend every meeting you can. If you can’t afford it, change your thinking and find a way, because if you say you can’t afford to go, what you are really saying is that you can’t afford not to go. And when you go, really listen, really observe, really work, really study the people who are succeeding and accomplishing what you dream of accomplishing. Only through your focusing on what you really want, will you be able to create the life and world you want.