Seems to me that the unmet needs that some non-values based financial advisors and investment advisors are trying to fulfill through money are not doing it and this is what I suspect is contributing to the problems that Jim Ruta is talking about in is October 6th, 2009 Blog – We Have Definitely Outsmarted Ourselves Now.
Financial advisors and investment advisors need to switch to becoming values based financial advisors and values based investment advisors.
Here are a few of Jim’s thoughts from his Blog;
- The average number of insurance sales per agent in Canada has dropped to fifteen (15). Yep, just 15. This used to be what you had to hand on the first day of a sales campaign to stay in the top five. 1.25 sales per month?
- Even then, more than 50% of life insurance sales are still replacements of existing business. So, just how much new “human life value” are we really protecting anymore?
To read all of Jim’s Blog, click We Have Definitely Outsmarted Ourselves Now.
Maslow’s identified the concept of unmet needs theory back in 1955.
This was right at the time of the advent of the electronic babysitter. 1955 was the advent of the electronic babysitter where children were put in front of this device and it took care of getting all their needs met instead of the parents. What am I talking about? TV. Now, to a certain extent, these same baby boomers have grown to adulthood and sometimes they, along with their generation X & Y offspring can’t put down their new electronic baby sitter, the Blackberry, iPhone, iPod or MP3 player.
The baby boomers’ parents were the Traditionalists born between 1927 and 1945 who went through a world war or two and the great depression. It’s my guess that they had no idea how to deal with their emotions and just stuffed them below the surface so they could go through the pain that they were going through.
When the boom of post world war two came along with the onslaught of the baby boomers, baby boomers were told, you are never going to have it as tough as I had it, you can have everything, but you may not deserve it while today’s generation X & Y children were told you can have everything that you deserve and have it all right now.
The electronic baby sitter and you can have set the stage for the lack of fulfillment that many baby boomers are starting to feel because while they have the art, boats, cars, clothes, cottages, homes, money, motorcycles, relationships, wine and travel an emptiness prevails along with; “is this all there is?”, and “what am I doing this for?”, and “what is the use?”. What’s worse, some of their offspring generation X & Y children lack ambition because they live an even more instant gratification world with the attention span off a nat.
This helps to explain why a lot of generation X & Y are not joining the ranks of the financial advisors where the average age of today’s financial advisor is 59 years old.
Why should generation X & Y want to be a financial advisor? The answer might lie in their observation of their parents chasing the dream of you can have it all, medicating their unmet needs outside of themselves, chasing art, boats, cars, clothes, cottages, homes, money, motorcycles, relationships, wine and travel while leaving their families behind to emotionally fend for themselves. You can’t give what you don’t have.
This explains the advent of the coaching movement, people might even want to hire a coach or a “fulfillment planner” rather than a financial advisor because they have got the money and it does not mean a lot to them.
This also explains the lack luster performance of a lot of financial advisors and investment advisors because they unconsciously thought that they could get their unmet needs met from money and possessions and when the reality of money and possessions don’t buy you happiness sets in with “is this all there is?”, and “what am I doing this for?”, and “what is the use?”, they have a total lack of inspiration.
Perhaps this ties in the concept of Affluenza.
Affluenza is what people go through when they get instant money through an inheritance or through winning a lottery.
They believe all along that if they could just get this money along with the art, boats, cars, clothes, cottages, homes, motorcycles, relationships, wine and travel that went along with it, then they would truly be happy.
Problem is, once the feeling of the windfall is over they are right back where they started except they now have the negative belief of “what is wrong with me” combined with the negative emotions of despair and sadness all fueled by the granddaddy of all unmet needs; worthiness.
What is really sad here is The Laws OF Attraction Are Absolute; you create what you focus on. If you keep asking “what is wrong with me” you will find the answer.
Be careful what you wish for.
International Values and Behavioral Analyst, Business Coach, Speaker and Author
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