2. Personal Development (Self Help)
It is no accident that if you search Wikipedia for “Personal Development,” it leads to a definition for “Self Help,” which supports that same expression, “If it is going to be, it is up to me.”
“Self-help or self-improvement refers to self-guided improvement — economically, intellectually, or emotionally —most frequently with a substantial psychological or spiritual basis. The basis for self-help is often self-reliance, publicly available information, or support groups where people in similar situations join together.” (Retrieved July 7, 2008)
This reminds me of an expression from years ago, “great salespeople don’t wait for sales goals to be handed down from the top, they hand them up to the top.”
3. Product Development
In business and engineering, new product development (NPD) is the term used to describe the complete process of bringing a new product or service to market. There are two parallel paths involved in the NPD process: one involves idea generation, product design, and detail engineering; the other involves market research and marketing analysis.
One of the steps in life cycle of a new product is public awareness. Financial advisors often attend product seminar events thinking that they are getting professional and personal development, when really they’re just participating in the company’s marketing strategy.
These events are valid and useful, as long as advisors don’t use them as a replacement for other development and education activities.
This article was originally published in Curing The Unmet Needs Disease © Simon Reilly 2008
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