To all. A little inspirational piece from Tom's nightly Market Report. Thought I'd give y'all a chance to read it :-)
SETTING GOALS & "POWER OF PURPOSE"
Tom Dorsey & Dr. Judd Biasiotto
Some of you know Dr. Judd Biasiotto from our Stockbroker
Institute where he came to speak, others know him as a world
champion powerlifter (at 132lbs he squatted 605lbs for a world
record and a strength feat still unsurpassed). He's definitely been an
inspiration to me in my powerlifting endeavors and much of his
motivational writing has helped me attain heights I never thought
possible. Over the years I have found many similarities in being a
world class powerlifter and a world class stockbroker. At Dorsey,
Wright we are devoted to helping you attain world class status in the
brokerage business. I have jointly written a number of articles with
Dr. Judd and printed them in this report. In a recent article in
Powerlifting Magazine Judd discussed how he retired from lifting in
1983 because he had more or less lost his direction as an athlete. He
would still go to the gym to work out but his heart just wasn't into it.
He goes on to say, "My heart just wasn't in it. I didn't have any clear
cut goal or purpose for training. Consequently, I stumbled through
my workouts, never really knowing where I was going and never
really getting anywhere. My workouts had no intensity and I had no
drive or desire. Take my word for it, not having a goal is the worst
thing that can happen to an athlete or anyone else for that matter.
Goals are essential to success. Without goals there is no direction, no
hope, no growth. Every human being must have a purpose in his life
just to stay alive."
I experienced exactly that when I was a stockbroker in the
1970's. I really had no goals each day other than to do production. It
was a constant scramble for production without any clear cut goals.
The idea was to simply get as many clients as we could and do as
much production as possible and the branch manager would be happy
and we would have a better life. Production did come, but growth did
not. I have seen many brokers leave the business because their heart
just wasn't into it. They had no goal and as Judd said, simply
stumbled through each day never really having a direction. How
many of you stumble through each day, with no clear cut goal or
purpose for being in the office? Look around you. How many
brokers do you know that come in each day with no ideas and no
direction? Look around you.
To truly succeed in this business, or any other business, you
must have purpose. You must have something to look forward to and
hope for. When you lose purpose in what you're doing you're lost. "I
believe this was never more evident than with Mike Tyson, the
former heavyweight champion of the world. When Tyson first
turned pro his goal was to become the greatest heavyweight
champion ever. That goal was extremely important to Tyson. In
fact, that's the only thing he ever talked about, or for that matter, ever
thought about . It was his sole purpose in life. That one goal kept
Tyson on track. He sacrificed everything for it. He didn't drink, he
didn't date, he wouldn't even leave his training camp. All he did was
train. He was totally driven toward achieveing his goal. In the ring
he was relentless - a madman. He would beat his opponents from
one end of the ring to the other. Some of the beatings he dished out
were merciless.
When he claimed the heavyweight championship of the
world at twenty-one he was already considered the greatest champion
of all time. Here's where he began his downfall. Instead of looking
forward to further growth, he looked at immediate gratification.
Does this sound familiar? I use to look for immediate gratification in
the way of commissions today instead of growth tomorrow. Are you
in that mode now? Well, it was the beginning of the end for Tyson.
He remained on the defensive, always trying to defend his present
position instead of going on the offensive and trying to attain new
goals. He started going out nights in pursuit of the things he
previously avoided. He slacked off on his training. And then do you
know what happened? An average fighter by the name of Buster
Douglas knocked him out. It was one of the greatest upsets in the
history of boxing. I watched it. When Buster Douglas was
interviewed after the fight, do you know what he said? "My sole
purpose in life these last six months was to beat Tyson. That's all I
thought about. He was the first thing on my mind when I would
wake up in the morning and the last thing on my mind when I went to
bed. When I'd fall asleep, I would dream about beating him. If there
was anything else going on in the world I didn't know about, because
my mind had just one thing on it - beating Tyson."
Goals are not just visions. They are visions that are acted
upon. Unlike Tyson, once you meet your initial goal, don't stop
there. At Dorsey, Wright we keep meeting goals and then strive for
others. It's the journey we love here. The goals we attain here are
merely stepping stones to a never ending quest to continue
maintaining our World Class status. You as a stockbroker should
also continue striving for or maintaining your World Class status.
Every positive outcome we that we experience is an ultimate triumph
for what we have worked so hard to achieve and will create yet
another inner driving ambition for what we have yet to do. Once we
are truly able to believe and have confidence in ourselves, our goals,
and our inner abilities - the sky's the limit. The key word is
confidence in your abilities. This comes from study and hard work
but once you have confidence that you can make money and manage
risk for your customers, your potential in this business is limitless.
Let's see how we might go about developing such a systematic goal
oriented program.
1. First, set goals that are realistic and flexible. Don't set your goal
so high you ensure failure. Don't set a goal of a 300 pound
bench press in four months when you are only a 200 pound
bencher now. Unrealistic goals will lead to frustration and
eventually failure. Setting a goal to call 200 new prospects a day
might be unrealistic but 20 might be right in the ball park.
Conversely, don't set your goals too low. Keep your goals just
out of reach, not out of site.
2. Develop a heirachy of goals. Put each goal in writing. Establish
primary, secondary and long term goals. In the gym my goal is
to capture the raw masters bench press American Record. I was
able to attain the American Record for the Dead Lift. I did not
quit there. I focused on my next goal. I still have 50 lbs. to add
on to my current lift to reach this goal. I am on a 3 month
program now to add 20 lbs. to my current lift. Each week in the
gym I increase my poundage by 6.6 lbs. from the previous week.
My goals are short term small and incremental but long term
American Record. As a broker your goal might be 1 million in
production. You might be at half a million now. If you only
target larger clientele, unlike I did when I was a broker, you
might reach your goal in two years if you make 20 outgoing
calls, with actual contact to the prospect each day. That should
result in about 400 new contacts a month which is about 4800
contacts a year. Let's say you only close 5% which is 240 new
accounts with a minimum of $100,000 in assets. Let's also
assume you have the confidence in your abilities to keep them
and not give them away to someone else to manage. At a 1%
return for you this should be in the ball park of $240,000 in new
production a year or $500,000 in two years. The short term goal
is 20 calls a day where you talk to the prospect. Monthly it is
400. Maybe you go a couple of days and have to double up on
some individual days. That's okay, still the intermediate goal is
400 a month. And long term it's 4800 a year with $500,000 in
new production generated over the next two years.
3. Often achieving your goals will include a number of other
considerations. You might want to create a sheet listing the
obstacles associated with that goal. These obstacles may include,
lack of technical service to fit with your firm's fundamental
work. It might include lack of fundamental work that you have
confidence in. Not enough sales support. Manager who does not
support your endeavors. Lack of strong knowledge in managing
equity accounts. Time restrictions because of family
requirements, children's school, sports etc. Once you have
identified the obstacles to your goals, identify the people who can
help you. This list might include, wife, parents, books and
institutes for education, and believe it or not getting in shape
physically might take you a long way in achieving this goal.
Having outlined this information, you can now construct a game
plan. Now all that is required is ACTION on your part.
4. Remember, merely writing a goal down does not guarantee that
you will achieve it. As mentioned, goals are more than just
visions; they are visions being acted upon. In my new book
Thriving as a Broker in the 21st Century, which comes out this
August from Bloomberg Press, is full of ideas on how to build a
solid business. The book is a series of interviews from brokers
who I am sure will thrive in the 21st century. They all pour their
soul out to you on how they do it from prospecting to
consistently making money in the stockmarket. Stay tuned for
it.
WHAT DOES RISK LEVEL BEAR CORRECTION MEAN?
From page 101 of Point & Figure Charting: "This type of
market indicates a pause in the bear market, in which stocks will
retrace some of their decline. This phase is characterized by a 6%
reversal into a column of X's from above the 30% level from a Bear
Confirmed status_ The bear correction risk level is like a red light
changing to flashing red. It may be okay to proceed through the
intersection, but be sure to stop, look both ways for Mack trucks, and
be fully aware that the opposing traffic has the right of way. Good
stop-loss points must be established on any new long stock
commitments here. Bear Confirmed status is likely to return soon. A
reversal back down into a column of O's reverts the risk level back to
Bear Confirmed."
I thought it would be helpful to quote out of my book. Bear
Correction is often short lived and results from an oversold condition
in the market. Remember the first quarter the sector distribution had
a major stage left shift while the Dow Jones made new highs totally
masking the real market action. The resulting rally caused the
market to broaden out thus causing the Bullish Percent to reverse up.
Keep clearly in mind that this reversal changes the risk level from
Red light to Flashing Red light. Govern yourself accordingly. If the
market can tack on enough net new buy signals to hit the 60% level
the risk factor will change to Bull Confirmed by exceeding that
previous top at 58%. It has not happened yet so we continue to
operate under Bear Correction. Stops are very important, and buying
at support equally as important. |
