My boss, a veteran in the brokerage business and a respected man in his field (sits on several financial boards and often gave interviews to the press), gave us newbies a so-called induction speech recently... which I think is pretty truthful and humbling for anyone who wants to survive the corporate jungle out there, particularly in the sales industry. The following are essential pointers I took from his presentation:
1) You & Your Customer
- Your investing style versus that of your customer
You have to establish a rapport with your client. You need to have certain quality that your client trust and have confidence in, at least enough to put their money with. In a nutshell, you have to make your client like you. Question is: how to? You look to your left and your right. Your colleagues are certainly much uglier than you, lesser of a smooth talker than you're and definitely have a worser dress sense. You thought you know more, looks better and talks better. But strangely enough, you don't attract higher margins than the one beside you. What's wrong? You may be having the wrong bunch of clientele on hand that just doesn't click with you.
If you're the sort that likes to entertain clients in pubs or KTVs or enjoys the vibrant night life of our island city, your portfolio of clientele should comprises of such people. If you're the geek or bookworm type who loaths such places and only orders Coke or orange juice at pubs, then your clientle should ideally comprises a majority of the non-drinking groupies.
Let's face it, you can't possibly LIKE every single person on the face of the Earth. You can try faking it. But faking won't stand the trial of time. People can see through fakers. Recognize that people are attracted to specfic kinds of character that exudes a certain appeal.
- Don't make nuisance call
Take view of the market. Prepare your pitch to the client. Always do your homework. The last thing you want your client to have is an impression of a dealer dying to close a trade and making a last ditch to push up his/her quarterly sales figures. If you aren't adding value to the client, you're just another nuisance call he/she has to deal with. A bad experience is enough to make the client avoid your calls and emails from that time onwards. And forget about hearing from him/her, ever again.
- Your client pays to blame you
Things can and will go wrong. Question is: what went wrong and who's responsibility is it? Instinctively, as human beings, it's always outward-looking when it comes to the blaming game. Our mentality is: as long as someone gets the blame, we're off the hook. So in the event of something really goes wrong, you need to find something or someone to cover your ass with. Some of you may know what I'm talking about. There're people out there who are extremely good at covering their trail. For newbie trader like us, we've got the liberty to blame research reports. In the brokerage business context, when we say things go wrong, usually we're talking about losses in the monetary sense. Of course, no one complains when they make gains. The problem arises when they lose. They will blame you. They need a reason to justify their losses. And as a dealer representative, you're first to face the firing squad.
The power of money is phenomenal. It can change people. People who are personally involved in the trading of their own money get emotionally attached to the rise and fall of the market. Active investment trading has the same magical effect on people as gambling does. Greed, fear, panic and hope. A normally nice person can suddenly turn the tables against you. You're being accused of the main culprit in causing your client to lose money. They feel cheated. They take it out on you. The torrent of verbal abuse can sometimes be very personal and stinging. Just one bad incident at the office can spoil your day and leave you in a bad mood for the rest of the day. Veterans brokers have advised us not to take your work home. Leave your emotions at the workplace. Easier said than done apparently. If it's so simple to let go of your baggage, we will see road rage, depression and mental cases going down instead of skyrocketing isn't it? You can't just wave the magic wand and wish it go away.
Finger-pointing is such a common phenomenon in the working world. Just make sure that when you point your finger at someone, the 4 other fingers doesn't point back at yourself.
In short, there should be a fit between you and your client, considering the long-term win-win situation for both of you. You sub-consciously tag certain labels to your clients. He's a punter type... my kind of 'preferred' client. They come in fast and furious.... lose their pants and gone like the wind. Next. She's a just a housewife... she won't know the difference between a blue-chip and a penny stock. That old ah pek always calls and asks, "Eh... this stock... can buy or not AH?"Oh, not him again... What does he want?" when you see his name flashing on your handphone. In the end, you spent 30 mins talking to a fellow who speaks like 60 words per min and only gave you minimal commission. The implication is clear-cut. A choice is made here. You spend more time talking to people who contribute a larger portion of your pay and lesser time to those who don't. In economic lingo, it's called 'maximising returns'.
- "Show me the MONEY"
In the brokerage or any sales job, results counts. Your immediate superior may not like your face. She thinks you've got a serious attitude problem. She doesn't like your sloppiness, can't stand the way you talk over the phone, the more-than-desirable occasional M.C, etc. But as long as your customer doesn't have any problems digesting their food while hearing you present your case, you generate income for the company, your customer who pays your salary, and bonuses (mind you) are ultimately YOUR BOSS whom you serve. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter your superior likes and treats your colleague better than you. Whoever brings in the bigger dough is the winner. You take home a bigger paycheck. Yes, it's a cruel, dog-eat-dog world out there. So what if you're a nice guy, pleases the boss by licking his boots. Favoritism doesn't last in the sales industry. Your sales determine your market value. Not your boss.
2) 3 Kinds of People
-MAKE things happen
-WATCH what happens
-WONDER what has happened
We must always bear in mind to progress from 'wondering' to 'watching' and finally 'making' and not move in the reverse order.
In a jungle, you either eat or get eaten. You've got to feed to survive and at the same time, avoid becoming a meal for predators.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Guilty As Sin
I hated being accused of something I didn't do. Being accused of a mistake through no fault of yours can be the worst feeling one can get. And it always seem that a lump get stuck down your throat. It feels as though God suddenly struck you dumb. Nothing comes out and it gives the tormentor more ammunition and satisfaction to rant on and on and on... coz he feels that the reason you're keeping mum is you're wrong and he now got the right to speak his mind.
Somehow, from childhood, I always get the blame. And when I grew up, I tend to be more accomodating and tolerant towards stuffs that happen around me. Perhaps I'm slow to articulate, didn't know how to defend myself and didn't want to come forth as a confrontational person. I think it's time to stand up and say things like, "Hey, I'm no pushover. I'm not intimidated by whoever you are. You can be my senior, my boss, but status doesn't gain you respect; how you carry yourself does. I've my rights too!"
Sad to say, even in the 21st century where we're right now, the problem that plagued our ancestors still haunt us today, even with the advent of technology like Bluetooth, Skype, e-mail - miscommunication; and I believe this will go on for future generations to come. Technology can't solve everything. At least not this, from what I see, not now, not ever. I quote from a powerpoint presentation someone sent me recently, "Know that 2 persons can see the SAME thing and yet have entirely DIFFERENT interpretions." The fundamental problem of communication still baffles us even with more gadgets and infrastructure in place. This thought always comes to mind, "Did he heard wrongly or did I not make myself clear? Somehow the message got lost in space. Lost in translation" This lead to many a misunderstandling and the way people react to it may result in strained work relations.
It never fails to amaze me how people can carry grudges in their hearts for years. They remember who had wounded them. The memory is etched deep within the inner walls of their heart. And they can't let go of the hatchet. So each time they see that person, they are reminded of the old hurt till it burns. And I'm actually ashamed to say that it's not exclusive to ladies. I know a pair of my college guy classmates who didn't talk to each other for 2 whole years just because one guy stood the other up once. And they were close friends for more than 2 years before that. Thankfully, they've reconciled, but not before we graduated from college. So who's childish now, who's the big baby? Are we adults, being so-called more 'intellectually developed' worse off than our children? C'mon, grow up! Didn't we encourage those kids who got into fights in school to shake hands and be friends again? Why can't we do that for ourselves? Well, if I were first to say sorry, it would mean I admit I'm at fault right? It always boils down to that pride issue uh... I won't burge until he offers an apology. I guess that's why Christ descended with forgiveness and love. If we could save ourselves, we wouldn't need a Saviour, would we?
Jesus once set a guilty woman free from her accusers by showing that the people who were judging her were just as guilty of sin as she was. “All right, stone her,” he said to the religious leaders who were ready, with stones in hand, to deliver the judgment she indeed deserved.
“But let those who have never sinned throw the first stones!” John 8:7 NLT
This incident shows us something very important about our purpose as Christians living in a world of sinners. Our job is not to pass judgment on sinners, but to identify with them. The Pharisees and religious leaders were trying to separate themselves from this sinful woman they had found in the act of committing adultery. By judging her, they were going to be able to feel much better about themselves. Jesus put a stop to their little charade by putting them in the same boat with the woman they were accusing. They were just as guilty.
It is so tempting to think, especially after being a Christian for a while and spending a lot of time around Christians, that you are better than other people. You start to separate yourself from sinners, forgetting it was your sin that brought you to Christ in the first place. I know this because I’m so good at it.
The Gospel comes best from people who identify with the sins of others, because they have become so familiar with their own sins. It is noted in the account that as the self-righteous leaders were convicted by the presence of sin in their own lives, “they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest.” John 8:9 NLT
That makes sense. The oldest should be the ones most aware of their own sinfulness. There comes a time in your life when you can’t fool yourself anymore. There were probably a few young, arrogant idealists who hung on as long as possible, but even they had to finally give in to the truth about their own guilt.
The proliferation of both spoken and unspoken judgment found primarily within us, the Church, has forced many into the world, unarmed and without knowing a Christian friend and mutual sinner. We are constantly trying to separate ourselves from a world that Jesus wants us in. Not only that, he wants us to see our own sin and not make such a big fuss over everyone else’s. We seem to always use a different moral scale for ourselves and for others. We tend to be more lenient on ourselves and stricter and more harsh on other people's sins. We always think he or she is a bigger sinner than I am. That's why our prayers are sometimes focused on other people's struggles, rather than our own. We need to pray for our sins as well. Our sin is our connection with our neighbor, our salvation is our hope, and the good news of the Gospel is our message.
People can spot a mile away the hypocrisy of the Gospel of forgiveness of sin coming from someone who thinks he himself doesn’t need it. Somehow somewhere, we've lost it. The meaning and significance of His redemption, of His Coming. We think just because we are Christians, we don't need His cloak of forgiveness as much as non-believers. Ya, we're bigger than those minor sins like gambling, pornography and addiction. We have overcome those. They don't bother me anymore. Often we let our guard down. And the enemy loves to strike when we least expected. Christians need to realise that they are as vulnerable to sin as any other non-believer. Your arrogance and overconfidence may cause your downfall. You are your worst enemy. That's why we need a daily dose of His love, His Word to sustain us thorough our daily battles. Claim His victory, sound the horn, raise the banner, we are more than overcomers!
“When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O Lord God Almighty.” Jeremiah 15:16
Anorexia and bulimia are mind-crippling diseases that only function where food is plentiful. There are way too many starving people on this Earth, but most of them can’t help it. Where they live there is not enough food to go around. It is ironically tragic that people can starve to death in the midst of plenty.
What happens in the physical world is almost always an illustration of something like it in spiritual realms. And in spiritual terms, there is nothing more tragic than to have Christians starving spiritually with an overabundance of Bibles and teachers everywhere.
I don’t know a lot about anorexia and bulimia, but I do know that they are fueled by a culture that glorifies being thin, and that those who purposely starve themselves have a false view of themselves as being overweight. They look in the mirror and see a fat person regardless of how thin they are.
The quote comes to my mind, "I'm not who you think I'm. I'm who I think you think I'm." Make sense to you? We're constantly shaped by how we think the world perceives us. Unless you live by yourself and is self-sufficient, as long as you interact with human beings, we're susceptible to imprisoning ourselves by our own assumptions and presumptions of what others think. Sometimes, we are confused as to who we really are. Identity crisis they call it. I know impressionable teenagers suffer frequently from that. Well, I did when I was that age. We all went through that phase in life. Becoming, or pretending to be someone I wasn't that is.
The spiritual implications are obvious here as well. Our culture is awash in its own shallowness. We even glory in it. Shallowness and stupidity are celebrated in many of our most popular movies. I worry that as democracies begin to flourish around the world, it seems that the lifestyle of American culture goes along with them through the power of music and entertainment. We are exporting our own emptiness. And yet when we look at ourselves in a spiritual way, we look fat with so much cultural Christianity. Never in history has a culture looked more Christian while being so spiritually dead. We are, indeed, the spiritually anorexic.
What changes this picture is a commitment to the truth of God’s Word and a constant diet of it in our spiritual lives. And you have to do this yourself. No one can save an anorexic person; each has to decide to eat. The Word of God is spiritual soul food, and if you are spiritually starved, that’s only because you are not eating. We need to get a more realistic view of ourselves. We may look fat to ourselves, but in truth, we are thin, near death, and we need to eat – and food is plentiful.
Just pick up your Bible and feed.
Somehow, from childhood, I always get the blame. And when I grew up, I tend to be more accomodating and tolerant towards stuffs that happen around me. Perhaps I'm slow to articulate, didn't know how to defend myself and didn't want to come forth as a confrontational person. I think it's time to stand up and say things like, "Hey, I'm no pushover. I'm not intimidated by whoever you are. You can be my senior, my boss, but status doesn't gain you respect; how you carry yourself does. I've my rights too!"
Sad to say, even in the 21st century where we're right now, the problem that plagued our ancestors still haunt us today, even with the advent of technology like Bluetooth, Skype, e-mail - miscommunication; and I believe this will go on for future generations to come. Technology can't solve everything. At least not this, from what I see, not now, not ever. I quote from a powerpoint presentation someone sent me recently, "Know that 2 persons can see the SAME thing and yet have entirely DIFFERENT interpretions." The fundamental problem of communication still baffles us even with more gadgets and infrastructure in place. This thought always comes to mind, "Did he heard wrongly or did I not make myself clear? Somehow the message got lost in space. Lost in translation" This lead to many a misunderstandling and the way people react to it may result in strained work relations.
It never fails to amaze me how people can carry grudges in their hearts for years. They remember who had wounded them. The memory is etched deep within the inner walls of their heart. And they can't let go of the hatchet. So each time they see that person, they are reminded of the old hurt till it burns. And I'm actually ashamed to say that it's not exclusive to ladies. I know a pair of my college guy classmates who didn't talk to each other for 2 whole years just because one guy stood the other up once. And they were close friends for more than 2 years before that. Thankfully, they've reconciled, but not before we graduated from college. So who's childish now, who's the big baby? Are we adults, being so-called more 'intellectually developed' worse off than our children? C'mon, grow up! Didn't we encourage those kids who got into fights in school to shake hands and be friends again? Why can't we do that for ourselves? Well, if I were first to say sorry, it would mean I admit I'm at fault right? It always boils down to that pride issue uh... I won't burge until he offers an apology. I guess that's why Christ descended with forgiveness and love. If we could save ourselves, we wouldn't need a Saviour, would we?
Jesus once set a guilty woman free from her accusers by showing that the people who were judging her were just as guilty of sin as she was. “All right, stone her,” he said to the religious leaders who were ready, with stones in hand, to deliver the judgment she indeed deserved.
“But let those who have never sinned throw the first stones!” John 8:7 NLT
This incident shows us something very important about our purpose as Christians living in a world of sinners. Our job is not to pass judgment on sinners, but to identify with them. The Pharisees and religious leaders were trying to separate themselves from this sinful woman they had found in the act of committing adultery. By judging her, they were going to be able to feel much better about themselves. Jesus put a stop to their little charade by putting them in the same boat with the woman they were accusing. They were just as guilty.
It is so tempting to think, especially after being a Christian for a while and spending a lot of time around Christians, that you are better than other people. You start to separate yourself from sinners, forgetting it was your sin that brought you to Christ in the first place. I know this because I’m so good at it.
The Gospel comes best from people who identify with the sins of others, because they have become so familiar with their own sins. It is noted in the account that as the self-righteous leaders were convicted by the presence of sin in their own lives, “they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest.” John 8:9 NLT
That makes sense. The oldest should be the ones most aware of their own sinfulness. There comes a time in your life when you can’t fool yourself anymore. There were probably a few young, arrogant idealists who hung on as long as possible, but even they had to finally give in to the truth about their own guilt.
The proliferation of both spoken and unspoken judgment found primarily within us, the Church, has forced many into the world, unarmed and without knowing a Christian friend and mutual sinner. We are constantly trying to separate ourselves from a world that Jesus wants us in. Not only that, he wants us to see our own sin and not make such a big fuss over everyone else’s. We seem to always use a different moral scale for ourselves and for others. We tend to be more lenient on ourselves and stricter and more harsh on other people's sins. We always think he or she is a bigger sinner than I am. That's why our prayers are sometimes focused on other people's struggles, rather than our own. We need to pray for our sins as well. Our sin is our connection with our neighbor, our salvation is our hope, and the good news of the Gospel is our message.
People can spot a mile away the hypocrisy of the Gospel of forgiveness of sin coming from someone who thinks he himself doesn’t need it. Somehow somewhere, we've lost it. The meaning and significance of His redemption, of His Coming. We think just because we are Christians, we don't need His cloak of forgiveness as much as non-believers. Ya, we're bigger than those minor sins like gambling, pornography and addiction. We have overcome those. They don't bother me anymore. Often we let our guard down. And the enemy loves to strike when we least expected. Christians need to realise that they are as vulnerable to sin as any other non-believer. Your arrogance and overconfidence may cause your downfall. You are your worst enemy. That's why we need a daily dose of His love, His Word to sustain us thorough our daily battles. Claim His victory, sound the horn, raise the banner, we are more than overcomers!
“When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O Lord God Almighty.” Jeremiah 15:16
Anorexia and bulimia are mind-crippling diseases that only function where food is plentiful. There are way too many starving people on this Earth, but most of them can’t help it. Where they live there is not enough food to go around. It is ironically tragic that people can starve to death in the midst of plenty.
What happens in the physical world is almost always an illustration of something like it in spiritual realms. And in spiritual terms, there is nothing more tragic than to have Christians starving spiritually with an overabundance of Bibles and teachers everywhere.
I don’t know a lot about anorexia and bulimia, but I do know that they are fueled by a culture that glorifies being thin, and that those who purposely starve themselves have a false view of themselves as being overweight. They look in the mirror and see a fat person regardless of how thin they are.
The quote comes to my mind, "I'm not who you think I'm. I'm who I think you think I'm." Make sense to you? We're constantly shaped by how we think the world perceives us. Unless you live by yourself and is self-sufficient, as long as you interact with human beings, we're susceptible to imprisoning ourselves by our own assumptions and presumptions of what others think. Sometimes, we are confused as to who we really are. Identity crisis they call it. I know impressionable teenagers suffer frequently from that. Well, I did when I was that age. We all went through that phase in life. Becoming, or pretending to be someone I wasn't that is.
The spiritual implications are obvious here as well. Our culture is awash in its own shallowness. We even glory in it. Shallowness and stupidity are celebrated in many of our most popular movies. I worry that as democracies begin to flourish around the world, it seems that the lifestyle of American culture goes along with them through the power of music and entertainment. We are exporting our own emptiness. And yet when we look at ourselves in a spiritual way, we look fat with so much cultural Christianity. Never in history has a culture looked more Christian while being so spiritually dead. We are, indeed, the spiritually anorexic.
What changes this picture is a commitment to the truth of God’s Word and a constant diet of it in our spiritual lives. And you have to do this yourself. No one can save an anorexic person; each has to decide to eat. The Word of God is spiritual soul food, and if you are spiritually starved, that’s only because you are not eating. We need to get a more realistic view of ourselves. We may look fat to ourselves, but in truth, we are thin, near death, and we need to eat – and food is plentiful.
Just pick up your Bible and feed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)