I know my outward appearance is a positive, always-half-full, everything’s-gonna-be-alright kinda guy.
But the deep, dark secret I hide from the world is…
…I live in total paranoia and fear.
Not a day goes by that I’m not scared I’m not doing enough.
Is my financial planning acumen sharp enough?
Are we servicing our members at the highest level possible?
Do our people think I’m overdelivering? AM I overdelivering?
And at every turn, I get a resounding “YES!”
But it’s never enough.
I could hear how great we are a bazillion times and I’ll still worry that around the corner is a “meh, you’re alright” or worse a member actually leaves us.
Here’s the thing though.
That fear and paranoia has contributed massively to what I’ve built.
We are unlike any other financial planning firm (if that’s what you can call us) I’ve ever seen.
From monthly servicing, accountability and coaching to our flat membership fees to the demographic we serve and everything in between.
But it’s never done. There will never be a day I wake up and say to myself, “It’s finally complete. Nothing more to add. Nothing more to improve.”
I harness my paranoia to obsess with overdelivering in every area.
Thankfully, I’m in good company. In the 1997 Amazon Letter to Shareholders, Jeff Bezos wrote:
“I constantly remind our employees to be afraid, to wake up every morning terrified. Not of our competition, but of our customers… They are the ones with whom we have a relationship, and they are the ones to whom we owe a great obligation. And we consider them to be loyal to us—right up until the second that someone else offers them a better service.”
Couldn’t have said it better myself. (Although I think I just tried!)
