You’re About to See a Plan, Stan, to Set-Your-Soul-On-Fire!

Recently, I spent a day with members of a financial planning and support team.
Young and bright as buttons.

Delightful to be with.
Blissfully unaware how good they really are.
Steeped in Imposter Syndrome.

But, by ‘eck.
The room was bursting with outlandish ideas, ludicrous passion and ridiculous possibilities!

Financial Planning was hardly mentioned all day.
Far too pedestrian for this conversation.The myopic thinking of next-year’s-monetary-targets didn’t belong here either.
Not a whisper.

No. They were starting a journey to lead a business whose future sounded so breathless that they laughed loudly at their own audacity.

What boggles the mind further is this…
They’ve begun an education enabling them to make that transition work.
Turning the ridiculous into reality.
Alchemy and science.

I wish I could have bottled that day for you.
I’d have gladly let you acquire some (mates-rates, of course)

But I can reveal those elements which set their souls on fire.

Firstly, they share a carefully-crafted dream. A Passionate Purpose.

A Purpose for which they’d sweated and grafted and debated and argued…
Until the most junior voice had been invited to help give birth to what emerged.

A Purpose so gloriously real to them that it allowed them to walk through tough moments during our day together, when we stretched their minds and hearts to squeaking point.

The dream is now theirs.
Not the Boss Man’s. Not the Chief Financial Planner.
And – together – they’re gonna make it happen!

What’s unusual is that they also share… a story.
An honest-to-goodness, life-and-death, scary tale.
A tale of how their company came-to-be.
A tale which they’ll proudly tell you.
A tale which shapes their priorities and perspectives today… even though most of them weren’t there at the time.

But what visibly set them on fire that day was the Legacy these young folk are already working on.

They see today who they could be… tomorrow.
Inspiring Leaders.
Nurturing, lifting, challenging, investing in the young-graduates-who’ve-not-even-reached-university-yet.
They’re getting ready for those children
They’re getting ready to create a world where clients will want their children to come for advice.
They’re getting ready to create a place where the brightest and most creative of minds will say…
“Wow! How Did You Get the Chance to Work There?”

Now THAT is what I call forward planning!

That, Stan, is what I call a Plan!

The other this-is-how-it’s-always-been-done stuff?
The annual objectives, quarterly targets, monthly goals.
That stuff?

Yeah, they’re already on top of those.
Daily bread and butter, Stan.

No, this is much more exciting.
This is the kind of Plan which sends you home elated (and good-to-be-with) on a Friday.
And fills you with expectation and possibility on a Monday.

(By the way… your name is Stan, isn’t it?)