New life
I love my new life. I was scared I wouldn't be able to handle leaving for work at 6 and coming home at 7 every weekday. I didn't think I had it in me to do all this and still be motivated to do my job well and to have a life. As it turns out, I'm doing just fine. This week was easier to get through than last week. Week one was hard because I couldn't sleep at night and I was very tired during the day. This week was much easier. I only fell asleep on the train once and that was because I forgot to bring reading material so I had nothing to do for my 50 minute ride. I know it's ok to sleep on the train, but I don't like it. I'm afraid I'll wake up at penn station in NYC. I'm also getting used to wearing a suit everyday. I can take my jacket off when I get in if I want to, but I study better when I feel as professional as I can and the jacket is part of that.
So here is how my job goes (quckly) and I'm going to get into the actual interesting stuff. I get off the train at 7:30 am in morristown, get some breakfast and a 2 copies of the wallstreet journal, and go into work. Me and Helder (my co-trainee and office sharer) are normally the only ones in at that time besides a couple of the older guys who are in at that time every day. I give him his paper, we shoot the shit for about 5 minutes, then it's to my series 7 prep book. I study for about 2 hours and Brian comes in. Brian is a guy with 5 years experience who has the authority to make us cold call people for him to try and find leads. It helps us because we're on the phone, it helps him make money. I don't like it at all because I'd rather be getting ahead in my studies, but I don't have much choice, so I call aprox. 68 people a day. I have been doing well with my calling. I have had something like 10 yeses out of 30 actual contacts and I'm feeling very confident on the phone. So after Brian (who will from this point forward be known as Clark Kent due to his Clark Kent like hair) leaves, I got back to studying. I take a few tests, call st.louis a few times to get some help, and by the time I look up from my book it's 3pm. The last 2 hours are hard because I've been reading page after page of difficult shit for the past 6 hours, but I'm getting better at buckling down later in the day and it's not so bad.
5pm rolls around and I'm off to catch the 5:30 train. I ride home, read my wallstreet journal that I didn't have time to read all day, and I get home at 7.
Here's the good part (for me):
Last week all I wanted to do was get home, eat, get on the internet for an hour or so and go to bed. I didn't want anything to do with talking to people, making plans, nothing. When friday rolled around all I could think about doing was sleeping and reclining in my chair. That was all I did last weekend and it felt great. I was recharged and ready for week2. This weekend I'm feeling very different and it's so encouraging that I feel great. Friday night I didn't want to be in my house. Hear that, world? I didn't want to be in my house last night. I was driving home and I wanted to make plans to go out and do something for the first time in YEARS. I didn't feel like a hermit anymore! I was getting to the point, for a while, where all I wanted was to be left alone. I didnt' want to see anybody or do anything. I stood up friends, didn't see people I should want to see, I didn't have anything I wanted to do besides sit in my house and either sleep or play video games and that's all changed! I don't knwo what it is. It may be the regular sleep pattern or the weight off my shoulders that now my life isn't a mess. It may be that I got great news this week about my future or that I'm enjoying my job. I don't know where the magic bullet came from, but last night, and today, I wanted to go out and do something!
Oh, before I go too far, the great news I got was how well some of our senior brokers are doing. One of our guys, who isn't our best guy, is averaging $110,000 a MONTH in residuals. A month, in residuals, not counting the new business he brings in. From my standpoint, knowing what I have to bring in to have a decent check every month, it was looking quite ominous. I only get about 1.25% of every investment over the life of the investment. The residuals (aka trails) don't kick in until the 13th month and you can get a small commission from the security holder (corporation that funds mutual fund, etc) at the time of the sale. That boils down to bringing in 5 million to make $50,000 a year. Sounded impossible and I saw myself being broke for a long time. Now, hearing that little tid bit made me feel soooo much better because it's very possible, at my specific office, to bring in VERY good money. It's all in how you do it, and if it comes down to selling, I'll do just fine. It's still going to take time, but if there is all that money out there just waiting to be invested, I'll find a way to get my piece of the pie.
Back to tonight. You may be asking youself why I didn't do anything this weekend if I was so pumped to get out. There are two reasons for this. The first is that it was snowing like crazy, the second is that the snow knocked out my cell phone. I've never had a problem with service since I got my phone and for the past 48 hours... nothing. Not a bit of service. My guess is a tower was knocked out in the storm. It was super icy and that normally can do it. Should I have just picked up my house phone and called people from there? Yes. Did I think of that before just now? No.
I am jumping all over, but I haven't been posting much (as you can see) and my mind is racing about what I want to say. After I heard about how much money the good brokers make at my office I got on the train and opened my wsj and it had a section called "The Weekend Journal." inside. I keep seeing announcements that they are putting out a weekend issue soon and I guess this is how they are promoting it. I open it up, flip through a few pages of how to entertain yourself when you think way too highly of your social status, and then I got to the real estate section. It was called something like, Elite Executive Real Estate, or something close to that. I was looking at these houses that make all 3 houses my family's ever owned put together look like a shed and I thought to myself, "damn, I never really wanted a big house, but these are amazing. I wonder what kind of people buy these...." and I stopped. What kind of people look in the wall street journal for their next house? What people have the money to buy a 5.5 million dollar mansion? Who lives this life? Me. I do. This could be MY life. I dont' think any time soon I'm going to see more than 40 or 50 grand in a year, but holy shit. That is where I could be if I work hard. I could be one of the people in a house like that. I could be living that life. I could have that kinda money. Me. The guy who used to do immitations of animals being hit by lawn mowers, the guy who wouldn't have went to college if he didn't play football, the guy who picked the easiest business major just because that was what his father reccomended and he didn't give a shit what degree he got, the guy who skipped more classes than he went to and drank till he blacked out twice a week, the guy who wore the same FU football sweats for almost an entire semester, the guy who peddled hair buzzers and knock off watches, the guy who stood in a box and pushed cell phones in a place with no service, me. Me. I was actually stunned sitting on that train. I wanted to go home and study so hard that I would know that damn series 7 inside and out. I wanted to thank my dad for making me go to school and giving me the cash I needed to make it through comfortably. I wanted to just thank everyone who'd pushed me to do well even though my own sloth kept me back at all chances. Am I making the money now? No. Do I have a guarantee that I will? No. Can I fail miserably? Yes. The thing that is making me so excited is that I made it. I made it in to a job faire and portrayed myself in a way that got me a desk in an office overlooking a cemetary in Morristown with my own computer and phone, and chair and everything. This is like every sports analogy you can think of. I have the ball in my hands now. Everything is in place. I'm 10 feet from the basket with a clear line to the hole. The play worked great and there it is, my chance. I got myself to this spot and I'm proud. I have every tool at my disposal, every piece is in place, and everything is perfect. It's all on me now and I will not fail.
Again, thank you everyone who saw more in me than I saw in myself.
And if you were wondering when this trend of laziness started... birth. When I was in kindergarten my teachers had me evaluated and I passed with such flying colors that they wanted me to read up on some stuff and basically skip a grade. All I had to do was read a book, take some tests, and come back to school in september a 2nd grader after my kindergarten summer. My mother gave me the option to do it or not do it... I didn't do it. My buddy Jason did. Jason is married with a couple kids and has a job as an engineer down in virginia making huge money....... I just realized I'm not doing too shabby either, am I? ahahahahahaha. I'm glad I enjoyed my summer.
So here is how my job goes (quckly) and I'm going to get into the actual interesting stuff. I get off the train at 7:30 am in morristown, get some breakfast and a 2 copies of the wallstreet journal, and go into work. Me and Helder (my co-trainee and office sharer) are normally the only ones in at that time besides a couple of the older guys who are in at that time every day. I give him his paper, we shoot the shit for about 5 minutes, then it's to my series 7 prep book. I study for about 2 hours and Brian comes in. Brian is a guy with 5 years experience who has the authority to make us cold call people for him to try and find leads. It helps us because we're on the phone, it helps him make money. I don't like it at all because I'd rather be getting ahead in my studies, but I don't have much choice, so I call aprox. 68 people a day. I have been doing well with my calling. I have had something like 10 yeses out of 30 actual contacts and I'm feeling very confident on the phone. So after Brian (who will from this point forward be known as Clark Kent due to his Clark Kent like hair) leaves, I got back to studying. I take a few tests, call st.louis a few times to get some help, and by the time I look up from my book it's 3pm. The last 2 hours are hard because I've been reading page after page of difficult shit for the past 6 hours, but I'm getting better at buckling down later in the day and it's not so bad.
5pm rolls around and I'm off to catch the 5:30 train. I ride home, read my wallstreet journal that I didn't have time to read all day, and I get home at 7.
Here's the good part (for me):
Last week all I wanted to do was get home, eat, get on the internet for an hour or so and go to bed. I didn't want anything to do with talking to people, making plans, nothing. When friday rolled around all I could think about doing was sleeping and reclining in my chair. That was all I did last weekend and it felt great. I was recharged and ready for week2. This weekend I'm feeling very different and it's so encouraging that I feel great. Friday night I didn't want to be in my house. Hear that, world? I didn't want to be in my house last night. I was driving home and I wanted to make plans to go out and do something for the first time in YEARS. I didn't feel like a hermit anymore! I was getting to the point, for a while, where all I wanted was to be left alone. I didnt' want to see anybody or do anything. I stood up friends, didn't see people I should want to see, I didn't have anything I wanted to do besides sit in my house and either sleep or play video games and that's all changed! I don't knwo what it is. It may be the regular sleep pattern or the weight off my shoulders that now my life isn't a mess. It may be that I got great news this week about my future or that I'm enjoying my job. I don't know where the magic bullet came from, but last night, and today, I wanted to go out and do something!
Oh, before I go too far, the great news I got was how well some of our senior brokers are doing. One of our guys, who isn't our best guy, is averaging $110,000 a MONTH in residuals. A month, in residuals, not counting the new business he brings in. From my standpoint, knowing what I have to bring in to have a decent check every month, it was looking quite ominous. I only get about 1.25% of every investment over the life of the investment. The residuals (aka trails) don't kick in until the 13th month and you can get a small commission from the security holder (corporation that funds mutual fund, etc) at the time of the sale. That boils down to bringing in 5 million to make $50,000 a year. Sounded impossible and I saw myself being broke for a long time. Now, hearing that little tid bit made me feel soooo much better because it's very possible, at my specific office, to bring in VERY good money. It's all in how you do it, and if it comes down to selling, I'll do just fine. It's still going to take time, but if there is all that money out there just waiting to be invested, I'll find a way to get my piece of the pie.
Back to tonight. You may be asking youself why I didn't do anything this weekend if I was so pumped to get out. There are two reasons for this. The first is that it was snowing like crazy, the second is that the snow knocked out my cell phone. I've never had a problem with service since I got my phone and for the past 48 hours... nothing. Not a bit of service. My guess is a tower was knocked out in the storm. It was super icy and that normally can do it. Should I have just picked up my house phone and called people from there? Yes. Did I think of that before just now? No.
I am jumping all over, but I haven't been posting much (as you can see) and my mind is racing about what I want to say. After I heard about how much money the good brokers make at my office I got on the train and opened my wsj and it had a section called "The Weekend Journal." inside. I keep seeing announcements that they are putting out a weekend issue soon and I guess this is how they are promoting it. I open it up, flip through a few pages of how to entertain yourself when you think way too highly of your social status, and then I got to the real estate section. It was called something like, Elite Executive Real Estate, or something close to that. I was looking at these houses that make all 3 houses my family's ever owned put together look like a shed and I thought to myself, "damn, I never really wanted a big house, but these are amazing. I wonder what kind of people buy these...." and I stopped. What kind of people look in the wall street journal for their next house? What people have the money to buy a 5.5 million dollar mansion? Who lives this life? Me. I do. This could be MY life. I dont' think any time soon I'm going to see more than 40 or 50 grand in a year, but holy shit. That is where I could be if I work hard. I could be one of the people in a house like that. I could be living that life. I could have that kinda money. Me. The guy who used to do immitations of animals being hit by lawn mowers, the guy who wouldn't have went to college if he didn't play football, the guy who picked the easiest business major just because that was what his father reccomended and he didn't give a shit what degree he got, the guy who skipped more classes than he went to and drank till he blacked out twice a week, the guy who wore the same FU football sweats for almost an entire semester, the guy who peddled hair buzzers and knock off watches, the guy who stood in a box and pushed cell phones in a place with no service, me. Me. I was actually stunned sitting on that train. I wanted to go home and study so hard that I would know that damn series 7 inside and out. I wanted to thank my dad for making me go to school and giving me the cash I needed to make it through comfortably. I wanted to just thank everyone who'd pushed me to do well even though my own sloth kept me back at all chances. Am I making the money now? No. Do I have a guarantee that I will? No. Can I fail miserably? Yes. The thing that is making me so excited is that I made it. I made it in to a job faire and portrayed myself in a way that got me a desk in an office overlooking a cemetary in Morristown with my own computer and phone, and chair and everything. This is like every sports analogy you can think of. I have the ball in my hands now. Everything is in place. I'm 10 feet from the basket with a clear line to the hole. The play worked great and there it is, my chance. I got myself to this spot and I'm proud. I have every tool at my disposal, every piece is in place, and everything is perfect. It's all on me now and I will not fail.
Again, thank you everyone who saw more in me than I saw in myself.
And if you were wondering when this trend of laziness started... birth. When I was in kindergarten my teachers had me evaluated and I passed with such flying colors that they wanted me to read up on some stuff and basically skip a grade. All I had to do was read a book, take some tests, and come back to school in september a 2nd grader after my kindergarten summer. My mother gave me the option to do it or not do it... I didn't do it. My buddy Jason did. Jason is married with a couple kids and has a job as an engineer down in virginia making huge money....... I just realized I'm not doing too shabby either, am I? ahahahahahaha. I'm glad I enjoyed my summer.
posted by NJX70 at 11:19 PM
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