Week 1

What a week. This job still is not a reality to me. I hop on the train at 6:30 in the morning in my suit and ride into morristown. I then walk to the office building, get my copy of the wallstreet journal and some coffee and I'm off. I then sit and study from my series 7 prep book from 8am to 5pm. At 5 I pack up and walk back down to the train station and come home. I hop off at the hackettstown station at 6:30 PM and I'm home by 7. It feels SOOOO good to be able to get up at the same time every morning and get home at a reasonable hour every night. When I'm selling I'll be spending a couple nights a week and a few saturdays a month in the office, but that won't be a problem because I will be doing those things to improve my sales and make more loot. I brought my book home to study this weekend, but haven't really advanced that much. I was behind a day from where St. Louis (headquarters) says I should be because I got my books a day late, but I'm just about caught up now. I just need to keep at it and I'll be fine. I've been testing well and believe I'm really learning a lot. I am being trained with another guy named Helder, and there is a third person in my office named Ari. Ari (Harry without the H) has allready passed his series 7 and has his health and life certifications, but he's still in training. He's a great help because all the crap I have to know for this test is still fresh in his mind. Helder is great too because it's someone going through the same shit and someone to talk to. I really hope we both make it.

That being said, I don't know what happens if I don't pass the test, but I'm not going to find out either. Best advice I've received has come from about 10 different people: Learn the shit, take the test, forget the shit. Allegidly once you've passed the exam you can forget everything you've learned. From what I can tell, this studying gives me knowledge of everything having to do with securities, but once I'm ok to start selling, all I really need to know is the product because I'll be selling it just like anything else.

I did my first round of cold calls on friday. I dialed 38 people, talked to 8, and 3 wanted our mailing (my only goal was to get them to OK us to send them a simple mailing). This selling shit is simple. I bet I'm going to be just fine once I"m out on my own.

I'm trying to wind down from the weekend of sleeping and studying so I'm ready to rock and roll again tomorrow morning. This doesn't feel real and I'm sure it won't for a long time. Oh, and anyone who has any connections to apartments in Morristown, let me know. The sooner I get moved into my own place the better.