Ramakant Mahawar, an IFA from Kolkata recently participated in a confidence building workshop organized by Reliance Mutual Fund. The workshop had ‘fire-walking’ as an activity to help the IFAs build confidence.
“The game might sound impossible but it helped me to build my confidence,” says Ramakant. The participants had to walk on fire. Ramakant was so scared initially to walk on fire, he refused to do the act. But when he saw others enthusiastically participating, he also went ahead to complete the task.
“After walking on fire, I felt nothing is impossible in this world. We were taught that if we have confidence in our self we can achieve anything,” expresses Ramakant.
“To sell equity mutual fund in volatile market is nothing compared to walking on fire. The workshop helped me to strengthen my confidence and believe in the advice that I give to clients. The workshop taught me that, to progress professionally, I need to believe and be confident in whatever I do; then only I can confidently manage clients and grow my business,” claims Ramakant.
Subhabrata Ghosh, IFA decided to shift to advisory from distribution after he was advised by his mentor to develop a sustainable model to survive in the business.
Subhabrata received his best advice from his mentor Anil Talaiya, who was in charge of training IFAs in N J India Investment. “MrTalaiya used to narrate a short story of two friends and their professional life. The story inspired me and made me realize the fact that I need to develop a sustainable model to survive in the industry,” says Subhabrata.
The short story that inspired Subhabrata is narrated below:
There were two friends who supplied water in a village. Both of them had to walk miles to get water and then supply it to villagers. One day they realized that they can’t carry on this job in their old age. One of the friends started constructing a pipe-line and but the other carried on his regular job as usual without thinking of an alternative solution.
It took two years for the friend to construct the pipe-line; meanwhile his other friend lost the job. So, the friend who wisely developed a sustainable model enjoyed supplying water to villagers without walking miles.
After listening to this story, I thought of shifting my business model to advisory from mere distribution. Due to advancement in technology, clients can invest online or through mobile. But good advice can only be given personally as every individual is a different investor.
“So, I did my CFP so that I can provide a complete financial advisory to clients,” says Subhabrata.
