I was an investment broker for almost 20 years. For the most part I loved it, giving it my heart and soul. I worked hard for the clients and for the firms I worked for. The rewards were great. I was Vice President of Drexel Burnham Lambert and for PaineWebber. That meant that my production was in the upper quartile firm wide and at PaineWebber my production was second or third highest in the offic...

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I was an investment broker for almost 20 years. For the most part I loved it, giving it my heart and soul. I worked hard for the clients and for the firms I worked for. The rewards were great. I was Vice President of Drexel Burnham Lambert and for PaineWebber. That meant that my production was in the upper quartile firm wide and at PaineWebber my production was second or third highest in the office. I drove a cool car, had a nice house and was able to provide opportunities for my wife to finish her graduate education and a private education for my daughter. The entire experience provided me with a tremendous amount of personal gratification.
Then, a confluence of events in my personal life changed things. Some of them were completely of my own making while some were completely out of my control. There was a tragic death in my family, my marriage ended and my parents' marriage ended. All of this happened over a 2 year period. All told, the events shook me to the core.
Suddenly, the numbers that floated across my screen in the office lost their meaning. The things that stirred me to achievement prior to that time, no longer moved me. Without going into great detail, suffice it to say, it was time for a career change.
I was one of those rare birds who knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up by the age of fourteen years old. In fact, by the age of eight, I already knew half of what I wanted to be. It was not to be a stock broker. It was to be a writer. By the time I was 14 I completed the other half of that by knowing that I wanted to be a therapist. Then, in my 40's, I was taken to my core. It was time to either move forward toward my vision, or drone on in the direction of something I thought I "should" do. I must tell you: if I had thought I was going to be able to slug out a six figure income with no heart in the business, I would have stayed in the same career, because it is what I knew and it felt safe to me. But, I just didn't know how I was going to make it happen. That is what moved me.
I have the greatest regard for people in the financial community. They work hard and care for their clients. Some of the most honorable people I have ever known reside on Wall Street. It was not, however, where my heart was and life brought me to my heart.
One of the things that drives me as a Coach is to help people compress the time it takes them to get from realization to actualization of their goals. I experienced a tremendous amount of noise in my head that slowed me down in making the move that was essential for me to make. Much of the noise made a lot of logical sense and was supported socially. But the fact is that it was not going to work because I couldn't work it any more. My experience has been borne out by client after client: our biggest roadblocks to progress amount to little more than our own resistance to what we know in our heart to be true. Logic can support anything, but without the energy of our heart, it is seldom accomplished.
My strategies are designed to break through resistance quicker and more completely so as to be able to be committed to a goal that is already in the heart.