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Business Rule #5:
Be Your Own Best Financial Advisor
October 7, 2004
Okay, so Donald Trump happens to be a hero of mine—sue me. But hey, here at The Apprentice Rules, I gotta call them as I see them and Trump, you were wrong… to a degree. Pamela really fired up those troops and got them to work together as a team! I think that that is a success in itself.
Should Pamela have considered her teammates’ concerns over the pricing more?—sure. Did she have to? No. As I have written in this very column, “success, contrary to popular belief, is not a team effort.”
The ladies team has never worked well together and for once they got some initiative and drive—some focus. Pamela brought them together, guided them well, and in the end lost by ten dollars. TEN LOUSY BUCKS!!! I do understand Trump’s point of view, “a loss is a loss,” but I want to consider and discuss how Pamela actually did the right thing and that is: be your own best financial advisor!
I can’t tell you how many people go out and hire financial advisors and how many of these same people are destroyed by the very consultants they have retained to help preserve and grow their wealth.
When it comes to picking a pricing team, a financial advisor, or even a chief financial officer, have the confidence to rely on your own judgment. Be informed. Read and study reliable publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, BusinessWeek, and Fortune. Here in Chicago, we have the wonderful Crain’s Business Week. It’s terrific, even though, on occasion, they say some negative things about me—and they haven’t listed me as one of the Top 5 business people in Chicago… yet.
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If you read these financial publications for a while, you'll start to pick up on things. You’ll get a feel for what’s happening in the market, which funds are the best, and who the top advisors are.
There are any number of firms that make good money providing companies with comprehensive charts and information on the best returns and pricing strategies for your business. They promote themselves as being capable of guiding you and your company down the golden road to success. Sometimes it’s true, sometimes it’s not. I personally prefer to lead my company myself—my way. Pamela chose to do the same and unfortunately lost. But by leading her way, she managed to control those other women and brought them the closest to winning since the first episode: their team’s first and only victory.
Pamela made a decision based on her product, customer market, and average competitor price. Not bad. I even like her moxie in telling Trump, “It was a tie!” Not bad at all. She made a decision—a solid one at that—and almost pulled out a win, instead of listening to those felines on her team and losing for sure. If she had let them have their way, her teammates would have been no better than all those consulting firms I mentioned. They would have dragged out everything as they usually do, and Pamela would have lost by a much larger margin. That’s why success is a leader-driven destination. You must think big and make great decisions, because at the end of the day, you’re in it alone.
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I can’t tell you how many people go out and hire financial advisors and how many of these same people are destroyed by the very consultants they have retained to help preserve and grow their wealth.
