Why it should be about more than the money... sometimes.

F or the friends and acquaintances reading this, who might not know, High level: When you transact with a financial services institution / broker / financial planner or consultant “they” are remunerated based on commission for a “successful transaction” and our business view is they ABSOLUTELY earned every cent. In fact, we prefer it.

Reason being, in certain instances their commission/s are held over them like a guillotine, because if “you” the client leave within a set period (this is nuanced and differs based on the type of transaction) the planner must return those commissions to the insurer. In a nutshell, we’re rewarded for always being on form, always on call and always accountable and when not.. the broker/Financial planner or consultant must return that remuneration.

Sure, there are many nuances as to why people choose to leave or change providers and some very much justified, and in those instances that are justified, yes, pay it back.

But think about this; Accounting firm “A” completes an audit for Business B. 18 months later the CEO of business B makes a string of bad choices, and the business goes under. Does that justify accounting firm “A” having to repay their fees to Business B? No, it does not, that would be ludicrous. The accounting firm delivered on their part of the deal, regardless of the “CEO” making a whole cluster of errors.

Practically there are very few instances of that firm getting their revenue taken away with the same instantaneousness and swiftness of a commission claw- back (another industry word for commission recovery).

But... There are times and moments where we are given an opportunity to give back for no other reason but goodness and kindness.

Moments and opportunities such as this, even if you don’t make a single cent and lose a bunch of your time, can challenge your perspective and problem-solving ability, because of the scarcity of their financial resources.

This year I was given the opportunity to work with a young man, for the sake of this story and to protect his privacy, I’m going to call him “Sam (21)”, whom I’ve known by virtue of the obligatory “good morning” in our office building for about 2 years now. One day, Sam came into my office and said: “You guys are financial planners, right? I need some help.”

Sam and I started speaking and as it turns out, Sam has had a rough go at things in his young life not unlike many young South Africans have, along with very little guidance or support from his parents or a mentor of any kind (which is unfortunately something not uncommon, in our society. This resulted in Sam making some truly reckless financial decisions, (the kind where you use your credit card to gamble in the hopes of getting rich fast). Sam had up and to this point managed to work any job he could get to make sure he is self-sustaining even though his ambition to be great had far exceeded his current circumstance.

In a nutshell, Sam wanted a quick fix out of the situation he placed himself in and wanted to start over. It dawned on me that I needed to help Sam and that if I do, I most certainly would not be paid, which is a difficult pill to swallow considering my whole career I’ve been remunerated on my outputs.

Without much deliberation it felt like the opportunity to help someone had truly landed at my feet, and so I got going.

Sam needs a perspective change to reform his habits and views on how life and money works, unfortunately there are no seriously sustainable quick fixes on this road.

To do this I gave Sam small, simple selfimprovement tasks that required a checkin as a condition for my help. These tasks slowly became more difficult in the context of breaking well vested habits and thought patterns, but every time Sam rose to the occasion, and stumbled poor habits were broken through consistent education and guidance.

Fast forward 10 months, Sam has squashed his consumer debt, (that debt equated to about 6X his income when we started) got rid of a couple of bad influences from his circle, (of his own accord) and had achieved a major goal that every young man has, he bought his first car without any help from others.

This allowed for Sam to step into a new job, which has now resulted in Sam being able to move into an apartment that is his own space.

My interactions with Sam have made me no money but looking at the year behind us and the successes we’ve seen in business, this one person has been an incredibly valuable part of my journey with people, business and community.

“Sam”, if you’re reading this, know that I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to work with you, and I’m incredibly proud of what YOU have achieved.

*The information in article does not, and is not intended to, constitute financial advice and materials on this site are for general informational purposes only.