Success starts by recognizing that you are different and unconventional.

I had the pleasure to meet my first mentor cum ex-boss recently in a convention. We have both aged since we first met about 19 years ago. It was nostalgic. Although we are with different companies now, we have reached our career objectives respectively in our life.

Looking back, my mentor recruited me when I was still working in a bank. I wanted change from my banking career then and being introvert, it was crazy of me to jump into the insurance industry with no whatsoever background except for passing three examination papers. It was tough then but I survived and achieved my little success today. 

On the topic of recruitment, we lamented that there are many qualified financial advisers in the market but crazy ones.......so rare! We agreed that when one is afraid to fail, the room for improvement is very small. As time goes by, commitments and age will catch up.  These become chains make it even harder for them  to accept new opportunities as the risk of losing what they have now becomes more real and painful to exchange for greater rewards.

One thing to add from my wife :
If you want to succeed and achieve something, do it in the shortest time possible. Following the crowd slows you down.

I have to agree to her logic.  Why subject to protocol if you can create a better and more efficient path? :)

All this while I have been preaching Opportunities. To me, it's the biblical similarity to the Samaritan or a.k.a "helping hand" in my own definition. Even opportunity itself may not have a sweet transition. It may cause you to initially lose some to potentially gain more. It's the start of doing something crazy to reach your dream, perhaps faster. I received the same opportunity years back and I believe in paying-it-forward.

If your chains aren't heavy and crazy enough to want to reach your success story earlier, pm me for a chat.