Musings from the CU Suite

Written by Anthony Demangone

Mandy and I finally watched "The Martian" this weekend. It was wonderful!

If you haven't seen it, don't worry. I won't give away any secrets. But I will share this.

The main character is U.S. Astronaut Mark Watney, played by Matt Damon. The poor fellow faces a series of really bad situations. 

I mean, really, really bad.

And while the movie is fiction, I grew to admire Astronaut Watney. No matter the problem, he calmly set to work to find a solution.

It was, as if, he knew that a solution already existed. He just had to think and work long enough to find it. 

 

As I was sifting through my reading pile on Sunday, an article from Forbes summed up what I felt. 

A great many professionals are extremely hard working. A great number of them also concentrate on doing what they do well. And a solid number of these professionals are confident in their technical knowledge and skills. Unfortunately for them, that confidence rarely translates into personal wealth.

In researching professionals – accountants, lawyers, financial advisors, bankers, and so forth – we find that the majority of them are equating their technical prowess with success. While there is a strong relationship between technical capabilities and achievements, it is almost never enough. There are quite a number of wealthy professionals, for instance, who are exceptional at working with people, are also technically deficient, and have become quite wealthy. On the flip side, there are a plethora of very adept professionals who are barely making ends meet.

The culture of the professions fails to empower many of them to excel. For example, it is quite common to hear from professionals why some business strategy or management concept or tax planning will not work. Picking apart the problems in some idea or plan is second nature for many of them. Those professionals, who have become self-made millionaires or are fast-tracking to do so, take a very different approach. Instead of getting sucked into the black hole of why something will not work, they will find what needs to be done to make it work. (Emphasis added.)

They will find what needs to be done to make it work.

You know those folks when you see them. You really appreciate it when you work with them. 

Here are a few questions:

• How do you spot them in the market? 
• How do you attract them to your credit union?
• During the interview process, how do you find those with that magical outlook? 

Have a great week, everyone.