Why Would Tiger Woods Need a Coach?
Many of the world's sports greats may have been born with their talents, yet they all needed the help of a coach to help them become champions. The same goes for financial success, where doing-it-yourself is rarely better.
Have you ever heard of Tom Gullickson, Hank Hanley or Tracy Menzies?
The chances are you haven't. But you probably have heard of tennis ace Pete Sampras, golf champion Tiger Woods, and Olympic swimmer Ian Thorpe. For your information, Tom Gullickson was Pete Sampras? coach, Hank Hanley is Tiger Woods? coach and Tracey Menzies was Ian Thorpe's coach.
An interesting piece of trivia? It's much more than that - in fact, it's a thought that could make you a wealthier person.
"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."
Darrell Royal, football coach
We all know that most sports champions are born with a physical or mental advantage - be it attitude, body shape, hand-eye coordination, speed etc. But if it were just a case of winning the gene pool lottery, everyone resembling Ian Thorpe physically could swim like an Olympian.
Just ask yourself this: if Thorpe had a perfect body shape for swimming and trained so hard and consistently, why did he need a personal coach? If Woods has an innate skill for hitting golf balls with force and accuracy and spent a lifetime perfecting it, why does he need a personal coach? And if Sampras had the hand-eye coordination, strength and speed to take Wimbledon, why did he need a personal coach?
"Everyone wants to win, but not everyone is willing to prepare to win."
Bobby Knight, basketball coach
The answer is that each coach did three things for their clients that they could not do for themselves, and that were absolutely vital to their success:
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They helped the future champion define a goal
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They helped draw up a step-by-step plan to reach the goal
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They provided discipline, encouragement and support along the way.
They were able to do this because they understood all the ins and outs of that sport, and because they were impartial, so could always be objective and honest. (That's possibly why parents are often poor coaches on the tennis circuit, in little league athletics and in other sports).
"The secret to winning is constant, consistent management."
Tom Landry, former coach, Dallas Cowboys
A personal coach who guides you towards financial success is called a financial adviser. A well informed professional who takes the trouble to understand your strengths and weaknesses as an individual, helps you decide on the achievable financial goals you really need and want, and then works out a practical program to help you achieve them.
Just by helping you to set financial goals, your financial adviser is giving you a more than 25 times better chance of achieving them. A famous study at Yale University asked graduates whether or not they had a financial goal. Only 3% had. Twenty years later they repeated the survey and the wealth of the 3% who had set financial goals exceeded the wealth of the other 97% combined.
The other important thing a financial adviser does is to stay with you through all the changes in your investment career. Your income changes, your needs change. Maybe even your goals change. And the program designed to help you achieve them has to be adjusted accordingly.
Does the coach pull all the strings? The answer is ?no?. Thorpe surprised the swimming world by firing his long time coach and appointing the relatively inexperienced Tracey Menzies, who took him forward to his gold medal performance at the 2004 Olympics.
No champion would simply slavishly follow their coach's advice. They would consider, question it and if it made sense they would follow it. When it comes to financial coaching you are in exactly the same position. You are not a puppet; you are a partner, and the senior partner at that.
"If you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done."
Vince Lombardi, former coach, Green Bay Packers
This is why it is so incredibly important to choose an adviser whose views you respect and whose approach you basically agree with. At Moneytree Partners, we very much want to be that adviser and walk the walk with you. But you have to make your own mind up.
We hope that you will choose us as your coach, or at least give us a chance to audition and see how you feel about our approach to investment.
But if you don't choose us, please find someone that you trust and build a coaching relationship with them. You will have a far better chance of achieving wealth and financial security.
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