Electrical Engineering degree from Notre Dame, 4 years of service in the Navy, 14 years of progressive advancement up the engineering management career ladder, pending reorganization announcement…why would I decide at this point in my life to leave engineering and become a financial planner?
Have you ever had one of those days at the office where your manager/boss tells you that, “This is the way it is, deal with it”? How about, “We’ve always done it that way”? “Just do what I said, you’ll understand it later”? On days such as those, I always told myself that I could do it better. I knew that things would be different…if only I was running the show.
Flash forward to a couple of months ago, when I was offered an ownership position in a small, established, financial planning firm. I would be 1 of 3 people in the firm. Wow, talk about a change. Could I really do it? Did I really believe in myself?
The bottom line was that I realized that if I didn’t accept this position as a financial planner, I would never be able to look myself in the mirror again and say “I could do it better”, because I would have given up on my opportunity to do it my way.
Only time will tell if it was the right decision, but I can tell you that 3 months in, I’m glad I made it!