Passion has an enemy – Prestige. What you do in life is largely to earn money..however there are certain things that society wants you to do. These are pretty thankless and not very paying jobs, so the creators of these jobs have attached the word “prestige” attached to it. The word prestige is what attracts you to do these jobs. There may not be much power or money – but society tells you there is prestige. It sucks you into doing that work.

A friend had just started learning astrology – using the horoscope of a person. His father gave him a horoscope and asked him “Is this a good horoscope?” He looked at it and said “NO”.

He told his father “this man has no job, no own house, no marriage, no foreign travel, no ownership of a vehicle, no money of his own so it has to be a bad horoscope.

His father said “It is the horoscope of Jagadguru Shankaracharya of Kanchi”.

So clearly my friend was making the classic mistake of using our own needs and aspirations onto the horoscope of the person whom he was talking about. Even IFA are not always able to appreciate why a rich (or poor) client has dramatically different goals and commitments in life.

Some people look at “prestigious” work like heading big businesses bodies – not just as prestige but for being in a place to solve their own personal problems.

As an IFA doing goal setting it is very difficult to understand such goals. It is not at all important for a financial adviser to act as a coach. Most IFA are not trained to be a coach. Just asking the tough questions – financial or otherwise does not make them a coach, does it?

Understanding client’s goals is necessary, but does not mean that the Ifa CAN or has become a coach.