What do Walt Disney, Albert Einstein, and Steve Jobs all have in common? Many of you might say imagination, which is certainly true, but I would argue that there was something else there that made them truly great: curiosity. These three great innovators knew that if they just continued to keep an open mind, followed whatever sparked their interest, and were committed to learning whatever there was to be taught, they would create things that no one else had ever dreamed of.
When you’re curious as a person, you are in a state of constant learning and new doors open to you at regular intervals. When you’re curious as an entrepreneurial financial advisor, you become a mentor and fiduciary that clients will connect deeply with and tell all their friends and family members about. Here are three reasons why cultivating curiosity will take your business to the next level.
Curiosity Leads You to Learning More About Others
When you’re curious about your clients, you naturally learn more about their personalities, where they are in their lives, and what types of challenges they are experiencing both with their finances and their lives as a whole. This can help you mentor them in a number of areas from avoiding a late-life divorce to properly planning for a fulfilling retirement. Though most advisors do a decent job with discovery and find out what specific money challenges their clients face, there are few who take the next step and learn more about their clients simply because they are curious. If you just ask a few questions, you may find your clients have interesting hobbies, fascinating careers, or in-depth knowledge on subjects you’d otherwise never learn about. The bonus is that when you’re curious and interested in your clients, you’ll instantly become more interesting to them in the process!
Curiosity Encourages Outside the Box Thinking
Stagnant thinking often leads to procrastination and can even cause issues with your confidence as an advice-based planner. When you’re curious, you naturally learn about a variety of different topics and this can help you problem-solve in new and creative ways. Steve Jobs, for example, used his knowledge about calligraphy to develop the innovative Apple logo. If he hadn’t been curious enough to look into calligraphy, it’s quite likely his logo would have looked like every other IT company’s. When you’re faced with a tough problem or need to come up with a unique solution, you may be surprised to find that inspiration can come from anywhere. The more curious you are, the greater the variety of solutions you’ll have at hand.
Curiosity Prevents You from Having a Fixed Mindset
Research has shown that successful and happy people have a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset. A growth mindset is marked by learning from mistakes and stretching to always become better. When you’re curious, you don’t see mistakes as failures—you see them as opportunities to learn more about what went wrong so you can do something different and better the next time. Not only does this lead to continuous improvement, but it also increases your enjoyment of everyday life and boosts your confidence so you can face bigger and more complicated challenges.
Fortunately, developing your sense of curiosity is pretty easy. All you have to do is ask people questions and really listen to the answers. Once you get into that habit, you’ll likely find plenty of doors start opening that have always seemed closed before. This will probably lead you to further investigate new subjects, which will ignite even more curiosity. It’s really a beautiful never-ending circle that benefits you and everyone in your life.
Do you want to talk more about how you can use curiosity to develop your seven-figure entrepreneurial business? Please reach out. I’m curious to learn more about your journey!
When you become a mentor to your clients, deeply understand them, and guide them toward a better future, then you’ve learned the ways of a financial caregiver. You’ve come to know what it means to be a true purveyor of advice, and how to use money as a conduit to a more fulfilling life for yourself and those you serve.
Patrick Tucker, owner of True Measure Wealth Management and founder of True Measure Financial Advisors, has over 20 years experience in the industry and has spent the last 15 years learning the ins and outs of the fee-only advisory business. He’s spent over $500,000 finding mentors, studying consulting businesses, taking courses, studying the soft sciences, running trial and error experiments, and learning how to be an entrepreneurial financial advisor. He’s simplified this into an easy to use blueprint for anyone who is entrepreneurial-minded and is tired of the sales culture. Patrick has been able to acquire over $158 million under management with little to no money spent on marketing.