Coffee with Mike- Why Hire Someone Like Mike?

We are just talking about why we pay people to do things for us, or why I should get paid for what I do.  I think that is a really valid question, and it is something I have been thinking about a lot lately.  What do I get paid for?  Do I get paid for my knowledge? Okay, so here is everything I know…. now pay me… Or do we get paid for my skill?  Here is how I apply everything I know, so pay me…  Or do I get paid for my personality?  You really like me… pay me…

I find that when people talk about who is in their circle of advisors, that those three things are really mentioned a lot.  You know, they seem to be know what they are talking about, they seem to understand what I really need, and I really like them, so that is why we do business.  And certainly those are reasons for doing business with someone.  But why do you pay somebody? 

I was talking with a friend of mine who actually had a medical experience, and they were going to do some exploratory surgery, and the idea was that they were going to go in and see it, and then they were going to decide after that what to do.  But when they got in there, they found that they couldn’t get to what they wanted to get to, and so they decided that it was really necessary to go ahead and make the decision themselves, without a conversation with her.  So they made the decision to remove this part of her body.  They did that, and she woke up and found out “hey, this is missing!”  She didn’t really expect that, because she thought they were going to talk about it.  She woke up and was told by the doctor “okay, we went ahead and did this – we didn’t wait to have a conversation with you.  We thought it was really important to go ahead and remove it.”  

So when they did that, they sent it off for testing; it comes back that “gosh, it was cancerous, and we really did need to remove that!”  So she was very grateful for their judgment.  Not just the fact that this person was a good surgeon; not just the fact that they knew what they were doing; not just the fact that they had great skill at it; not just the fact that they had a great reputation.  But she paid for that person’s judgment.  And that judgment saved her a lot of heartache, an extra surgery, and saved her a lot of anxiety, really, about what might have happened if that had not been taken out.

That really struck me – what do you pay me for?  You should pay me for my judgment. Right?  You are asking me all these different things about all these different components of what you are thinking about, what you are planning for the future, and you have done this, you have done that.  You are giving me all of a jigsaw puzzle, basically, and say “what can I make out of this?”  But there is no picture on the box.  So my job is to talk to you and create the picture on the box, so we can figure out where all the pieces go.  

I think that takes great judgment on understanding why you have done certain things, and understanding what those things can do, and what they cannot do.  Knowing their potential and knowing their limitations.  Understanding your potential and your limitations on what you believe is possible in terms of your time, and your money, and your energy.  Also the limitations of other people in terms of their money and time and energy, and how we put all that together to really come together for you to accomplish what you want out of your future to build the future that you are looking for.

Yeah, I am smart, and yeah, I have got a good bit of knowledge, and yeah, I am pretty skilled at what I do, but I think really, you are asking me to make a good judgment on what is the potential, what is the opportunity.  How can we be creative and put it all together to get something you want out of it.  That is what it is really all about.  

You know, we have a million people with all these pieces and ideas about the future, and you know, we have a million different answers, too.  We have a million different reasons why we ought to do certain things.  Not everyone has the same reason, not everyone gets the same answer, and not everyone understands and is able to pull it all together.  

So when you come to me, maybe there have been multiple attempts on trying to pull it all together.  Maybe you have never even thought about it this way.  But the point is that you have come to me, so what are we here for?  We are here to take a look at the big picture and make a judgment, or a series of judgments, on what the potential is, what the limitations are, and how can we make that potential and those limitations actually come together in such a way that it helps you understand what your future holds, and what you can make of it.  I think that is a miracle, really.  I think that is a great thing to be able to do. 

That is what we are here to do.  We have put together a lot of stuff for you on our website.  We have got a lot on social media – on Facebook and Instagram.  The whole idea is how do we help you take care of you?  How do we help you take care of those you love?  Forget about what everyone else is doing.  What do YOU need to do? 

If you are interested in finding out more about how we think about that, go to our website, go to our social media that we are using, Facebook and Instagram, and check it out.  See if there is something that can help you.  We are always available for a conversation.