FELLOW YOUR HEART

In his twenty-year study of some 2,000 individuals, most of whom were businessmen, Dr. Srully Blotnick noticed that “the companies run by executives who inherited their position were characterized by the highest level of destructive competition among its top management.” This refers to inherited situation, not where the family builds the firm together.

One of two sons of company founder Dean Witter, Bill worked his way from registered representative to head of institutional sales, learning the brokerage business as he progressed. At the age of 36, he decided that, for him, success would not be spending the next 20 years waiting to take over the firm which bore his father’s name.

Noting that many of his friends were working for themselves, Bill Witter founded his own brokerage firm, specializing in servicing institutional clients with information on small business. He later merged this operation with another company to head his own organization, William D. Witter, Inc., managing investments worth over $400 million for pension funds and other institutional investors. Rather than becoming an insecure manager following a set line of progression in the family firm, Bill Witter aggressively pursued and achieved success on his own.

I have had a lot of young people come to me with one problem. Their parents always want them to do this or that. Others are required to study a particular course to enable them take over the family business. It happens that these young people want something different from that of their parents. My advice is always “follow your heart.”

If you don’t love what you do, there is no way you can excel in it. If you are in an environment where you can’t express yourself, how can you unleash your full potentials? Don’t be a traditionalist. Don’t do something because others are doing it. Don’t ever think of doing something that will displease you in other to please some other people. It’s your life and only you will be accountable for it.Fellow your heart...