“The Most Difficult Thing Is The Decision To Act, The Rest Is Merely Tenacity. The Fears Are Paper Tigers. You Can Do Anything You Decide To Do. You Can Act To Change And Control Your Life; And The Procedure, The Process Is Its Own Reward.” — Amelia Earhart

According to a LinkedIn survey conducted in 2015 of more than 10,000 people, the number one reason people change jobs is for career advancement.

Fundamentally, job switchers are most typically people who saw their job as a dead end, so they left it for one that offered a chance to grow.

Before I left my job of 13 years on Wall St, I did a ton of research, calls, emails, and interviews. I went to great lengths to find out as much about the companies as I could. I researched management, resumes, online profiles, and previous employments. I connected the dots.

I wasn’t switching industries but was looking for a firm that would better support my desire to provide a more holistic, planning approach to managing investors' portfolios.

Finally, after 2 years of research, sleepless nights, and rigorous debate, on Friday morning, January 10, 2014, at 10:30 am, I faxed a letter of resignation to my Wall St. employer! Heart beating fast.

I have been through a lot since 2014.

It’s easy to talk about all the wonderful clients I have taken on, the great people I have met, and the continuing education I received from the seminars and conferences I attended. However, it’s equally important to understand the challenges, the struggles, the pain.

13 years of habit was ingrained into my daily routine.

Breaking my old Wall St. ways was like chipping away at a stone with a pen knife. I went day by day, sometimes hour by hour grasping to find similarities between Wall St. and Main St. Searching for familiarity, to appease the anxiousness. Often failing, yearning for success.

I felt like I was at a party that I wasn’t invited to, everyone knew each other, I knew no one, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and Khaki’s and it was a black-tie event.

You can spiral quickly from there.

I have heard from some very smart people that there is no money in negativity. They should include frustration as a leading indicator. And If you are not careful, the distractions can fuel your demise, take you off your path and ultimately derail your mission.

If I’m being honest, my biggest obstacle is myself. Sometimes, I would look around and all I see was a failure. It was incredibly humbling. Yet somehow, someway, I still move onward, determined. Probably because I had the unwavering support of friends, family, and my wife.

“No Matter How Many Times You Fail, You’ll Try Again, And Again, Because You Truly Love What You Do.” — Melanie Rudin,

The failure will eventually feel like a success.

If you fail at something a whole bunch of times and keep trying different ways to make it happen, you are doing so because you love what you do.

If you keep plugging away no matter what obstacles you face, congratulations, you made it.

You’re doing what you love to do, what you were born to do, and nobody can stop you!

My message to potential job changers.

A job change may be uncomfortable, stressful, frustrating, and it certainly will test your patience. However, if you feel you need to make a job change or start a business to do what you love, what you are destined to do, what you were born to do, then you have to go for it.

I can tell you this, there is nothing more rewarding than doing what you love. When you do what you love, it’s no longer work, it’s life.

The day I left Wall St. I could have made a big commission, instead, I made a big life decision.