Bluerating | March 2022
A strong bond connects competition and finance. In fact, the number of financial professionals practicing sports consistently is twice (34%) that recorded in other sectors (17%).
Sport, when practiced with consistency and method, keeps body and mind in shape. This is fundamental for those working in finance: the cities most densely populated with jobs connected to finance such as New York, London or Milan register the highest rates of joggers and marathon runners.
Physical activity is usually connected to a goal, be it simply physical well-being or reaching a personal best in a competition.
Sport does not include competitive advantages: so, team sports help to strengthen the esprit de corps and individual sports help to better personal skills and thus self-esteem.
What connects an athlete and a financial advisor is training, planning and perseverance in reaching their goals.
In fact, the job of the financial advisor requires a systematic approach made of goals and achievements, in contexts often characterized by a syncopated work pace.
Waking up at dawn to run, dive in the pool or go to the gym before facing a day’s work requires great willpower and motivation.
Practicing sports stimulates the production of mood-enhancing molecules, such as endorphins and serotonin, a neurotransmitter which generates peace of mind. Physical activity fights stress because it reduced the level of cortisol, a stress hormone, in the blood.
Who more than a financial advisor, whose personal and business success depends on their own results, needs physical activity?
The workstyles of a financial advisor can be summarized effectively through a sport metaphor: 1) strikers, prone to the development of their activity; 2) defenders, more inclined to the management of old clients; 3) midfielders, generally managers or top managers, more ecumenical and equidistant from both poles.
On top of that, many successful professionals acknowledge that most of their winning ideas and solutions came to them while doing sports.
There is another non-negligible element: physical activity can also become an opportunity to socialize with clients, old or potential, with colleagues and, more generally, with other professionals.
Word is that the best deals were made on the golf course or tennis court. Actually, a morning jog would be enough to better tune with possible interlocutors and partners.
In conclusion, the ideal financial advisor should be as fast as a 100-meter runner and as resolute as a marathon runner, but mostly should have a sportsmanlike mentality.
Nicola Ronchetti