After a year of working in retail sales, I found myself distraught. I felt like I wasn't accomplishing anything with my life - personally or professionally. I asked my father for advice from his many years of experience. The advice? Take a vacation and come home to do some planning and goal setting.

When I arrived home, my father handed me a stack of notepads and told me to write down all the things I wanted from an ideal career. So I gave it a lot of thought and started attacking the notepads. No matter what else I wrote, three key themes kept rising to the top:

1. To care for family with the ability to leave something behind.
2. To donate my time and money to people who are less fortunate.
3. To be respected in my chosen discipline (whatever it would be in the end).

I shared all of this with my father. Based on my values overall and on these three themes in particular, my father helped me realize that a career as a financial advisor would meet my goals. I landed a position with a small insurance company, where I realized after 18 months that I had found my calling and now just needed to find a company which matched my values.

After interviewing with several other insurance companies, I received offers from nine of them.

Without any idea how to narrow it down further, I once again asked my father for help. He advised me to go back to each of the companies and ask them not what they were going to do for me, but what they were going to do for my clients.

My father said, "I don't know anything about your profession, but I do know that if you take care of your clients, they will take care of you."

That's when I decided to join Northwestern Mutual in Phoenix. On October 1, 1976, I began what I can only describe as a true calling with a company that holds the same values I do.

Forty+ years later, I continue to hold myself accountable to my clients, delivering a high level of client satisfaction, looking for opportunities to help my clients and others and never relenting in my pursuit of constant improvement through education and experience.

The Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU®) designation has long been recognized as the fundamental and foremost educational credential for life insurance professionals. Since 1927, more than 94,000 individuals have earned their CLU, helping them build a successful life insurance practice by providing clients with knowledgeable and ethical advice. For financial representatives, field management, home office personnel and others involved in providing life insurance products to the public, the CLU designation symbolizes continuing growth and commitment to professionalism.

The Accredited Estate Planner (AEP®) designation is awarded by the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils to recognized estate planning professionals who meet special requirements of education, experience, knowledge, professional reputation and character.

The Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC®) designation focuses on the comprehensive financial planning process as an organized way to collect and analyze information on a client's total financial situation; to identify and establish specific financial goals; and to formulate, implement and monitor a comprehensive plan to achieve those goals. The ChFC program provides financial services professionals with in-depth knowledge of the skills needed to perform comprehensive financial planning for their clients.

The Certified in Long-Term Care (CLTC) designation is one of the most extensive educations available for financial professionals in the field of long-term care insurance. Graduates of the CLTC designation program from the Corporation for Long-Term Care Certification, Inc. have completed a multidisciplinary curriculum with a detailed concentration on essential information involved in the sale of long-term care insurance. The program, acknowledged by state regulators as an appropriate continuing education means, is a valuable resource for financial professionals desiring to remain up-to-date on industry trends.