After graduating from Lewis University, I interviewed with a sales manager at Merrill Lynch in New York City. But I soon got a rejection letter from the branch manager. My cousin told me: "Sometimes they build walls to see if you can jump over them." So I took the letter to the manager and spent 20 minutes convincing him he wanted me to work for him. He hired me on the spot. I'm 6' 7" and I knew that if I could meet him he'd remember me.

I probably had 25 mentors in the Merrill Lynch office. I learned from the advisors who did well, as well as from those who didn't. I studied the mistakes people made, such as allowing themselves to be sidetracked by distractions. Some were personal, involving boyfriends and girlfriends, and some were professional, such as becoming frustrated with prospecting. In the 1980s, the equity market and the debt market could also be distractions. The day I started, the Dow closed at 944.30. There was little interest in the equity market. The 401(k) had not even been introduced and CDs were over 18%. Clients would forego buying CDs, thinking the rate was going to 19%.

Merrill had an information booth in the middle of the waiting area at Grand Central train station where the firm's advisors worked once a month. We'd get a variety of questions, ranging from "Tell me about Pan Am," the former name of the MetLife building, which towers over the train station, to "When's the next train to Armonk?" It gave us great perspective, and it was an opportunity to work on having a discussion about investments. Once you did that, you had a chance with a prospect.

When I started in 1980, any job was a good job. I was committed to being a success at Merrill. There has been an entire generation of producers since then who joined our industry after growing up in a culture that gave out ninth-place trophies. A pattern developed where advisors felt a sense of entitlement and the client's best interest became secondary. But that has certainly changed in the last year or so.

I believe we have a simple job today, which is to allow our clients to retire with dignity. That milestone has just been pushed out for many people. We need to remember that our most important job is to help rebuild their savings, whether through their life insurance, their 401(k), a rollover or another vehicle. At a time when financial advice is so valuable, the system to provide it has broken. But we need to return to an era of more regulation to rebuild trust.

As Told to Pat Olsen