I set out to find a firm that supported my values and would support my growth for knowledge. As I have grown into the business, I have desired to become more of an expert for my clients. Within a year I would go on to become a successful investment consultant where I would help clients align their financial goals with independent investment management firms.

Within three months of completing some business courses, I landed an internship in 2008 with the financial services firm TD Ameritrade. His perseverance to protect his dream was truly inspiring and would inspire me to find and protect my own dream.Īfter watching that movie, I immediately enrolled in as many business courses as I possibly could. What resonated with me was how the main character, Christopher Gardner, overcame poverty, having his wife abandon him and his son, and having no work experience in investments to eventually become a very successful stockbroker. I remember the turning point for me was when I was at home watching a movie based on a true story called The Pursuit of Happyness. For the first time in my life, I felt completely lost and defeated. I felt embarrassed knowing I had to rely on my parents at age 24 to support my dream of being a musician.

After finishing my master’s degree in music, I got rejected from a doctoral music program, lost clarinet auditions for jobs and found myself making very little money to support myself. By age 24, however, that dream began to quickly fade away. My dream was to someday be the principal clarinetist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In that moment, I remember telling myself, “It doesn’t get any better than this.” It was a night of music that I will never forget.

I had no idea how to put the instrument together, which fingers covered which keys or what a reed was.įlash-forward: I am 22 years old, anxiously waiting to get on the stage of Carnegie Hall to perform with an orchestra. I remember I was nine years old and racing into my house, ready to open the case that held the instrument I have continued to play to this day, the clarinet.

Where is my money brian