It always amazes me how many people want to go it alone in life.

“He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.” That’s a phrase that applies to so many people in this business. In the last week, I’ve spoken to two former NFL players whose sons will be in the coming draft class. I called them to offer a free newsletter I do for parents of potential draftees; it’s free and provided strictly for educational purposes, no strings attached. Both of them rejected my entreaties, one quite hostilely.

Today, two more people asked to be removed from the list, but neither had a football pedigree. In fact, one of them, who didn’t seem to understand that I was offering something that cost them nothing but helped them make more informed decisions, asked if I was soliciting advertising. I assured the person that I wasn’t. “Ok, in that case, I spoke to the guys here and they are not interested,” was the response. Does that make sense?

About a year ago, I reached out via Twitter to a newly certified agent, again offering a different newsletter series written specifically for new contract advisors. His response was something like, “what could you possibly tell me that I don’t already know?” This is a guy that is in a barren region of the country for NFL talent (the Pacific Northwest), who’s under 30, and who presumably doesn’t have unlimited resources, but he was quite defiant when I suggested there may be something he didn’t/doesn’t know.

In the financial realm, there are at least 2-3 people I talk to every year who want to tell me (several times in one phone conversation) how much money they have under management, which I guess they think will translate seamlessly into representing dozens of NFL clients.

Forgive my rant. I know that it’s hard to know who to trust in this business and I know I’m far from a household name/brand. Still, I believe you can be too cynical, too untrusting, in life. Especially when it comes to this business, if you have nothing to lose by taking a chance on someone, I think you should.