Change can be your greatest opportunity if you see it coming. If you ignore change, change is going to bury you. Change is like a muscle, and the more you work it, the more you think about it, the more you talk about it, the more prepared for change you are going to be. How many of you believe that if we came right into this room this time next year everything would be exactly the same? Nobody. You don't think if I let you go to the bathroom and you came back in here that everything would be exactly the same. If you know the change is coming, why don't you get ready for change? Why don't you forecast and predict the future so you can get ready for the future now?

Let’s talk about a gentleman by the name of Jacob Beam. Yes, the founder of Jim Beam. Growing a whiskey company for over 250 years has come with its challenges, but none as big as Jacob Beam's, grandson, Jim Beam, for whom the company is named, had to face. You think you have seen challenges in the financial advisory industry? Imagine trying to grow a business, build a company, when at any moment the very people that you put into office, the very government that you voted for, they could say that what you do for a living is 100% illegal.

See, Jim Beam had to deal with this little thing called prohibition. For those of you who did not pay attention in history class, prohibition was this little idea that we would outlaw the making of, the drinking of and the selling of liquor. Everything that Jim Beam did for a living, how he supported his family, how he took care of his employees, how he contributed to his community. How was he supposed to grow a business when at any moment what he did for a living could become illegal?

In fairness, nobody, including Jim Beam, ever believed that prohibition would become law. But he asked himself a very important question, and this is a question you all need to be asking yourself as it relates to uncertainty and change: “What if? What would I do if prohibition became law?” Because he asked himself that question, he started to invest in the mining industry. He started to buy land in Florida and invest in citrus, so when the unthinkable happened, Jim Beam was ready. He was prepared. Every single competitor he had, every single one declared bankruptcy, but Jim Beam started to again ask himself, “What if? Would I do if prohibition became repealed?”

He had enough money coming in to take care of his employees, to build his business, to protect and perfect his whiskey company, so when Prohibition was repealed, he was ready. He was back up and running within 120 days, a full year ahead of his closest competitor. Not because he was a better whiskey company, not because he was cheaper, but because he was a leader who was prepared.

You need to condition yourself for change.

We use a tool for this. Every couple of months, you need to get together with your fellow advisors, you need to get together with your team, and you need to use this tool. Write these words down. It's called a SCEPTIC: society, competition, economics, politics, technology, industry, customers. Here is how it works: Every couple of months, you need to get together and you need to talk about the shifts that you see happening in society with competitors economically, politically, and ask yourself, what, if any of those changes do we need to be paying attention to right now?

Because the thing about change is you can turn it into opportunity if you see it coming. If you start to predict the future, you can position yourself for whatever shifts are coming in the marketplace. If you wait for change to happen, it's too late, you're catching up.

As the marketplace shifts, if you take the time to think now about creating opportunity in the marketplace, you can position yourself to take advantage of those opportunities. You can position yourself to succeed no matter what the future holds.