Over 10 years ago, a young and hungry Spaniard arrived in New York with the dream of succeeding in the FX and brokerage industry. A significant amount of time has passed since then, I've had a lot of experiences and I've learned a lot of lessons. Now I am sharing my experiences from the industry to the main takeaways from my experience of working in forex over the last decade.

Forex: No Get-Rich-Quick Scheme

FX and trading, forex and brokerages, are not a get-rich-quick scheme. Those who approach it with that in mind will have a short life in the business.

FX is a skill and one that requires a methodological approach, and as with any other skill, it needs to be mastered to be applied successfully, which requires a lot of training, study, and practice. Traders compete against each other, the best ones thrive, and the rest pay the price.

The Two Types of Companies in the Industry

There are two kinds of companies, the ones that want to make as much money as possible by investing the least, and the ones that reinvest their profits to improve their technology and their team of professionals. You want to work with the latter.

You can easily tell the difference between the two. A company that has a long-term plan of growth and market reputation is a company that will make sure it hires the best professionals and retains them. It will invest strongly in its teams, systems, and product offerings while creating a feeling of belonging among everyone.

On the other hand, a company with a narrow, short-term vision won’t care about anyone's development, focusing instead on the owners' or executives’ pockets. In these companies you will see that everything related to the long term is just a pitch, nothing gets done on time, and the management looks down their nose at you. There is no way to develop a fruitful career here, avoid it like the plague.

Don’t Be Blinded by the Money

Going with the highest pay and commissions is not always the best option. Company culture and positive corporate values are way more important for your long-term success. This is valid for both direct employees of the company and clients or partners. While money should be an important factor in decision-making, it shouldn’t be the major one. From my experience, ethics and moral values are the prominent factors in everything we do.

If there are no morals, there is no trust, there is no predictability, and words or promises fly away at any given point. Without moral values, everything stops making sense, and reality starts becoming a game where cheaters fight to deceive one another ruthlessly. This state will only lead to division, conflict, and hence, destruction of value. It is not something you want to be a part of.

Do Not Trust What You Are Told, Verify It

When you trust what you are told without question, you don’t only run the risk of being cheated, but you run a much higher risk in my opinion, the risk of accidentally cheating the people who trust you. When everything is verified and clear it is easier to make good decisions and to advise accordingly in the best interest of your interlocutor.

Love Your Clients, Respect Your Work

Your clients are more important than the company you work for. Your clients trust you and will follow you wherever you go. Take good care of them. Make sure to go the extra mile in supporting your clients, helping them, and contributing to their business growth and health. They will love you.

Just because your clients are more important than the company you are currently employed by, doesn’t mean that the company can be disregarded. Your clients are a treasure, and you should treat them like as such. The company you work for is the place where you want to store your treasure, make sure it is fit for that purpose.

You are a crucial point in your clients' success, your clients need to feel that you are a part of their team and that your interests are aligned with their business interests. In this scenario, your clients will love your contributions to their business and will make an effort to go wherever you are, as they trust you and trust your capacity to choose the best place to set up home for their business.

Success and Humility

If you end up being successful, don’t take it for granted and sit back in your comfort zone. Remember you are only doing your job, and leave all glory to God.

Everyone sees success as their friend, and failure as their enemy when it is probably the contrary. Success makes you believe you got it, it makes you believe you are worth more than you probably are. It makes it harder to remain humble, and it ends up weakening your effort and passion. If you reach your goal, why should you keep working hard?

On the other hand, failure keeps you alert, it shows you that you are not good enough to achieve your purpose at a given point and reveals the necessity to keep improving, working hard, and becoming better, both personally and professionally, to achieve your goal.

This is why “leaving all glory to God” is the best way to face success. Accept your responsibility for the failures and be grateful to God for the successes. Working hard and giving your best is your duty, nothing more than that. Keep working hard and remain humble no matter how great your pride makes you believe you are. Everything that separates you from humility is evil, abstain from submitting to it, no matter how nice and pleasant its appearance may be at first.

In business, as well as in life, we make mistakes, we learn, and we become better. Experience shows us that humility and being able to maintain the correct attitude over time is the best way to succeed long-term in your career.

Eduardo Gómez Delgado is currently a Senior Relationship Manager at Tradeview Markets.