Social Media is a lie. Why I failed my FSRE1 Exam

If you’ve been following this blog for a while now you will have seen that I’ve been documenting my journey into financial services, in particular my experiences of studying CeMAP.

At the end of February I wrote about how I was preparing for my first exam and set a date to take it.

If you’re also a connection on LinkedIn, you will have seen this post today:

If we’re not connected yet, click here and lets get connected on LinkedIn.

For those who may not want to read the rest of this post, the end result was a fail. I failed by just 2 marks.

However this failure got me thinking, and not just about how and when I am going to resit my FSRE1 exam, but also how much of this world has got caught up in just sharing our victories on social media.

The Financial Trenches

When I came to sit my exam, I thought I knew the answers. I was confident, maybe bordering on a bit or arrogance. I was also daydreaming of success, imaging myself after I’d passed the exam, perhaps even the head of my own financial firm.

I figured topics 1, 2 and 3 were locked so didn’t bother revisiting those materials.

So confident was I that I didn’t even go through the exam a 4th time to ensure I was 100% happy with my selected answers.

These mistakes formed the basis of my evaluation. I’ve learned to do this after every failure. They are ultimately what cost me the exam.

I also noted down what went well:

  • Flash cards made longer pieces of text easier to digest and remember
  • The CeMAP revision tool was a godsend, as were the two additional mock papers I studied
  • I’d showed up, I mean something I would never have dreamed of doing just a couple of years ago
  • I’d revised well, 1 -2 hours a day around my other commitments
  • I’d memorised the text from the books on some questions, and on others, my mind went completely blank

If you can evaluate a failure like this, then you will find the keys to where you went wrong, double down on those weaknesses and push through for what you want.

I’ve earmarked the 28th March to resit the examination, but I will decide closer to the time if I go ahead on this day.

The Glitz of Social Media

Like most of us, I’ve certainly noticed the rise of the perfect social media life, you know the posts I’m talking about.

The best moments, the keys in front of the house, the PB on the run or the passing of a degree. Sharing only the best moments of a person’s life on social media. Even down to those posts of “Come spend the day with me”.

If I looked anything like those people when I first woke up at 04:30, I’d be a very happy man. The fact is a lot of these photos, videos are staged and filtered from the beginning.

The truth is these posts often do not reflect the reality of the life of these people. We don’t see the failures, we don’t see the hours that go into the making that post. Whether it’s the failed 5km run, or the running late for work grabbing a Costa breakfast.

What’s more worrying is we’re consuming this content, and we’re comparing our lives, our partners, our jobs and our own successes against it. Leading to low self-esteem, and mental health challenges for viewers.

Why do I share my failures?

I don’t need to pretend that I am perfect to win people over. I know exactly who I am, and I know that the UK financial services sector is one of the most unforgiving heavily regulated industries on the planet. If it was easy everyone would be doing it.

One of the greatest teachers in life isn’t always winning. It’s failing and learning from you failures.

As Sylvester Stallone says in Rocky Balboa:

It ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward

Ultimately, failure has taught me more about business, about human psychology and about mental resilience than success ever could.

Yes, I relish those wins, and I celebrate every success in my own way. But I will equally own and learn from every single mistake.

The way I look at it, the financial firm owner who is afraid to admit a mistake is the exact same firm owner who will use unscrupulous tactics to hide a client’s losses.

I’m documenting my journey to becoming CeMAP certified. Combining 16 years of digital marketing excellence with compliance. Why not follow me on this journey by signing up to my free newsletter.