I'm sorry, that wasn't nice. Let me rephrase that: you are not stupid, your IDEA is uhhh, not factually accurate. If you think the best way to build your own personal wealth is to build your business inside a wirehouse or other employee channel, I think the facts demonstrate that you are wrong.
Let me give you one of the more extreme examples. Ron Carson has built a very substantial business (www.carsonwealth.com) and happens to be affiliated with the same broker/dealer that I am...so he is very well known here.
He just announced the sale of 29% of his business to some private equity folks to give him some capital to make acquisitions. In case you were wondering, it went for $35 million...for the 29%. I'll pause to let you do the math to figure out the valuation for his whole firm.
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY MILLION DOLLARS.
You can find his story all over the place, but the key point I remember is that he didn't start with some great connections to rich people. He built it. For himself. Serving clients. Adding to his team. Working hard. With no permission needed from a New York-based firm.
Read about the transaction here:
If you have any desire to control your destiny, I would argue that there is no ceiling on what you can build if you own the practice.