Insurance, the beginning...

While I was thoroughly pleased and proud of what I had accomplished in the golf business, it was time to move on in early December of 1982 to a new venture- insurance sales, and ultimately leadership within the insurance industry.  While it seemed like it would be an easy transition for me, it was not as easy to convince those who considered employing me.  After all, if you could teach a complex physical skill and sell someone clubs after a custom fit, why could you not sell insurance? LOL

For me the journey to convince the masses of my thesis began in late 1982 after having departed from the golf business in October of that same year.  As I look back on it, this move was one of my best career moves; however, it did feel a bit weird at the time.  In todays post, I want to thank the three people who finally decided to take a chance on me.

Most believe I started my insurance career at Alexander & Alexander, but that is not the case as I spent about 60 days +/- at AIM.  AIM was a small local broker in Indianapolis, and their sales manager was a guy named Ed McGuire.  Ed gave me the usual battery of sales tests, and ultimately convinced others that I could sell based upon my results. All was well, and I was learning outside sales as well as the insurance industry spending upwards of 16-18 hours a day learning 1) what we provided, and 2) how to sell what we provided.  It was actually very exciting (and refreshing) learning a new craft.  All was proceeding according to plan until the agency was acquired and that meant all that were not yet pulling their weight would become a casualty of a reduction in force or RIF.  For me that was fairly problematic as I had just begun and thus not productive and my first child was to due within the next 30 days.  Not only did Ed believe in my skills enough to hire me from one industry into the other, but he also risked his own reputation by going to a competitor (A&A) and to inform them that they should consider hiring me as he believed I would be successful.  Ed was kind enough to give me a very warm introduction to Terry McCubbin and Bill Steele.  I will remain forever grateful for Ed's courage and introduction as it set me up to be successful in a different industry.  I understand that Ed passed away a few years ago and I probably did not thank him profusely enough although I believe he knew how grateful I was.  The other two gentleman (Bill & Terry) are still very much alive.  Bill is two years my junior but Terry is 15 years older than I am and has been enjoying retirement for some time.

Terry and Bill will be mentioned in subsequent posts as I discuss my march through the insurance industry, but I will be forever grateful to both for giving me the opportunity.  And to Terry McCubbin specifically, I thank him for the time he invested in teaching me sales and "sharing" is network until I became successful in building my own network.  Until next time...