Many Hats, Part 1
I first considered an insurance career in the months between 1987 -1988. Like 99.999% of all insurance industry workers, I didn’t grow up *wanting* to be in the insurance industry. Perhaps that’s the reason why so many in our industry are so seemingly dispassionate, they’re not in it ’cause they love it. But that is a subject for another day.
In the late 1980’s I was running several trucking companies: a messenger service, an airfreight cartage operation and a hazardous materials hauler. (No wonder I was tired!) During that time the transportation industry was in the midst of severe regulatory change and I wasn’t sure we were capitalized well enough to keep up. I also wasn’t sure if I wanted to dedicate the next 20 years to the industry. I was burned out and run completely out of ideas. To stagnate is to slowly die. So I started talking to my insurance agent, Richard Augustyn, about his business.
By the end of October, 1989 I started my insurance industry career in sales (on a $450/week draw against commissions) with a small retail agency on the cusp of great things. I was able to leverage my transportation industry and small business ownership experience for the benefit of my new customers immediately. Those were fun days, but I was dangerous by what I *didn’t* know. A new insurance license can be roughly equated to a motor vehicle learner’s permit. I was so “sure” of everything in those days and it is only in hindsight that I understand how much incomplete (not necessarily “wrong”, just incomplete) counsel I gave.
I learned how to run an insurance agency: operational aspects, the special accounting methods, premium finance, policy marketing, sales and service (they are all different skill sets) and the absolute importance of renewal business to agency survival. It was a brave new world for me and I enjoyed learning *everything*.
Then the agency opened an insurance “program” division, writing inland marine business countrywide. I learned about program and broker administration, managing insurer expectations, policy creation and insurer underwriting guidelines and standards, the “why’s” behind the insurance contract.
Well, all heck “broke loose”. Staff grew from 7 to about 35 in less than 12 months. My role had morphed from operational VP and sales to what amounted to being “mother-hen” and “fireman”, keeping tabs on all my chicks and responsible for putting out all the fires in the office.
Ugh. I began not enjoying it.
That’s how I felt. Within 2 years, the small business ownership bug had bitten me again and I had the *audacity* to open my own retail insurance agency in July, 1991. The parting of ways was not amicable as I recall. It’s always been a regret, although in hindsight there was probably no way to avoid it. I must admit I was amused and flattered (in a really weirded-out way) when I found out my ex-boss went through the trouble and expense to put me under surveillance after I left. That being said, I am especially grateful to Richard Augustyn for being my friend and guide in those years. It is not an overstatement that without him I would not be where I am today. That experience laid the foundation for all that was to come and is today.