You are reading a page from Life Insurance as a Life Work, by Hugh Hart
(1926)
Part of the American Term Life Insurance History Project
Term Life Insurance
CHAPTER VIII
THE FASCINATION OF SELLING LIFE
INSURANCE
Work thou for pleasure—paint or sing or carve—
The thing thou lovest, though the body starve;
Who works for glory misses oft the goal;
Who works for money, coins his very soul.
Work for Work's sake, then, and it may be
That these things shall be added unto thee.
—-KENTON Cox
Every man wishes to engage in a work the
congeniality and fascination of which will
bring to his life increasing satisfaction. If
by temperament you are adapted to the vo-
cation of life underwriting, you will dis-
cover the work to be a source of satisfaction
and pleasure; if you are not, it will prove
so galling that you cannot continue in the
business. No man ever won the maximum
amount of money or fame or conferred the
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greatest possible benefits on his fellow men
"who did not find his work absorbingly
pleasant. The drudge, through force of
will-power, may accustom himself to grind-
ing away at tasks that he loathes and duties
that intensely bore him. He may attain
thereby some measure of success, but it is
at best a most unwholesome process and the
fortune and fame so attained and the serv-
ice rendered under such distasteful circum-
stances are but a small part of what might
have been accomplished had he invested his
life in a congenial form of effort.
We are not preaching the creed that men
should pursue the lines of least resistance,
or that they should avoid obstacles and yield
to complacent self-indulgence in their work.
We merely would proclaim the sound
though hackneyed doctrine that they get
most out of life who put most into it; and
no man can put his best efforts into his work
unless he enjoys his work more than any-
thing else in life.
If you enter the life insurance business,
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one of your ideals should be to make your
life's work your greatest sport. When a
man plays at his favorite sport, he is always
trying to improve. Progress in a vocation'
depends very largely on how much you
love your work. If you should dislike, or
merely mildly like, to sell life insurance, you
should go into another business. Of course,
there will be features of the life insurance
business which its most ardent devotees will
find unpleasant, but you must enjoy the
fundamentals of the work in which you are
engaged. You must revel in the satisfac-
tion of the service you are rendering. You
must be enthusiastic about the methods by
which you consummate your ends. You
can go a long way in the field of life under-
writing if you love the work.
Let us, therefore, consider some of the as-
pects of life underwriting which constitute
the sources of its satisfaction. One of the
principal sources of attraction in the life
insurance business is the sense of freedom
which it entails.
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The life insurance salesman may revel in
his freedom. He does not need to have his
work laid out for him by another. He
plans it for himself. It is not necessary
that there be forced upon him the people
with whom he must do business. He may
deal only with men of wealth, if he prefers.
In no other business or profession may a
man make so fine a discrimination as to the
scope within which his efforts shall be con-
fined.
Not only does the freedom of the life un-
derwriter relate to the selection of the
people with whom he is to deal, but also to
the time which he must spend in his work.
The life insurance man can usually go to
work when he wishes, stop when he pleases,
take vacations as he likes, and holidays may
be enjoyed quite at his option. The gauge
of his conduct is his own ambition.
Another source of pleasure incident to
selling life insurance is the opportunity it
gives a man to meet people. Coming in
contact with successful men and women,
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studying their personalities, analyzing their
characters, discovering the reasons for their
progress on the road of success, give to the
life insurance salesman a rare insight into
human nature. No book written by the
greatest of masters is half so interesting as
the book which God has inscribed in the
humblest human life. Moreover, if you
conduct yourself in the manner which the
new spirit of life underwriting demands,
many of these contacts will not be merely
in the nature of business relationships, but
will grow into lasting friendships.
Life underwriting carries with it, also,
the zest of the oldest sport in the world—the
sport of fighting battles. Man is by nature
a fighting animal. He comes into this trait
through an inherited instinct that is one of
the strongest elements in his nature. This
fighting instinct was bred into the fibre of
man when the race was young, when neces-
sity forced him into conflicts with his fel-
lows and with the wild beasts—conflicts
upon the outcome of which depended his
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very existence. The most powerful fighters
survived. They were the forerunners of
those later warriors, who, since the dawn of
recorded history, have fought the battles of
tribes and races and nations. As civiliza-
tion becomes more cultured, this barbaric
fighting instinct, which has through so
many eras nurtured war and kept the world
in bloody upheavals, is gradually showing
itself in a less violent form. Our modern
battles are intellectual and spiritual con-
flicts, but they are battles nevertheless.
The fighting instinct is inherent in us all.
Roosevelt had this in mind when he said,
"Aggressive fighting for the right is the
noblest sport the world affords."
The business of life underwriting is a
series of daily battles, but they are intellec-
tual and spiritual battles and prompted by
no element of venom or hatred. The ani-
mating motive of the professional life un-
derwriter is to conquer his adversary for
the well-being of others, rather than for
himself.
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"We would not create the impression that
the life insurance interview is a rough and
tumble quarrel between the prospective pur-
chaser and the life underwriter. You will
not find the men you call upon hostile to
life insurance, as a rule; on the contrary,
most men in these days are friendly. But
you will have to fight apathy, lack of
knowledge, stubbornness, failure to see duty
clearly, and above all—procrastination. An
official of one of the large life insurance
companies expressed this thought almost
epigrammatically. ' "Life insurance," he
said, "is one of the best sold ideas in Amer-
ica, but the idea that I should insure my life
to-day is not so well sold."
There can be no more interesting experi-
ence than a battle between a capable, suc-
cessful business man and a well-trained,
resourceful life underwriter. The life un-
derwriter tactfully, but forcefully, uses his
knowledge to show the business or profes-
sional man what his life insurance needs
are, and then points out how he, through his
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company, can supply those needs. The man
may use his ingenuity to postpone action or
to avoid taking any action at all. Intel-
ligence is measured against intelligence.
The trained mind of the underwriter vies
with the mind that is untrained in life in-
surance. It is a spiritual battle for the life
underwriter to evoke the latent spirit of
altruism in his client, to inspire him with
a sense of duty. Pleasantly, yet aggres-
sively, persistently, yet tactfully, the life un-
derwriter gains domination over the pros-
pect, bends his will pliantly to his own,
induces action, and adds a new and enthu-
siastic policyholder to his clientele. Vic-
tory crowns his efforts, and the thrill of the
conflict urges the underwriter on to other
battles every hour of the day.
Defeat carries with it likewise its thrill—
the thrill which comes to him who, conscious
of having resolutely fought a good fight,
reposes in the satisfaction of a duty done.
But whether in victory or in defeat, the
underwriter never knows when he enters
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the lists -with his prospects what the out-
come is to be, and that very uncertainty
adds to his fighting zest. Life insurance
selling thus affords an opportunity for the
gratification, in a proper way, of one of the
most fundamental elements of human na-
ture, the fighting instinct.
The pleasure that accompanies financial
independence is likewise an attribute of
this vocation. Particularly does the re-
newal income which is being built up con-
tribute toward tranquillity of mind concern-
ing the future. More and more we are
coming to count our wealth in terms of
annual income, rather than in terms of
property holdings, for after all it is income
that benefits a man. The lapse ratio on
policies properly written, on the right kind
of policyholders, in the best grade of com-
panies, is exceedingly small, as we have al-
ready said, and, therefore, the renewal in-
come which the life underwriter receives is
sure and safe, more certain, in fact, than the
income from securities that fluctuate and
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often pass their dividends several years in
succession.
It has been scientifically ascertained that
annuitants live longer than those who do
not have a certain income provided for life,
probably because the certainty of financial
independence in the future relieves the
mind of anxiety and, consequently, pro-
motes long life. The renewal income which
is being built up by the active underwriter
for future contingencies, therefore, tends to
promote happiness and makes the vocation
more enjoyable.
The highest satisfaction, however, inci-
dent to selling life insurance is that which
comes from the recognition, both by yourself
and on the part of those whose lives you
insure, of the great good that results from
your efforts.
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