A few months ago I had the pleasure of working with Germania Insurance at their annual sales conference. The night before, at dinner, I was fortunate to sit at the table with Matt Sodolak. I use the word “fortunate” because I was about to witness what I would best describe as TRUE PASSION for your profession.
I asked a question of Matt that I have asked countless times, “How do you like being in the insurance business?” His response surprised me. Without any hesitation he said, “I love it. It’s my job for life.”
In all my years of interviewing people, I have never had anyone say, “This is my job for life.” The passion, sincerity and conviction in his voice just knocked me over. He sat forward in his chair and followed his statement with, “I love helping people, and I get to do it every day.”
There was NO DOUBT in my mind the passion Matt felt for his job, career and the company he worked for. I felt that anyone who had Matt as their agent was so fortunate. He never mentioned commissions … he talked the whole time about protecting his clients and how people counted on him to make sure they had the proper coverage in case something disastrous happened.
Unfortunately, something disastrous did happen; Texas has been slammed this year with enormous floods destroying millions of dollars in property and causing havoc to people’s lives. I heard from Matt last week and he shared a quick story about one of the people who works in their claims department. She said,
“Being in the insurance business, all of our customers’ problems become our problems and we have to be here to help them through it… that’s why they do business with us and that’s what keeps our lights on; you gotta love it or you are at the wrong place!”
It doesn’t surprise me that anyone who works with Matt would also have a passion for their job; he would attract other people who would want to do, help and care for others. Let me share a few anonymous quotes with you about the Power of Passion:
Maybe the one thing that is keeping your career from taking off … is that you aren’t looking at it as a career; it is simply a job to you; and your customers, associates, managers and boss can sense that.
There is always going to be frustration, toil, hassles, problems, glitches, hitches and difficulties in any job (that is why they call it work). But, if you look at it from a different perspective … that what you are doing is helping people in some way … then it all becomes worthwhile.
Galileo, the great Italian astronomer, physicist, engineer, philosopher and mathematician, once said: “Passion is the genesis of genius.” So, let your passion become the start of something great for your career.