Randolph Love III | The Liquidity Journal | Summer 2025

"When the lion is hungry, he eats. When the eagle has thirst, he drinks. Lest they act, both will perish. I hunger for success. I thirst for happiness and peace of mind. Lest I act, I will perish in a life of failure, misery, and sleepless nights. I will command, and I will obey mine own command. I WILL ACT NOW!"

-Og Mandino, "The Greatest Salesman in the World" (Audio Book)

I used to be an insurance producer. I did inbound property and casualty sales, over the phone, for one of the biggest insurance companies in the United States, State Farm (SF). Myself, and the other people in my position, were considered to be the face of SF; and first-line underwriters. First-line underwriters, because once we determined eligibility, and acceptability, and took the first payment of premium, the customer was immediately insured; and this was before the underwriting department had the opportunity to review the insurance application.

An insurance policy is a contract. In its simplest form, this contract only has two promises. The insured promises to pay the first premium payment, and the insurer promises to step in if a covered loss occurs. If a covered loss occurred immediately after first payment, the carrier is bound to perform.

One of the reasons we were considered to be the face of SF was because, other than an insurance claim, the only time most people ever talk to their insurance company is when they’re starting new insurance for the first time; or adding to, or replacing existing insurance. As a customer, however you’re greeted, and assisted during those few interactions, is how you’d typically gauge the quality of your insurance company.

Insurance is an intangible product. You can’t actually touch it. The only real measurable, and therefore tangible factors are how you’re treated during these encounters. Depending on how you’re treated, will determine if you’ll remain with that insurance company, or not. Regardless of price, in a lot of instances.

For nearly a decade, I’ve worked for SF in some way, shape, or form. Be it as a customer service representative, inbound sales as a licensed insurance producer, or as an independent contractor.

I actually really liked doing inbound sales. Which is very different, and arguably much less difficult than cold calling a potential customer. When a prospect takes the time, out of their day, to voluntarily call a vendor, opposed to someone calling them out of the blue, the caller typically already knows they want to buy your product. As the inbound sales person, my job was to make the transaction as easy as possible for them; in exchange for their money.

I only worked 30 to 35 hours a week, with 5 to 6 weeks vacation every year. I was provided with health insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and mobile cell phone service discounts; just to name a few of the many amenities, and fringe benefits that are typically bestowed upon the employees of a Fortune 500 company. Along with a $50,000 plus annual salary, to boot; once I considered my hourly salary, plus commission.

Oh, how I long for the carefree days of a W2, salaried employee. Well... not really.

... but I digress.

Though those employee benefits were great, in retrospect, what I truly miss about those days were the people that I worked with. Some of my best memories involve the people that I met while working on that job. I also miss the phone conversations with the literally thousands of customers I’ve assisted over the years, while working in that role. I was licensed to sell insurance from Florida, to New York. New York, to California. California, to Texas; and many of the other states in between. So as you can imagine, I’ve had the privilege of conversing with a multitude of personalities; from different social, economic, and political backgrounds.

“Young man, at my age there are two things I don’t do...

I don’t buy green bananas; and I don’t pay for my auto insurance, in advance.“

Of those many phone calls, there’ve only been a hand full of calls that have stuck out, and stood the test of time in my memory banks. One was a call I received from an older insured. The names have been changed to protect the rights of the innocent, so let’s call him Mr. McIntosh. Mr. McIntosh was eighty plus years old, and still driving!

He knew exactly what he wanted when he called. He wanted to start auto insurance on his new car, and he wanted to make the first month’s payment for the policy, and pay month to month after that.

This is the moment that I decided to make a helpful suggestion to Mr. McIntosh. I inform him that he’d save money, in service charges, if he’d pay for 6 months premiums, up front.

He stopped me in my tracks. He said, “Young man, at my age there are two things I don’t do. I don’t buy green bananas; and I don’t pay for my auto insurance, in advance.“

What does this even mean? Well when a person makes a decision to buy green bananas, they understand that they can’t eat the bananas immediately; they have to wait for the bananas ripen. They assume that they have the luxury of time. By fighting against their need for the instant gratification of consuming the delicious, and healthy treat, they make the optimistic bet that they’ll be around to reap the rewards of their patience. Freshly ripen bananas taste AMAZING!

That same mindset could to applied to someone who pays for auto insurance in advance. They sacrifice the instant gratification of utilizing that extra money today, in hopes of having more money to utilize in the future, due to saved transaction fees.

Mr. McIntosh was very aware of himself. He was very aware of what he does, and does not do, regardless of how much money anyone might claim that he’s leaving on the table. The principles that he, undoubtedly, put in place for good reasons; through a lifetime of rigorous trial and error. He don’t buy green bananas and he don’t pay for auto insurance in advance. He was very aware he no longer had the luxury of time. If he ever even had it in the first place.

Do you have the luxury of time?