Page 45 - The UnCaptive Agent

18 THE UNCAPTIVE AGENT

Being Successful Requires Being or Becoming a
Businessperson

Another question to ask yourself is whether you have the
requisite skills as a businessperson to be successful. Have
you ever owned or operated a business before? How did
that go? Were you successful? Did you fail? What did
you learn from your failure, if that’s what happened?
Do you have a business degree or other relevant formal
education in business? And if you don’t have either
experience or education, where will you learn how to
run the business that you intend to create?
At One Agents Alliance, we recognized early that
this was the number-one thing that prevents successful
insurance agents from becoming successful insurance
agency owners. We have developed a number of pro-
grams to coach our member agents on operations and
best business practices to help them become successful.
Wherever you get the education, training, and experience
operating a business, you’re going to need it.
Asking yourself how good you are as a businessper-
son isn’t something that should stop you from starting
your agency. But it should be something you think
carefully about. The insurance commissions you earn
as a great salesperson can expand into the profits of a
great business.

Ambition and Drive Matter

You should assess your ambition as well as your drive.
Understand they are not the same thing. Ambition
includes the things you want out of your career and
your life. Drive is the insatiable desire to get them. I’ve
known many ambitious people in my life. But not all
of them were driven. Perhaps you know someone who