You want to be successful? The top person in your field? Make a great income and help a lot of people? Well, the only way I know to achieve greatness in any endeavour is to constantly learn and develop your skills.
That’s the mindset I’ve carried through my 25- plus years in the insurance industry, and what’s remarkable is that I’m probably even more committed to learning now than I was early on. I try to read a business book each week, and have probably read every book from my one of my favourite business authors, Dan Kennedy. In fact, I just finished reading his “No B.S. Business Success in the New Economy.” This excellent book was all about adding value, which is something I’m committed to doing for my own clients.
I also develop my skills and do training all the time in order to improve personally, professionally, and in business. For instance, I just attended an all-day course run by the National Flood School that teaches people in the insurance claims industry what properties look like when they’re flooded, as well as how to dry them out successfully.
I’ve dealt with flood- or water-damaged property on a regular basis with my clients and their insurance companies, so in one sense, I was already an expert. However, I realized through this experience that I was missing valuable knowledge about the more technical side of water damage. Learning about it would add to my credibility.
After taking the course, I now understand in more detail the effects that flood water has on different types of properties and their materials, such as timber, brick, and concrete. The way you clean, dry, and repair waterdamaged buildings is different depending on the building material you’re dealing with!
I believe there’s really an exponential effect when you continue to learn and develop your skills. My enhanced water damage knowledge is going to help me a great deal this October, because I’ve been asked to give a talk at The Flood Defence Expo 2015 at ExCel London (www.theflooddefenceexpo.co.uk) with several thousand people attending. Opportunities like this open up when you’re willing to learn, but the main reason I go the extra mile in my learning, educating, and personal development is so that I can provide even greater value to my clients.
As important as it is to develop yourself in your own industry or niche, there are universal skills that all business owners and professionals ought to cultivate as well. For example, I’ve been improving my public speaking and writing skills, and then putting them into practice. I recently gave a talk called “The 6 Secrets for a Successful Property Insurance Claim” for The Small Business Alliance, and I wrote an accompanying white paper of the same name (to get a free copy of that special report, feel free to email me at [email protected]).
Even though these skills aren’t directly applicable to insurance, public speaking and writing are helping me establish myself as an authority in the field and attract more clients. There is a myriad of skills in personal development and business that can help you be more successful, from calculating financial projections to learning new ways to market your services.
But perhaps the most important takeaway here is this: With how quickly things are changing, learning isn’t just helping you stay at the top of your industry; it’s helping you stay relevant, period. I’m convinced that those who don’t keep learning are going to be swept away by the flood of advances in technology that await us. I, for one, intend to be riding that wave.
Steve Lazarus
