When the first light is green, you go

The motivational quote in today's e-mail from Nightingale-Conant is, "If you wait until all the lights are 'green' before you leave home, you'll never get started on your trip to the top." It's from Zig Ziglar.

I first heard this, said another way, in the 1960s, from a man with whom I worked in the Chicago Loop. Jim Royer was the General Agent of the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company agency at 120 S. LaSalle St.

Jim was explaining about "getting started." He said that, if you were planning a trip from Chicago to St. Louis, you could go to the top of the tallest building in Chicago and look southwest toward St. Louis. You could either wait to start until all the lights were green, or you could start and proceed until you came to the first red light, wait, and then go on.

Jim was one smart cookie. He was a true mentor, as was John Joy, Jr., the agent who sold me my first Penn Mutual policy and who then recruited me as an agent. I worked with them for five years, until I moved to Denver in December 1970.

I recall introducing a client to Jim in the office one day, saying, "This is the man I work for." Jim corrected me and told the client that he worked for me. And he did. He often fought with the Underwriting Department on behalf of a man (or woman) whose application was being considered. He never wanted the company to take on an unwise risk, but he'd fight hard if they were unduly, in his opinion, delaying an application that ought to be approved.