John Scully, of PepsiCo and Apple fame, said, “The future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious.” Our industry is in a place where those who can see possibilities are poised to absolutely own the future.

I'm not going to tell you what those possibilities are, because I honestly don't know. I have some ideas, but those are mine. I'm setting my business up to act on the things I see, but I won't know if I'm right until, well … the future. There are things happening today that are creating opportunities for those who aren't afraid to act.

Think about Section 125 plans. Someone figured out that this tax benefit had created an opportunity to sell more voluntary products. The plan tax savings “created” money that employees could use to buy more coverage. As a result, we sold a ton of voluntary products. After all, it's easy to sell an accident policy when you've just handed them the premium in the form of tax savings.