In business, or arguably anything you do, timing is one of themost crucial factors. Not only is timing unpredictable, but it canlead you down a road you never thought you would travel—and thatcan be a good thing or a bad thing. In college, I had a footballcoach who went from cutting the grass at a tech start-up company tobecoming a sales rep for one of the first companies in America tomass produce the floppy disc. I'm still in my twenties, so I havenever actually seen a floppy disc, but the moral of the story ishis timing to go work for the start-up in a relatively unknownindustry opened up an opportunity for him to get into sales. Andthe rest was history. My coach ended up amassing millions ofdollars, rose to EVP of the company, retired at 50 and now coachesat his alma mater just for fun. A truly incredible story aboutgood timing. If he goes to cut the grass five years later,the company has already exploded and there's no room for him. Fiveyears prior and they don't even have the capital to hire him,period.

If you ask me, 2015 was one of those “floppy disc” years for thebenefits industry, a time where things change and there areimmeasurable opportunities that can't even be truly fathomed yet.As a brand new college graduate, I weighed options to go work formany different nationally recognized companies. But when I took amore objective look before making my final decision, I askedmyself, 'Where is the opportunity to do something that nobody hasever done before?' I found that opportunity in employee benefits.The industry is changing dramatically; we are at a crossroads andhave the privilege of rewriting the book on how to design healthplans for employee benefits packages.

Investment banking five years ago was the same as it will befive years from today, and a lawyer five years ago operated hispractice in the same way he will five years from now. But if abenefits professional relies on what he did five years ago to runhis business going forward, he will surely be toast. Thereis no way a broker or a carrier rep can survive by doing what thosebefore them did, and therein lies the opportunity to become arevolutionary.