Why I Left Accounting for an Insurance Career in 1981

I left a secure accounting job in 1981 to build an insurance career, and forty-five years later I am still in this business and still enjoying it. The reason I moved was not commission. It was ownership. Insurance was the only business I could find that let me build something of my own, starting with no capital at all.

I meet capable young professionals across Trinidad and Tobago carrying the same frustration I carried at twenty-eight. They have the qualifications. They have the discipline. What they do not have is a way of turning either into something that belongs to them. If that is where you are standing, let me tell you how I got out of it.

The lesson a finance career taught me about money

I walked out of Presentation College for the last time on 26 June 1971 with no plan whatsoever. That same night a letter arrived from Pannell Fitzpatrick and Company, inviting me to an interview that I could not remember applying for. The manager, Mr Paul Anthony Buxo, asked what I had studied at A level. Latin, Spanish and English, I told him. He said there was no need to wait for the results, and he hired me on the spot.

It was a good house to learn in. The seniors taught the juniors as a matter of course, we were encouraged to sit the ACCA professional examinations, and we were rewarded when we passed. We worked by day and studied in the office at night. I passed three of the five papers and was promoted to semi-senior.

Then an American drilling company operating in Trinidad offered me a post as their accountant at twice my earnings, and I took it. Two years later their contract here ended, the rig was bound for Brazil, and they asked me to go with it. I thought long and hard before saying no.

The job that changed my thinking was the next one: Supervisor, Investment Portfolio at the Development Finance Company Limited. I oversaw companies the DFC had lent money to, confirming the funds went where the loan said they should and that the businesses were properly run while the debt was outstanding. I saw every kind of enterprise, what made some succeed and what quietly finished off the others. And I learned something no salary negotiation had ever taught me.

No one becomes wealthy on a salary alone.

Why do so many good ideas never become businesses?

Capital. That is the honest answer, and it was mine. Many dreams die because the dreamer cannot fund them. I watched men and women with less education than I had, and less talent, go into business and do well, and I asked myself a fair question: why not me? The ideas were there. The money was not.

What does an insurance career actually offer?

The answer arrived in a way I did not expect. A friend came to sell me a life insurance policy. He did not make the sale, but before he left he described the business he was in, and I heard four things I have never forgotten.

• I could be my own boss.
• I could write my own paycheque.
• I could choose the people I did business with.
• I could choose my hours of work.

Then came the point that decided it: I needed no capital to begin. Insurance was a business I could own from the first day, funded by nothing but my own effort. For a man with ideas and an empty pocket, that was the answer to a prayer.

Freedom is not the same as ease

I have to be careful here, because those four freedoms are often sold badly. Being your own boss means nobody is going to make you work. Writing your own paycheque means an empty week writes itself. Choosing your hours means the discipline has to come from inside you, because it is not coming from anywhere else.

Owning your time is like owning land: it is only worth what you build on it. In over forty years in the field I have watched talented people be ruined by that freedom, and ordinary people build extraordinary practices with it. The difference was never talent. It was structure, applied daily, whether they felt like it or not.

What to do if you are standing where I stood

First, be honest about what you want. If you want security, this is the wrong profession and there is no shame in saying so. Second, do not join a company, join a system: ask about recruiting, training and supervision before you ask about commission rates. Third, commit to a horizon rather than a trial, because the business does not reveal itself until the third year. Fourth, get qualified and keep getting qualified. My Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) designation and my Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) years came long after 1981, because I decided early that this was a profession and not a job.

I am Carlyle Fletcher, and I made this decision in 1981 on the strength of a conversation with a friend who failed to sell me a policy. It has held up for forty-five years. If you are weighing the same move, stop waiting for certainty. Go and talk to three people doing well in this business, ask what their first three years cost them, and then decide.

Frequently asked questions

Why did Carlyle Fletcher leave accounting for insurance?

After ten years in accounting and development finance, Carlyle Fletcher concluded that no one becomes wealthy on a salary alone. Business was the way forward, but capital was the barrier. Insurance was the one business he could own outright and start with no capital, so he moved in 1981.

Do you need capital to start an insurance career?

No. That is what makes an insurance career unusual. You are building a business of your own without buying premises, stock or equipment. What the profession asks for instead is time, discipline and the willingness to work through the first three years while your client base is still being built.

What are the four freedoms of an insurance career?

You can be your own boss, write your own paycheque, choose the people you do business with, and choose your hours of work. Each one is real, and each one is conditional. Freedom in this profession only pays where personal structure and daily discipline are applied consistently.