The week ended with a huge dull thud….. I met one of my clients at his place of business….. “you know we get marketed by insurance agents all the time” was the way the conversation began…..oh oh…..”we going with a different broker”….”You’ve been great but……….”.. I felt like a head coach being told the team was going in different direction.

My heart sank….. There was no talking him out of his decision… and we predictably shook hands with the understanding that we would always be welcome back at “sometime” in the future..a common and profoundly insincere way to end the meeting.

They had a growing Work Comp problem and as I often do, I did a “post mortem” on the loss…considering I had been generous with the decision makers over the past four years… and accessible to boot… but in the end, we usually lose an account because we weren’t properly tuned in…. in this instance….lesson learned…I coulda, shoulda woulda done it differently…but any agent who has a book of business loses accounts from time to time…so I had to keep things in perspective.

Friday night was s different matter… as I drove up to the garage, I could see the door cracked just abit… was that smoke or steam coming from under the door?….As I got closer, I could smell the cigar smoke…. I knocked the “secret knock” and immediately the door opened…Inside I found a motley group of middle aged rough looking guys…or were they approaching post middle age?…hmmm… I should know I was the oldest and widest person in the group….

Kemo…..Stretch…and everyone of these guys had a nickname..all with cigars….the turkey deep fryer was crackling away (inside the garage)….the propane heater was going full tilt also inside the garage…the host “kemo” felt everything was perfectly safe….even though they kept the door closed most of the evening..because it was so cold.

so much for the reasoning abilities of my friend….Clearly, an Insurance Companies nightmare….. and he had the worlds smallest television high on the garage wall with what appeared to my cataract clouded eyes a basketball game on…This was one of those guy only events..cigars, Scotch, poker and self abuse….I was honored to be among the group, as they were an old collection of college buddies who have long gotten together for such events..and as such my inclusion for this event was especially appreciated… It didn’t take long after the turkey, half the scotch and two cigars for the group to realize their mistake….I’m not much of a poker player… not their brand anyway… back in my younger days… we played simple games for simple guys..you know…. 7 card stud; 5 card stud; a little black bottom was as wild as we got, and maybe a little blackjack… so the first two thirds of the night was spent learning the games…some were poker..some weren’t…high / lows and this and that..yet, I had a coach to my left and a coach to my right….and in the end, five hours later I lost four bucks….almost lost my lunch from the cigar smoke too, got home at midnight or thereabouts and was never so happy to see my Cpap machine….fresh new air pumped into my lungs all night made the situation better…..I was grateful for the invitation….but I’m not so sure the group found my amateurish poker playing in keeping with their standards…

Last night the Mrs. and I officially celebrated her birthday… dinner at the Capitol Grille…(a great dining experience) and the Lion King…I gotta lose some weight.. the seats were tight and the lady next to me weighed almost as much as me….I felt like I was in a three fat guy aisle in the economy section of an airplane..with a three hour flight..and me in the middle….God, was I uncomfortable…but the Mrs enjoyed the show and here we are today….a new week….

Still licking my wounds from the lost account, I have vowed to simply keep on keeping on….I’ll have to write a lot of business to make up for this last one…and the best insurance tip I can give today… if you want to kill your friends… do it quickly, not with a turkey fryer, propane heater, cigar smoke and closed doors…that takes too long…..but I have to admit, it’s a lot more fun with the turky fryer and semi old guys…