THE GREATNESS OF AMERICA

by Anthony Verreos                       FEB 27, 2018

It all starts with blessings from God. Travelers soon learn this planet has a lot to offer when it comes to natural beauty, and man made architecture, it can be overwhelming. but as fantastic as the natural sites are - the ruins, and the newest stunning creations, it's the people that make it most meaningful to us. The story of humanity's beginnings, growth, and search for excellence leads us everywhere from humble farms, to huge cities, to schools, research labs, the Olympics, and unfortunately even to the battlefield.

In all we do, common threads are tightly woven: what we are taught by parents, friends, and teachers, what we learn from the school of hard knocks, how we gauge the risks we choose to take - whether successfully, or unsuccessfully, and who ends up paying the bill when we fail. Whether the team we represent is political, sports, educational, military, entertainment, or any others, we don't always love, or even like all of our teammates, but we absolutely need to be able to trust them, as they need to be able to trust us. In the world of business, that means people need to keep their promises. Promises to deliver on time whatever is agreed to, promises to carry our fair share of the work, and promises to pay whatever debts we agree to when we make purchases.

 Money, money, money, money - money! is the lyric to the song “For the Love of Money” by the O’Jays that notes some of the problems people have dealing with their financial wellness. While a great song, sung by great musicians can tell an entertaining story about money that is sure to not be boring, you won’t find any such tune sung about insurance. In fact if you want to quickly end a conversation with someone, just mention insurance, and see what happens.

What the heck ties all of this together?  People wanting to make a better life for themselves and their children, and their children’s children.  They mostly had to risk everything to leave whatever they had in other countries, take a ship journey over a very dangerous ocean in a very small wooden boat, then if they survived all the risks that accompanied that, they would have earned the right to start from scratch in a new world where they were not always welcomed by the natives or the plants and animals present. Believe It of Not (as in Ripley’s), some of the risks those brave souls were taking were insured (not all). 

And as decades and centuries passed, people demanded more and newer types of financial guarantees which would provide them the confidence necessary to take bigger and bigger risks - as in building a bigger house, buying and building bigger businesses, buying newer and larger ships, and sending valuable cargo to be sold in faraway countries.  From the humble beginnings in a caravan trader’s tent, or a coffee house in London, cargo became the first type of formal insurance. Before that the insurance people had was staying with their family and their tribe who they could trust to help them survive pooling resources and knowledge. What has eventually followed is just about any type of Property, Liability, and the risks to personal Health, Disability, and Life.

Insurance is still deadly boring, but your money is not. For more information, contact Tony Verreos, President of the VERREOS Insurance Agency, Brisbane, CA 415-467-9600, [email protected]  CDI#0585599 Licensed for sales in CA only.