Is Karma Real or is it a self-fulfilling prophecy?

One of my insurance agent friends tells a great story about the day she waited to write her husband's friend’s life insurance policy. They were all great friends going back many years, and he was interested in getting a term life insurance policy to insure that the family would be cared for in the event of catastrophe.

They were all friends, so it was no big deal to wait until the weekend to get the application submitted and they were going to get together anyways.

The next day, my agent friend’s husband got a call from his friend’s wife. Her friend, the insurance prospect was in a horrible car crash and died. It was devastating to everyone. The family was not ready to lose the breadwinner, and to keep the house the wife had to go back to work. But it’s not as easy as just applying for jobs. Nope, she had to find a daycare, find the bus schedule for this kids’ school, figure out how to suddenly do it all as a single mom. Oh yeah, and there was the financial hit too. They eventually sold the house and moved to an apartment.

This story has been in my head for weeks. I suddenly got the idea that there was bad karma when someone doesn’t take a life insurance policy or when an agent is a little lax when trying to get a policy issued.

So a few weeks we helped a lady apply for a great term life insurance policy. At first, she told us she was in excellent health. And lots of us feel like we’re in better shape than we actually are. But there are people out there who have rippling muscles and also have high cholesterol. There are people out there who appear to be the picture of health who have a blod clot forming in artery, just waiting to for the day it’s going to dislodge and end up in the brain causing a stroke. This lady was not different, we learned through underwriting that her conditions made her hard to insure and she was uprated a little bit. To be honest, I considered the policy to be fantastic and I told her. But she told me, “Matt, I know I will regret this forever. But I can’t afford the increase in rate.” I told her that she had a fantastic policy but I accepted it.

Keep in mind that I had it in my brain that failing to accept a life policy results in bad Karma – so at the end of that week, two member of my family had significant medical setbacks and my wife was involved in a car accident which thankfully didn’t have any injuries but it did cause substantial damage to my pickup truck.

These stories caused me to change how I run my agency. I posted a picture up here a few weeks ago, I ended up with so many ideas I ended up writing them all down on the wall of my office, like a crazy person. It reminded me of when I used to be a food service director, we used to do the same thing, I would write down all of the project ideas on flip chart paper or kitchen parchment paper. We changed how we connect with customers and I continuously reiterate why we do what we do. We’re not here to “sell policies.” And we’re not here to “save people money.” Any bullcrap insurance agent can do that. We’re here to protect people and families. Sometimes that means I can also save you money, but imagine finding a pair of shoes on sale. It’s awesome when?you find it, and who doesn’t love a bargain? But would you buy the shoes if they didn’t fit?

So is Karma real? Is there something to the idea that when someone doesn’t take a life insurance policy it could lead to bad things?