No one likes insurance ... but I love New York

Who likes insurance? No one. Insurance is a good thing, no doubt about it! We like to know that we're protected. We like to feel safe. The thing is, insurance is nothing anyone gets excited about. The reason is simple. Insurance means, one way or another, "bad stuff" – there's this negative connotation that hangs over it like a massive grey cloud.

There's mandatory insurance - and anything we're forced to have we don't like, period. Then there's insurance we choose to get but there the thing is that most often we just pay and we pay and we pay and nothing ever happens. So at some point you start feeling like you're being ripped off. Paying for years on end and never seeing anything for it? Certainly does feel like a scam, doesn't it? Of course it isn't – but it FEELS like it. Oh, and then of course there's the moment we hope will never come – the crash, the accident, the demolished house, the demolished body – injury, death. And man oh man are we glad we have that insurance then. We're covered! But even then – "insurance" is connected with something that's clearly negative. So there you have it, when the word "insurance" comes up, it never generates that warm and fuzzy feeling – and it certainly doesn't excite. Maybe you're saying we're not supposed to feel warm and fuzzy about insurance. Well, I beg to differ. There's a lot to be excited about, especially when we look a little deeper. I can tell you one thing - I do feel warm and fuzzy about insurance and here's why:

New York's my hometown. I wasn't born there, I wasn't raised there – but I've lived there for many years and it's been home (that deep personal connection) from the first moment I walked into Hell's Kitchen. Millions of immigrants followed their dream by journeying to New York. Hordes of tourists crowd Broadway every day. And even those who've never been anywhere near New York have a strong connection to it. Do any of these ring a bell? The Honeymooners, The Odd Couple, Taxi, Fame, Seinfeld, Law & Order, Friends, NYPD Blue, 30Rock, Mad Men? Or how about these: Miracle on 34th Street, All About Eve, On The Waterfront ("I coulda been a contenda!"), Rear Window, 12 Angry Men, The Apartment, West Side Story, Barefoot in the Park, The Producers, Midnight Cowboy ("I'm walking here, I'm walking here!"), Rosemary's Baby, The French Connection, Klute, Shaft, The Godfather, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, The Three Days of the Condor, Network ("I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!"), Taxi Driver, King Kong, Annie Hall, Saturday Night Fever, Hair, Manhattan, The Warriors, Escape From New York, Raging Bull, Nighthawks, Tootsie, Ghostbusters, Once Upon a Time in America, Crocodile Dundee, Highlander ("There can be only one!"), Moonstruck ("Snap out of it!"), Wall Street, Do The Right Thing, When Harry Met Sally, Ghost, Goodfellas, Carlito's Way, As Good as it Gets, Men in Black, Analyze This, Being John Malkovich, The Matrix, Zoolander, Madagascar and Birdman and many, many more. I could do the same thing with songs and musicals and novels and a lot of it will bring up vivid memories of time spent, one way or another, in the company of the one and only New York.

I know, I know, you're wondering what any of this has to do with insurance. Here's what – way back when Henry Ford was in New York and said the following:

"This city would not have been built without the help of insurance."

There you have it. Think about it – the streets and tunnels and bridges and buildings - that madness of New York that reaches into the sky - most of that wouldn't exist without insurance. This comes as no surprise for anyone working in the insurance industry - it's obvious, right? Of course insurance was there to take the risk, to back up those who had the guts to build the future. But that's not the part that excites me. What excites me is what was created by New York - the stories and the memories of hundreds of millions of people who were touched and impacted in countless ways by New York.

So much of what I treasure about the experience that is New York would not exist without insurance. When I think of insurance as a policy I need to pay I'm like everyone else – I don't like it. But when I think of everything that wouldn't be there without it, when I think of New York, then I do. More than that, I start caring. I care because it allows us to bravely think and act into the future. Insurance isn't everything. But it is as powerful a part of our society as are our hopes and dreams, as is our spirit to explore, to dare. Insurance helps us to deliver on our promise – to make this world a better one, a healthier and a safer one – for everyone.