Nuggets of MDRT Wisdom

Here’s a selection of the best inspirational quotes from this year’s annual MDRT meeting.

By Maggie Leyes

From Anguilla to Oman to Korea, Million Dollar Round Table members came from across the globe and the four corners of the United States to attend the 2004 annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif. Top industry and inspirational speakers spoke to the almost 7,000 attendees at the general sessions, reminding them to put Wow! — the theme of the meeting—back into their practices and lives. Here is a taste of what the speakers had to say at this highly animated and motivational meeting:

For over 25 years I spent countless hours practicing guitar. And there came a point that I mastered that instrument. That’s how it is becoming successful. The more time we spend applying great success habits, achieving outstanding results will become second nature, just like playing guitar has become second nature for me. You’ll begin stacking one success on top of another until pretty soon you’ll have that certainty to go out and succeed.
—Robin Crow, music executive (Reshaping Your World)

Dialog is powerful, but talk is cheap; the difference is action. Turn dialog into solutions.
—Her Majesty, Queen Noor of Jordan (The Power of Dialog)

Passion is homegrown. … It takes years and years and years to become an overnight success.
—John Bledsoe, CLU, CFP (One More Turn)

True value is not measured by how much money you make, it’s measured by the size of the problem that you can solve. And you tell me what profession solves bigger problems than this, who protects the innocent if someone dies prematurely, who guarantees a worry-free retirement with income they can’t outlive, who protects their assets if they get sick, and finally, legacy when they die. Only you can do all of that. And you tell me that that’s not a life of significance.
—Joseph W. Jordan (A Life of Significance)

Seek out the one big thing that will ignite you. Your critics fear big things. Ignore your critics.
—Charlie Epstein, CLU, ChFC (Choose Your Dreams)

Learn to live the Wow!

• Your tone carries resonance, so smile to change your tone.
  
• Learn something new everyday.
  
• Get rid of the noise in your life.
  
• Exercise and eat right so that you have the energy and light to do what you need to do.

—Bertice Berry, Ph.D. (Finding Your Purpose)

When you share your load, you half it. When you share your blessings you double them.
—Stephan Kenneth Du Plessis, ALSA (Go To It)

When our prospects get their paychecks, they don't get an instruction book. Money doesn’t come with instructions. That's why our prospects and clients need us.
—George B. Pickett, J.D., CLU, president of MDRT (Presidential Address)

Imagine the power of a world where everyone feels the bonds of brotherhood in a common society, working together across nations and borders for the benefit of all people. A world that powerful could certainly deal with the issues that plague our societies like hunger, homelessness, disease, racism, adoption. The keys to addressing these topics in our future require many steps, but I believe that these steps can be found much faster if we all take them together.
—Nick M. Falco, CFRE (Paths)

And then Frank P. McGoff, CLU, ChFC, ended this year’s meeting saying, “The annual meeting of the million Dollar Round Table tries to change the world by trying to change you with one, maybe two ideas that you can incorporate into your business or into your life.” He then regaled the audience with nuggets of wisdom—quotes from the industry’s greats from past MDRT meetings that still resonate today: If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got.
—Dr. Carl Hammerschlag, 1991

The best way to predict the future is to create it.
—Jim Tunney, 1998

Where we are is not so much a function of where we have been as it is a function of where we are going.
—Dr. Elliott, 1983

Never, never, never give up!
—Jimmy Volvano, 1987