Underwriter Bill
I worked for a large insurance company as an Actuary. If you have never read a prior devotion, an actuary is a professional who uses math, statistics, and financial theory to assess the likelihood of future events and their costs. This is a very important position in the insurance industry.
Anyway, my department reported to the CFO (chief financial officer), who reported to the CEO. Besides my department, the CFO was also responsible for three other departments. Anyway, let me simplify it down to this: I was responsible for the actuaries; a different guy (I’ll call him Bill), was responsible for the underwriters.
Once a month, we had a meeting called the Marketing Finance meeting where the people in charge of the, you guessed it, Marketing and Finance departments got together to go over things like rating assumptions. So, in this case, Bill and I came from the same family (Finance Division) to meet with the Marketing folk.
The dynamic was Marketing always wanted things cheaper and easier to sell while the financial people had to restrain them by pointing out the ramifications. These discussions were between professional experts making assumptions that will result in potential gain or loss that won’t be known for more than a year away.
One of the first meetings after I was put in charge of the actuarial team, a rating question came up. The Marketing people were trying to explore the rating assumptions to rationalize a change to make the products cheaper. I was defending the rating assumptions. Bill, my peer and a part of my Financial family, pointed out a weakness in how we did something that he was aware of making my defending job harder. It ticked me off.
Anyway, after the meeting, when we got back to our building (the meeting was in the building that the Marketing folk were in), I pointed out quite forcefully that we were in the same Financial family and he needed to support me and if he could not do that to keep his mouth shut. And if he ever did that to me again, I knew where his operational process weaknesses were and I’d return the favor. That was the first and last time Bill ever stabbed me in the back like that. In fact, we developed a friendship that went beyond our working arrangement.
I had not thought about him in years (he retired before I did) but, out of the blue, he called me the other day. We talked about family and complained about getting older and gossip we had heard about our former employer. Just like any two old friends catching up.
“Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends. A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool. An evil man seeks only rebellion, and a cruel messenger will be sent against him. Let a man meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs rather than a fool in his folly. If anyone returns evil for good, evil will not depart from his house. The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so quit before the quarrel breaks out. He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord. Why should a fool have money in his hand to buy wisdom when he has no sense? A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” - Proverbs 17:9-17 ESV
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” - James 1:5-8
“And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. When they told David, ‘It was the men of Jabesh-gilead who buried Saul,’ David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh-gilead and said to them, ‘May you be blessed by the Lord, because you showed this loyalty to Saul your Lord and buried him. Now may the Lord show steadfast love and faithfulness to you. And I will do good to you because you have done this thing. Now therefore let your hands be strong, and be valiant, for Saul your Lord is dead, and the house of Judah has anointed me king over them.’” - 2 Samuel 2:4-7
The point of my story is that it is better to think of others before your own self-interest. When you do that, you open yourself to relationships with others that transcend whatever brought you together at that time.
