Well, I got into this industry late in life. I was 46 when I decided to do this.

So, as a middle-aged person, I'm starting in this industry. I know I can do it. It's completely different than the other industry I was in. I was coming from an employee to being self-employed, something I've always wanted to do. I picked the company that I'm still with today. A very good company, very solid. Love them to death. They do the right things virtually all the time, but their training program was horrible. I literally got a box and a disc, and they said, “Go sell.” OK. I'm 46 years old. I have a kid going to college and another one in private school. I have a huge mortgage on a house. How am I going to make any money?

So, I did what I thought was best. The next year I go to my first MDRT event and to say it changed everything, I know it sounds like a cliche, but it did. It changed everything. I sat down with Court of the Table people, Top of the Table people and asked them, “How did you get to that point?” And in turn, they asked me appropriately, “How do I run my practice?” And I told them, this is what I do. And they looked at me and they said, “You shouldn't have made it because you're doing virtually everything wrong.”

So, when I went back to my home, I got employees. Not employee. I went and hired employees. I went and got a commercial real estate agent, and I rented my first office space. That changed everything. The way the MDRT folks showed me how to run a practice changed the trajectory. It changed how I was perceived in the community. It changed the relationships I had with other business owners in town. I'm telling you, this whole culture with MDRT is what you all need to embrace. In most cases, you'll pick this piece and that piece, and then you'll bring it back and you'll start implementing things. The culture here is what helped me build the culture that I have to this day.

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How the MDRT culture changed a career

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Robert Abbate, FICS, CSA