Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Know what that is. I went to the doctor and told him I am having a meltdown.
I had a total nervous breakdown during the first six months.
I did not know what was happening to me. I could not recognize anything. Today everything is familiar.
Everything is just as it was in Israel. Nothing was familiar.
It was a battle, battle to survive under conditions I could not understand.
Here I was sitting with a whole pile in front of my underwriter at Clal, or Migdal, or any other
and argued: if you give it to me for 75. I will give you...; give it to me for the standard, and I will give it to you for...
I call Minneapolis. Who is going to let me even talk to the underwriter?! There is no such thing.
You don't talk to the underwriter. The General Manager talks to the underwriter, not me.
I have to deposit $1000 just to have a mobile phone!
I used to earn 300-400,000 annually even here
There I have to make a deposit of $1000 because I have no credit history - to receive a cell phone!
Who are you, mister?
Zvika, from Bank Leumi, will tell you who I am. Really? Then call Zvika.
Gentlemen, MDRT - give it serious thought because it will change your life, just as they write
and I think, that was the theme last year, or in Toronto - one of them.
It really changes your life.
What would be the most logic step if you already have a partnership with a CPA?
The second step, after I convinced him that he has oil and an oil field,
and I, as I told him, have the drilling equipment and the gas stations,
only I did not really have them. I just acted "as if". I did not have them yet.
I am looking for something to connect the CPA to, something that will provide me with efficient and intelligent drilling
that brings in the most, while requiring the least amount of work, and it should be attractive
I am looking for management insurance in America, because this is what I come from.
I am searching for something that will be the best tax credit, since American really dislike taxes. They will pay, but they do not like it.
A few months later, God sends me to a small conference, a training day
about specific programs; very specific retirement plans, available in the US,
that have their origins with the big corporate pension plans, but have been retained in a different way today.
These plans are built around a tax deductible of $200-400,000 a year
and with about 50% in life insurance; not only life insurance, but whole life insurance
There is no argument there. I am not sure if any of you remember what whole life is
There is no argument there about savings; whole life insurance is whole life insurance. No argument on savings.
The premium is equal to the total insurance. Whether you wish to come from this direction or another direction. You just have to decide.
I do not even have to calculate the pension. There are specific technicians that will do it.
They will declare which sums will be allocated to insurance and which ones to savings. That's it. What could be easier?!
Now I need to ask the CPA which clients had tax problems the previous year
Look at this person - $150,000. What do you need to offset $150,000 in taxes?
We need a plan for $150,000. Is there something suitable?
I found, by the way, what you see here is not that special
It was just very explicitly written. I just erased the name of the person
This is a real check. A real payment for a life insurance premium. I am certain many would be happy.
At the beginning I blinked, but I have stopped blinking. I understood it was not good to blink when someone writes a check. They may think I am anxious.
But to begin with I blinked, I really did, because it's...
but when I closed the first deal, and I received a check for life insurance
and gentlemen, let no one tell you that they do not pay you commission because they emulate America.
Not true! Not true. In America they most definitely pay commissions. I am stating it on this stage for the record, and you may quote me.
In America they most definitely pay commission.
For the first six months, for my first deal with a psychiatrist that has a clinic somewhere in Arkansas,
and his wife lives in San Diego, with this psychiatrist I am doing all my initial experiment on this plan.
Of course, when I call the company, and seek the advice of the lawyers that put together the training about these plans
I discover, they have no idea how these plans work. They know how to present the concept, but no idea how to fill in the forms
I had to guide them through the process step by step, and I'm talking about a firm, listen to me,
an insurance company established in 1810!
You can see there a copy of a policy, and I have visited the original offices of the company
Abraham Lincoln's policy, a policy for General Lee, on the opposite side - I'm talking about this kind of company!
and I, the bonehead from Kiryat Haim, I'm guiding them and telling them what to do: No,it's not how this is calculated, it should be this way
For half a year, I am driving them crazy, until they come up with a plan as I thought it should be.
All Israelis are problematic. They ask me there all the time
(translates into Hebrew) How come all Israelis think outside the box?
My answer is that we come from a country with no box.
They have yet to build it. 60 years - there is no box built yet. We all live out of the box, therefore we think out of the box.
What is the first thing you see when you get there? The box.
We're not used to see boxes, because we ourselves have none. When you ask what is this box about, people don't even know they live in a box.
What do you see when you sit in the dark inside a box?
The light. How do you see the light? Through the cracks.
No problem. If there are cracks, then let's go through them. It's clear. It's the easiest way in. Let's go into the light.
This is what Israelis are attracted to, and this is the reason for their success everywhere they go. They have no box.
I drove the company so crazy, that for half a year they heard the name Tibi Zohar for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
I'm speaking of a company that was established in 1810 and with a turnover higher than Israel's GDP.
I drove them all crazy: the President, the General Manager. They're causing me trouble, listen, we're friends
In December when we closed the deal, my phone rings
The company's Vice President is on the line, and says:
Listen, Mr. Zohar, you have a big mouth, very big mouth.
I am already thinking that they're going to throw me out. What will I do now?
I am not part of the company, I am independent, but still... I just started, and already I'm being thrown out by such a big company.
No one will accept to work with me. In America you are linked and networked. Everything is reported.
You use your credit card, they know where you are.
Listen, you really have a big mouth, you know. Yes, unfortunately, I do know.
How about you put your mouth to use? We have a national advisory council.
National in the US means 350 million.
We have a national advisory council and the company has about 3,000 reps.
We would like to invite you to join us. We have 15, 13 representatives that we fly 3 times a year to meet either in Hartford, CT or in St. Paul, MN.
We want to hear your thoughts, how to structure our products, how to operate. You will guide us in what we should do.
Use your big mouth there instead of making noises for the back-office reps.
It was a great honor, and this picture was taken almost at the end of my term
The length of the term is 3 years, and this picture was taken in St. Paul, Minneapolis
I had the privilege and the honor to sit down for dinner with the President of the company
Hartford was established in 1810, and the President was Ramni Ayer.
We had dinner with him and with the Vice Presidents
They really listened to us. You have to know, the insurance companies there listen to the agents.
We tell them to do this and that, and they implemented the changes. Here and there they even made changes to commissions.
They did not make changes without consulting with us first. This is at the corporate level, not the level of Obama.
I have to emphasize that this is at the corporate level.
We have been through that too. You know, I always say that there is a purpose to every place we get to,
and you never know what that purpose is off hand. Only after the fact.
I think that the reason God brought me to the US was to meet Tami, my wonderful wife. She gave me wings these last years.
Of course, in order to be able to marry her, I had to divorce the previous one.
Not only that, I have not told you, but to be a Californian you have to go through a few stages.
First, you have to stop smoking. 2 packs a day for many years, and I stopped.
The you have to be divorced. You can not be married only once and register as a Californian. It simply isn't done.
The you remarry; and now I'm waiting for the final stage: teeth straightening.
As soon as I will straighten my lower teeth, I will become a full fledged Californian, acceptable and true.
Then people will be able to relate to me. If my teeth are a little crooked, I can not be considered a real Californian. I may be from Arkansas, but not from California.
That was a joke. You're allowed to laugh.
We went through that too. I have to tell you, it is really fun to have someone that goes along with me and helps me.
Another thing I achieved there, with the help of God, that blessed me with such checks and such premiums.
I have reached the point where I need to invest very little time in the business. I do 6-7 deals a year.