Insurtech

Our friends at Google Ventures (GV) recently posted about the impending revolution coming soon to an insurance company near you!  Read Tom Thulme’s post HERE, about how the industry is changing and GV’s excitement and participation in facilitating that change.  Two recent startups, Lemonade (property and casualty insurance) and Oscar (health insurance) are making great headway in leading the digital revolution of the insurance innovation.  We look forward to joining the ranks of these company’s in the life insurance realm as our company GWG Holdings, begins to execute its Secret Master Plan.

Pike Syndrome

Tom Thulme  also has one of the more interesting posts I have seen in a while about the Pike Syndrome. If you have never heard of the Pike Syndrome then you have to check out this Video.

First of all, I just love the authentic aspect of this video.  This grainy video appears to be filmed circa 1973 somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere.  To see the 8mm film translated and posted on high tech YouTube for download and play – tells you all you need to know – that the Pike Syndrome is real and exists all around you.

Don’t be a Pike is the moral of this story.  Watch the video if you have never seen it, and then sit back and wonder: On how many items in your life are you suffering from the Pike Syndrome?  My goal is to constantly try to observe the world outside myself and eliminate self limiting views and behaviors.  The best antidote against suffering from the Pike Syndrome is initiative to take action.  After all, if the Pike simply took action (I won’t ruin it for those who have not watched the video) what a different outcome results.

The Pike Syndrome is the essence of one of my new favorite business books: Cheat to Win, by Robert MacDonald.  Bob told me the story about titling his book and how it off-put publishers (refusing to publish a book with such a name); however, the book is not about breaking rules (laws) and winning at all costs – on the contrary – Bob advocates and insists on maintaining an absolute moral compass orientated towards truth and honesty.  The essence of the book is how to address the Pike Syndrome.

Most people engage in business and life based upon an imaginary set of rules that they believe they cannot break – just like the Pike.  These imaginary “rules” come from learned behaviors and perceived authority.  These “rules” become so ingrained in our minds, that we are unable to see they exist, let alone how might see around or through them.  Consequently, these “rules” prevent us from accessing our true power as creative thinkers and achieving the success in life we desire.  Bob advocates in his book that our chief aim in life is to continue to challenge ourselves to identify these imaginary rules, think for ourselves, and break those rules to win in business and life.

Don’t be a Pike! As Bob writes in his book, he broke these rules and succeeded big time!

Now, back to Insurtech

You won’t have to read many pages in Cheat to Win to learn about all the imaginary rules that exist in the insurance industry.  This is why the insurance industry as whole cannot and will not capture the minnows.  This is why, as I write in my White Paper, the insurtech revolution will come from the outside and not from the incumbents.  The incumbents are the Pike and the insurtech startups are the minnows.  (I am being careful not to ruin it for you – Watch the Video).  Learned behaviors  deeply ingrained within corporate cultures are real. Cheers to the little fish! May you continue to grow and flourish, despite the Pike lurking in the pond.