I already had a stock broker license, so now I had to go to classes to become a licensed insurance agent. To become an insurance agent, you had to complete a number of pre-licensing requirements, as well as between 7-20 hours in a classroom setting for the insurance lines of accident/health, fire (property) casualty, and personal life insurance. After the pre-licensing requirements, then you could register to take your exam. There was a general exam and a state exam for each line of authority. You had to pass the general and the state exam within 90 days of each other. You could not take the exam unless you had proof of completion of the required pre-licensing courses. After you passed the licensing examination you got a pass sheet along with an instruction sheet by the test administrator. If you failed the exam, they would arrange for another exam. After you passed the test, you had to wait five days after passing your exam, to apply for your license. Your license expired one year from your birth month. Every insurance agent had to have a $50,000 total aggregate liability policy. Thus, I spent a lot of time in classroom settings. I was going to go to classes so that I could pass a test to become a licensed insurance agent. There are many types of insurance, like auto, homeowners, health, and life. Annuities and service contracts are a form of insurance. I would have to know the difference between these different types of insurance. Prudential put an emphasis on life insurance and annuities, not on auto, home, or health insurance. I had to learn the difference between term life insurance and whole life insurance. The information was not difficult, but you had to know it to pass the test in the various forms of insurance. After you were licensed, then you had to go to refresher or continuing education classes. I liked this classroom aspect of this job, just like I loved learning about stocks and options. Meanwhile, there were in house meetings about how to sell life insurance. To be honest, I thought the sign selling guy for Gulf was a better salesman, since he insisted that you had to know and love your product in order to successfully sell it. Prudential kept talking about making sure that the customers knew that they needed life insurance. They had all kinds of booklets and sales techniques. Their best example was that Nat King Cole did not have any life insurance. I guess they forgot to mention that his daughter Natalie Cole did all right. I got all my licenses after a couple of months. I was ready to sell life insurance. When I asked about auto and home insurance, they told me that Prudential was not that competitive in the Chicago market. Thus, I kept my State Farm Insurance for my home and auto. However, I did buy life insurance for Margaret and myself, because I got my first commission. I also sold her an annuity that she could pay through the Archdiocese of Chicago payroll deduction. Anyway, I sold something even if it was to myself and Margaret. Do you have life insurance?
My daily life as a Prudential salesman in 1980
The Prudential office in Palos Heights was a mere half hour ride on side streets. I did not have to be there until 9:00 AM, so I never left my house before 8:30 AM. There were no early morning commutes to O’Hare. There were no weekend work schedules. However, there was evening calling. I had to work a couple nights a week. It was a relaxing work schedule. Generally, we went out to lunch at a restaurant across the street. I usually ordered soup with bread for lunch. I did not want to spend a lot of money since I would be home for supper all the time. My new boss was a guy from downstate Decatur, Illinois. I had never met anyone from there. He was about my age, 40 or younger. He wanted to build a professional group at this Prudential Office. I do not remember his name, but he was pleased to have me there. I would have a year to get accustomed to insurance sales so that they paid me a salary, as I was an exclusive agent of Prudential. I would get a commission on top of my salary for the first year, but after that I would have to rely on my commissions and renewals. I said that I understood this. He was sure that I would succeed. He was going to give me all the help that I needed. In fact, I reported to another agent who was called Richard Van Dyke. I remember his name because it was the same as Dick Van Dyke. He was a Dutch Reform deacon in his church in South Holland, IL. He was a very nice person, whom I reported to directly. I got to know him pretty well. What do you know about insurance?
Prudential Insurance Company
Prudential Insurance is an American Fortune Global 500 company that provides insurance, retirement planning, investment management, and other products and services to both retail and institutional customers throughout the United States and in over 40 other countries. In 2019, Prudential was the largest insurance provider in the United States with $815 billion in total assets. I knew Prudential because of its logo with the Rock of Gibraltar. Thus, the slogans were “Get a Piece of the Rock” and “The Strength of Gibraltar.” This company began in Newark, New Jersey, in 1875, originally called The Widows and Orphans Friendly Society, then the Prudential Friendly Society, founded by John F. Dryden (1839-1911), who later became a U.S. Senator from New Jersey, who was known as the “Father of Industrial Insurance.” In the beginning, Prudential sold only one product, burial insurance. Dryden’s son Forrest F. Dryden (1864-1932) became the president until 1922. There was a history of The Prudential Insurance Company of America up to about 1975, in the book Three Cents A Week, referring to the premium paid by early policyholders. At the turn of the 20th century, Prudential and other large insurers reaped the bulk of their profits from industrial life insurance, or insurance sold house-to-house in poor urban areas. Industrial workers paid double what others paid for ordinary life insurance. Due to high lapse rates, as few as 1 in 12 policies reached maturity. Prominent lawyer and future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis helped pass a 1907 Massachusetts law to protect workers by allowing savings banks to sell life insurance at lower rates. Prudential has evolved from a mutual insurance company to a joint stock company, now traded on the NYSE, under the symbol PRU, since 2001. In 1981, the company acquired Bache & Co., a stock brokerage service that operated as a wholly owned subsidiary until 2003. In 1999, Prudential sold its healthcare division, Prudential HealthCare, to Aetna for $1 billion. On May 1, 2003, Prudential formalized the acquisition of American Skandia, the largest distributor of variable annuities through independent financial professionals in the United States. In April 2004, the company acquired the retirement business of CIGNA Corporation. In February 2011, the company acquired AIG Edison and AIG Star both in Japan from American International Group, Inc (AIG) for a total of $4.8 billion. In January 2013, Prudential acquired the individual life insurance business from The Hartford for $615 million in cash, 700,000 in force life insurance policies with a face amount of approximately $135 billion. In September 2019, the company agreed to acquire online startup Assurance IQ Inc. for $2.35 billion. During the 1980s and 1990s, Prudential Securities Incorporated (PSI), a division of Prudential Financial, settled with investors for $330 million over suspected fraud. In 1997, Prudential settled a class action lawsuit by millions of its customers who had been sold unnecessary life insurance by Prudential agents over a 13-year period ending in 1995. Prudential agents had improperly persuaded customers to cash in old policies and purchase new ones so that the agents could generate additional sales commissions. Prudential has received a 100% rating on the Corporate Equality Index released by the Human Rights Campaign every year since 2003. What do you know about Prudential?
An unemployed individual contractor
I theoretically liked the idea of being an individual contractor, but the only problem is that I had no regular individual income. I think that I needed to be back as an employee who earned money. What did I want to do? I had ruled out stocks and outside salesperson. I decided to use a wider net. I was going to use the Sunday Chicago Tribune as my source for job openings. I actually had a couple of interviews. There was an opening for a furniture store manager. My experience as a furniture manager with an MBA meant that I might be a good fit. I went for the interview at O’Hare airport. I thought it was a strange place but I knew how to get there. When we began to talk, it was apparent that he thought that I would be a good candidate. Then we talked about a salary of about $25,000 a year. Everything was looking good. However, then he mentioned that the place was in northern Illinois around Lake Geneva. Suddenly, I had my doubts. I was not going to drive another hour a day past O’Hare to the Wisconsin border. That would be at least a two hour drive each way, if I was lucky. I was not going to move, since Margaret’s job was the stability in our life. I had a reasonable mortgage and Joy was happy in her school. I then told him no, but he asked me to think about it. I called him back a day later and said “No” again. The logistics would not work out. The other job I almost took was as a New York Life Insurance salesman. I had an MBA and a Stock Broker’s license. This would be a job downtown. I went down to their offices. I could easily take the train downtown as I had done as the CBOE Market Maker. However, the remuneration was iffy. They offered me a $1,000 and training as an insurance agent. That did not seem very much. Thus, I turned it down. The other offer that I got was from a Prudential Insurance Office in Palos Heights, 20 miles north of our house in Matteson, less than a half hour away. The offer there was $12,000 a year for a year only, while I was getting my insurance license and training. After that I would be on commission for whatever I sold and renewals. After my last few adventures, this seemed like a steady income for a year and I would get to learn about insurance. I knew that Bud Fricke was into insurance and ran his own Insurance Office just outside Detroit. I also remembered that as a kid in Carteret, NJ, we always had Prudential Insurance, as a salesman would come to our house with a big book that recorded how much we paid. In other words, it was a substantial company. The money was not that much, but it was better than nothing. I accepted this offer. I became an insurance man. Have you ever looked for a job?
The gas pump crisis
The price of gasoline at the pump was rising in the 1970s. This was no longer the good all days of the early 1950s, when you could get 5 gallons of gasoline for a dollar. The price began to rise in 1973, so that by 1980 the average price for a gallon of gas at the pump was now a $1.25, instead of $.20 a gallon, or five gallons for a dollar like in the 1950s. People thought in the 1950s that $.30 a gallon was expensive. Thus, the price of gas at the pump had gone up over 500% in less than twenty years. On top of that, there was the problem if the gas station had enough gas. People sat in their cars like they were at a tollway stop or entering an event parking lot. Sometimes, the signs at the gas stations would say, “No gas today,” which was really annoying. Thus, people would top off their gas tank anytime they saw what was considered a cheap price, something closer to a $1.00 a gallon. Most American cars were called gas guzzlers, since they could only get about 15 miles per gallon, and some less than that. I was lucky with my Nissan that I got over 20 MPG. People were surprised to hear that a barrel of crude oil hit the astronomic price of $35.00 a barrel. A barrel of oil contains 42 gallons, so that the margin of profit for gas at the pump was not that much. Margaret used to stay in lines trying to get gas for her car. I usually hunted around to get a good price. I got to write off quite a bit of those gas prices. What do you think about gas prices at the pump?
My sign selling experience
Well, how did my selling experience go? You guessed it, okay, but not great. Gulf signs are still doing business the way that they were doing it over 40 years ago. Sales people were individual contractors, not employees of the company. You got paid immediately after each sale, because the down payment was your commission. It was a 20% check as a down payment made out to you. Our sales leader insisted that we have the down payment check made out to us, the individual salesperson. However, if the person insisted on making it out to Gulf, he had a Gulf account to deposit it and he would give us the money. There were no taxes or social security taken out. That was up to us. I was a little leery, but I liked the idea of being an individual contractor rather than an employee. How did the selling work? There were about five of us. We would all drive to a town. Each of us would take a block with a number of stores. We had our Gulf booklets showing the signs. To be honest, there were a lot of Gulf signs everywhere we went. There was a larger one that sold for $1,000.00 and a smaller one that sold for about $700.00. Thus, our commission was $200.00 for the big ones and $140.00 for the smaller ones. If you sold one every day or two, you would be in good shape. The smaller sign was oblong and the bigger sign was a larger square. I decided to emphasize selling the smaller one. I actually sold a couple of them. Gulf did not install the signs. The explanation was that it was simple and anyone could install it. We designed the sign to the customer’s satisfaction, ordered it, and it came directly to the business owner. We had signed contracts, so everything was good with an 800 number to call, if they had any questions. I know that we want to Hammond for a couple of days. Then we went to the northside of Chicago for a couple of days. We would meet for breakfast, and this guy always paid for breakfast. He really liked Denny’s. Lunch was on our own. If we sold anything, we would let him know the next day. After a couple of weeks, he suggested we take a road trip to Memphis, Tennessee. I was excited because I had driven on the Dan Ryan and the sign always said I 57 Memphis. Now I would get to know how far away Memphis really was. We had to pay our own expenses, but they could be used as tax deductions. I could see the point, since I was an individual contractor. This was the turning point. I did not sell anything in Memphis. All I had were business expenses without any income. This would make my Income Tax easy. That is when I decided that on the road sign selling was not for me. Cross something else off the list! I would have to try something else. I guess that I lasted a month or two. It was time to move on. Have you ever been an on the road salesperson?
Gulf Development Sign Company
When I went on the Internet to find out something about this sign company, the only thing that I first found was that a lot of people collect old Gulf Oil signs. However, I did find Gulf Development Sign Company that has been selling signs for sixty years. Their website says that they have been “Selling Business Stories With World-Class Signage Since 1959. Gulf Development was started 60 years ago with the mission to help businesses get closer to their customers with best-in-class signage. From humble beginnings, we started as a brand-new idea in a garage in Southern California, to now more than 50 offices across the United States, we have taken pride in every sign we create in our 80,000-square foot manufacturing facility in Torrance, California. Today, we have created more than 500,000 signs of all shapes and sizes and helped businesses achieve their goals. With Gulf Development, your ideas get the visibility they deserve. Our signage experts bring unmatched experience, unsurpassed craftsmanship, and consistent customer service to help your business stand out at every step. Plus, we are a 100% employee-owned (ESOP) company, working hard to make sure every sign we build is of the highest quality. Thus, whether you are looking for an Outdoor sign, an Electronic Message Center (EMC) sign, or a personalized sign for your business, Gulf Development has you covered. Connect customers with your business with modern, and best-in-class signage.” Even today, they were looking for sales people on their web site, “Advance Your Sales Career with Gulf Development. How would you like to work with a reputable company that continues to grow even after 50+ years in business? A sales career with Gulf Development, an industry leader in sign production, begins with no financial investment on your part. You’ll work independently, with team and company support as needed. Set your own hours and get paid immediately after each sale! Your Career for Life, as a family-oriented and employee-owned company, we care about your success and growth. We don’t want this to be just another job for you. We want this to be a career for life. When you’re selling a high-quality product that holds enormous value potential for each customer, your day-to-day work will be so much more rewarding.” Have you ever heard of Gulf Development Sign Company?
I became an on the road sign salesman in 1980
Thus, I decided that I would try on the road sales, be a real salesman. What would I sell? I looked at the local Matteson-Richton Park Star weekly newspaper. I saw that that there was an opportunity to sell signs. Some guy was looking for salesmen to sell business signs. I called this guy and he said that he would be conducting interviews in the next week at a Holiday Inn in Hammond, Indiana. I realized that Hammond was not that far away, less than 20 miles. I went there and about 10 other people were there. We all had 5-10-minute interviews with this guy, whose name I do not recall. It turned out that he was hiring practically anybody if they were willing to work on a straight commission. I had no problem with that, but some of the others decided not to get involved. When he found out that I had an MBA, he was more excited about me joining him. The company was called Gulf Inc Sign company. Anyway, this guy was going to explain to us how to sell these signs. He was very enthusiastic! He even had a southern drawl. He explained that he had no problem talking to black store owners, since he always started his conversation about being in Jackson, Mississippi. Practically, every black store owner he had ever met had been to Jackson, Mississippi. He wanted us to get all fired up about selling business signs. He had a booklet with all the different kinds of signs and worksheets for possible signs. We did not have to have any artistic ability. We just had to show up at a small business place that did not seem to have a sign. We would then give a presentation on why signs are so important. I realized the importance of signs from my time on the Matteson Zoning Board of Appeals. Many of the new businesses in town always wanted to have signs larger than what Matteson allowed. I could see that these signs would not be a problem. I also decided that I would not sell any signs in Matteson, since that would be a conflict of interest. We would not have any territory, but this guy had the Midwest territory around the Chicago area, which had a lot of small businesses. He had a lot of generic sign models that could be customized by the small business owner and the salesman. I thought that it would be interesting. Have you ever been an on the road salesman?
My unemployment crisis of 1980
1980 was a year of crisis in America, with the rising oil prices and the hostages in Iran that lingered longer that most people had expected. Besides that, it also was a presidential election year. However, for me I had the crisis of not having a job. The old saying is that a recession is when your neighbor loses a job. A depression is when you lose a job. However, I was not fired or let go. In 1979, I quit two jobs, the furniture store manager at Montgomery Ward and the Options Marker Maker at the CBOE. I was not eligible for unemployment, since I had quit, but I realized that I needed to get another job soon. Margaret was still working as a grade school teacher at St. Lawrence O’Toole and Joy was in school there. We had some money in the bank and we had a couple of credit cards. Our mortgage was reasonable, so we were not desperate. However, the lack of a strong steady stream of income would prove to be a problem over the long run. What should I do? I kind of relaxed over the Christmas-New Year holiday. Faced with the new year, I realized that it was time to do something. The question was what? Unlike ten years earlier when I carefully planned out what I wanted to do in 1971, I was more bewildered at my own lack of success as an Options Market Maker. For a while, I thought about staying home, but even then, I had no plan. The question that I faced was what did I really want to do, just like ten years earlier. This time, I had more obligations with a wife and child. Have you ever been unemployed?
TV in 1979
In 1979, a whole bunch of new cable networks appeared as cable began to grow. The most famous were Nickelodeon, ESPN, Star Movie Channel, USA Network, and C-SPAN. President Jimmy Carter addressed the nation in a televised speech talking about the “crisis of confidence in America today” that would go on to be known as his “national malaise” speech. The 1979 Daytona 500 was televised on CBS, the first ever full airing of a 500-mile race on US television. This race brought NASCAR to a wider audience. The Music for the UNICEF Concert “Year of the Child” was televised from New York City on NBC. 43 million viewers watched “Elvis,” an ABC movie starring Kurt Russell as Elvis Presley, the first Elvis biopic film ever made. On CBS, the final episode of “All in the Family” was seen by 40.2 million American viewers. The 1,439th and final CBS episode of “Match Game 79” aired. Friendly Fire, an ABC movie starring Carol Burnett as a mother who wanted to know how her son died in Vietnam, aired. “The Price Is Right,” on CBS, moved to 11:00 A.M. EST, the time slot that it holds to this day. The finale of “Barney Miller” featured the cast stepping out of character to pay tribute to the late Jack Soo. Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi made their final appearances on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” as cast members. On the two-hour “Eight Is Enough” season premiere on ABC, both David and Susan Bradford married their respective loves in a double ceremony. Jaws was broadcast on television for the first time on ABC. Pat Summerall called his first NFL telecast with John Madden. There were a lot of new shows, “All Star Secrets,” “Password Plus,” “Delta House,” “PBS Nightly Business Report,” “Hello, Larry.” “The Dukes of Hazzard,” “CBS News Sunday Morning,” “Supertrain,” “Angie,” “PBS This Old House,” “Billy,” “Flatbush,” “The Ropers,” “Harris and Company,” “The Bad News Bears,” “The MacKenzies of Paradise Cove,” “Highcliffe Manor,” “Whodunnit?” “Real People,” “Whew!” “Hizzonner,” “Detective School,” “The Facts of Life,” “Hart to Hart,” “240-Robert,” “ESPN Sports Center,” “Out of the Blue,” “Benson,” “Working Stiffs,” “A New Kind of Family,” “The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo.” “The Last Resort,” “Struck by Lightning,” “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century,” “Casper and the Angels,” “A Man Called Sloane,” “The New Adventures of Flash Gordon,” “The New Shmoo,” “The Super Globetrotters,” “Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo,” “Spider-Woman,” “The Associates,” “California Fever,” “Trapper John, M.D.,” “Big Shamus, Little Shamus,” “Shirley,” “Freedom Road,” “Nightline,” “Young Maverick,” “House Calls,” “Knots Landing,” “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “Backstairs at the White House,” “Murder by Natural Causes,” “Roots: The Next Generations,” “Death Car on the Freeway,” “Salem’s Lot,” “Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July,” “The Berenstain Bears’ Christmas Tree,” “The Miracle Worker,” The following shows ended in 1979: “The Eddie Capra Mysteries” (1978-1979); “The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries” (1977-1979); “Grandpa Goes to Washington” (1978-1979); “All in the Family” (1971-1979); “Match Game” (1973-1979); “Starsky and Hutch” (1975-1979; “Welcome Back, Kotter” (1975-1979); “Comedy Theatre” (1976-1979); “The Amazing Spider-Man” (1977-1979); “Sword of Justice” (1978-1979); “Good Times” (1974-1979); “Wonder Woman” (1976-1979); and “Godzilla” (1978-1979). What was your favorite TV show in 1979?
Gene Finnegan Remembers Living Eighty Wonderful Years 