As an insurance agent for some time, you can imagine the amount of claim phone calls I have taken over the years. Whether it’s your customer who was at fault, their car was hit while parked or they were hit by another driver, it’s never a fun thing to deal with. Luckily people have insurance for the “what if” moments in life. What happens if YOU, the agent is the one who makes a driving error?
Yesterday morning I set my alarm for 4:30am, like usual, in order to make it to the gym for my 5:30am class. Instead of waking up, I turned off my alarm; two of them, in fact. Around 7:45am I woke up in a panic. I had an 8:15am meeting, needed to get dressed and drive to work, which seemed impossible. I threw on some clothes, made a cup of coffee and sped out the door like nobody’s business. As I got in my car and started the ignition, I noticed that I never closed the interior door between the garage and house. In a panic I sprinted out of the car, closed the door and climbed back into my car. This was going to set me back a whopping 30 seconds, I thought! I threw the car in reverse, but instead of looking at my backup camera, I just went, in a panicked hurry. I feel a giant THUMP. As expletives leave my mouth, I realize I’ve hit the driver side mirror on my garage. Great, just great. The mirror is dangling but the case is intact. Now I’m going to be even later to work than I had planned, and I’ll be out at least a couple hundred dollars because it was MY FAULT that I damaged the mirror.
As I walked in late to work, into a meeting in progress, I felt like a complete insurance agent failure! I mean I’m supposed to represent safe drivers and practice what I preach. What kind of license do I really deserve?! After our meeting I’m obviously in a frenzy, hurriedly making breakfast, printing out applications and trying to get e few things done before my next meeting. My boss saw me in this panicked state and said “slow down, everything will be ok”. Then it occurred to me; HURRYING UP got me in trouble in the first place, SLOW DOWN!
My advice to everyone is this, if only I had listened to my own advice….
“I’m a slow walker, but I never walk back.”
Abraham Lincoln
