Have you ever said that? It may not matter much on nonessential tasks, but on significant matters, good enough doesn’t cut it. Henry Royce, co-founder of Rolls-Royce, would tell employees that it was never good enough. While he understood that man could never achieve perfection, he fervently believed in the relentless pursuit of perfection, and his cars reflected that.
We see that relentless drive in top athletes, most recently Tom Brady. He has won 7 Super Bowls in 10 tries, but that’s not as good as Yogi, who won 10 World Series in 13 tries, which isn’t as good as Bill Russell, who won 11 NBA titles in 12 tries (plus 2 NCAA Championships). While the athletes get the attention, the drive is present in top performers in every field. With them, it’s never good enough.
I bring this up because a prospect recently told me that he had three times his salary in group life insurance (a very generous and uncommon benefit; most of the group life I come across is for one or two times salary) and “that should be good enough.” Really?
What happens after three years? Many households today have two incomes and they aren’t saving one, so there’s the very real possibility that the survivor’s income won’t be sufficient. There’s also the potential that the accident that kills one disables the survivor and hence he/she may be unable to work for a period of time.
So while three times salary is an excellent base, it almost always needs to be augmented with personal coverage, not only because it is insufficient, but because if employment terminates, either voluntarily or involuntarily, so does the life insurance. Additionally, the employer is not required to provide it, so it could get axed in tough times. That’s unlikely to happen in a large corporation, but certainly could in a small business.
“Good enough” may suffice for much of the minor and insignificant matters in our daily lives but life insurance doesn’t fall into that category. “Excellent” is what we should be aiming for with our life insurance program
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