Last week, I chatted with Big I NY Board Chair Ron Brunell. If you’ve met Ron (if you haven’t, you really should), you know he’s an incredibly smart, successful, outspoken, multi-generation leader from downstate. You may also know that the man has a heart the size of NY and when he speaks, he means it. Ron was a few minutes late to our chat because he was answering a call from another independent agent entrepreneur, a man he’s mentoring through the Big I Diversity Council’s Right Start program.
I’ve heard Ron many times share how meaningful this program is to him. What does he do? He shares his hard-earned wisdom with someone trying to get started in our industry over 1000 miles away. Does he get paid for this fantastic consulting opportunity? Not in dollars. It’s clear helping another strikes a very deep chord.
As I reflected on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and how to continue to honor his legacy, Ron’s story came to mind. What if I, if you, if everyone around us served as a mentor to raise another. To share the things that were hard for us to learn, from the experiences we’ve been lucky enough to have. What if even a few of us could do this. Impacts have a funny way of multiplying.
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Julie Furst is the AVP of Marketing & Communications for Big I New York. Connect with her at jfurst@biginy.org