Ravi Jethani LIC agents with bigger pay than chairman DK Mehrotra ...रवि जेठानी यशस्वी LIC एजंट

                                                       
                                                                   Ravi Jethani ( रवि जेठानी यशस्वी एजंट )

It is difficult to give up addictions. But once done, life takes a turn for the better and Ravi Jethani can vouch for that.

Fourty two year-old Jethani forsook his stock broking business following wild swings in 2002 when he realised he was staring at steep losses. It was in 2002 that Jethani gave up his job as a sub-broker at Mehta & Vakil, a member of the Bombay Stock Exchange. That was after the technology bubble burst, taking with it many broking firms and families.

What began as a part-time role has come to dominate his life. The sub-broker who sold insurance policies to kill time after stock broking closed at 3.30 pm, made that into a full-time vocation once he realised how reliable and steady the business is, in comparison to stock markets.

It is glamourous to be a stock broker, but not an LIC agent. It was difficult to switch to insurance, but the stability made the sacrifice worthwhile. "My wife did not like the idea initially,'' says Jethani who lives in Mumbai's posh Pedder Road — home to some of the country's richest. "She even asked what's wrong with me. Now, thanks to my success, she trusts my gut.''

More than a decade after choosing life insurance as a career, Jethani earns over Rs 3 crore a year in commission. But that does not come easily. To earn that, he attends, on an average, 2.5 meetings a day and just one in ten meetings leads to a policy sale. That's probably worse than an investment banker's mergers & acquisition strike rate.