Andy Neary spent his first decade in insurance paralyzed by comparison, judgment, and fear of failure. He learned to love failure instead, which transformed his performance. His advice to young advisors: stop comparing yourself to others, build a brand on social media, and treat failure as the path to growth.
Chapters
So if I were to describe my career both in sports and business in one word, I would say it's transformation. You know, when I was playing pro baseball and early on in my business career, I was really defined by three things. Fear of comparison, fear of judgment, fear of failure. You know, you're in pro baseball, you're compared to your teammates every single day, literally via stats. You fear that judgment of the scouts because you're getting judged every day whether you're going to get promoted or demoted. And as a free agent, I feared failure, right? If I show up or go out on the mound and I fail that on a given night, I could be released, I could be let go. And that really impacted the first 10 years of my career in business as well, in the insurance field. I just absolutely feared comparison. The fear, the judgment of everybody, what they're saying about me, the the opinions of others, and most frank, most, most importantly, I was fear of failure. Every loss, every opportunity I didn't get, I was devastated by. And I tell you, if there's one transformation I have made the most that has completely taken my career to levels I couldn't have imagined, it's getting over that. It's not caring what others think about me. It's not comparing myself to anybody else, just focusing on who I am and loving failure. You're going to fail every single day. You got to jump into it. It's the only way we can learn. It's the only way we can grow. And that's the advice I'd give young health insurance advisors right now, is just get over the comparison. Stop looking at what everybody else is doing. Get over the judgment. Put yourself out on social media. Build that brand. Who cares what people might say? You know, when you build a brand, you're forcing other people to look in the mirror. And number three, learn to love failure. You're gonna fail every day, and the only way you're growing is if you're failing. So that's my advice to you. It has completely transformed my business. As somebody who was a shell of the Andy Neary you probably knew 10 years ago to somebody today who just shows up as his 100% as me. I don't care what other people think. This is who I am. I'm asking you to do the same. And it will take your career, it will take your business and the fun you're having to whole different levels.
