100 Percent Commission Jobs / Commission Only Jobs

This is going to be a little story about a guy who is on his way to making good living. “a good living” that’s what they call it now days?

A Little Background

By the way, my name is Shibga Chowdhury, a male immigrant making his way in New York city. Ill be taking you through the thought process of me getting into a kickass job. My journey began when I got my citizenship and few months away from finishing college (aka 2nd biggest scam in society). I was working in T-mobile as a sales rep. It was my first job, and first taste in sales. Things were going well, my long lasting social anxiety that I suffered for 3 years in USA was starting to fade. I believe it was due to speaking to customers all day. It was a decent job but soon I began getting used to the routine, not my work schedule but the ROUTINE. The slight sadness of the mundane work creeped up. The feeling where you feel that the work you do isn’t so excruciating that it makes you feel like quitting, but on the other hand, it isn’t that easy that you feel bored. I hope you at least half follow but for a lack of better words, we’ll refer to it as apathy. I had no idea why that was happening as I was trying to talk sense into myself “you finally got your first job, and it’s decent! Other people around you are getting minimum wage.” and began to not be satisfied. So I began to read more.

Reading about success leads to this?

Soon I began to see a correlation, the more I read, the stronger the feeling of mundane-apathy got. To top it off, I was on a marathon of learning and really into the whole self-improvement thing (and if you were wondering what kind of books I was reading), I got my list from searching in Google “best books on success” I know, job + success books = bad combination. Reading classic books such as “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill and specific books such as “The E-myth” by Michael Gerber, made me realize  the yearning for greatness I had inside could not be fulfilled by what I was currently doing. So I put up with it for a few more weeks and then quit. (I left just in the 3 month mark few days after my manager told me I get to participate in the 401k)

You can call it Growth

Shortly after I left T-mobile, I surprisingly felt ready to take a shot something that I would never even consider trying; a commission only job, also known as 100 Percent Commission Sales. This is the job I wanted to talk about here today. The words of Earl Nightingale, Brian Tracy, Jordan Belford was playing in my ears instead of dubstep now. So go figure. I began researching and came to a realization,  what I now call an unspoken law in the employment world and that is this: If you didn’t get a huge trust fund in your name, didn’t go to an IV league school along with loads of dad’s connections in many industries and you still wanted to achieve BIG things, then you better start by entering a field where performance is valued. (link to commission in wiki)

Real Estate and Insurance

I researched Videos to forums to any information I could get my hands on and honestly, it didn’t take too long for Real Estate and Insurance Sales to climb up to take the top two spots in my list. Real Estate because…it’s real estate, otherwise known as King of the commission world. The only downside being the simple fact that I didn’t have time to wait the typical 6 months to a year that typical Real Estate agents need before they start making sales. In addition, I did not have the savings to do that so I went with the next best option, Life Insurance Sales.

Since the day I chose this – I was surprised continuously about how these monetary systems worked. For instance, how the government played a part with insurance companies and their policies, and how the actuaries calculated every factor and aspect of a person’s life choices for decision making. In the end, I was left with a frame work of how beneficial it can be for a persons growth being involved in such an environment. Now, there are many reasons why I think one should take a shot at this path but I’m not going to make you guys read a 1000 world article for cliché information that you can find on their websites, but I will tell you some of the core principles.

Four Unorthodox Reasons to Why you should join the Insurance Industry:

•  1: The structure. Remember I mentioned a job I had before I got into commission sales? I didn’t consider it a real job because I had it for 2 weeks. The company was called Quil. Long story short: A branch of staples that sends door knocking agents to do direct sales targeting local small businesses. The commission was 30% of what you sold. Not bad, eh? Lets say you sold some toilet paper, and some printer paper equaling to $100. Your cut out of that would be $30 bucks. Now, lets compare this to the insurance business shall we? Using average national numbers, a typical whole life policy  covering a single mother is $84 per month and here is the craziness, you as the agent get paid 50%………….of the entire YEAR!

Yes, that’s right, so in that one sale, taking an average number would be $84 x 12 = Your client will be paying $1,008 during the whole year and 50% of that amount ($504) enters your pocket the very next day! The company basically has to pay you the year’s commission upfront. Now that explains why there are so many Instagram accounts with insurance agents ‘balling”

* Now all the other wonderful things, such as how you get paid 5% of the clients monthly payments for the next 10 years, I wont bother explaining because you can get that info from their websites. I’m here to inform you about the things I learned personally, and that I shall do!*

• 2: The next reason to enter the insurance market is for the raw business feel. No, I’m not talking about all the “you make you own schedule” etc. because my days of a “wantapreneur” are long gone. What I’m referring to here is this, you can literally get chiseled in a way to run your own business.

*Real talk, your ability to get-shit-done, that particular mindset is one of the key differences between successful people and the rest of the mortals.*

Knowing that, the insurance world will provide an environment that this part of you can be expressed, and if you think you don’t have a part like that – the industry will create one in you.

• 3: Leadership. Ever heard the importance of getting a mentor? It’s a big trendy topic nowadays, well whatever the fuss is about – rest assure you will have the best of it from day one. There is person above you who has a direct vested interest in your success. This is very different than the type of people above you in MLM (not that MLM is bad)it’s just different. In MLM, the upper level is busy hiring people 23/7 and has time for you 1/7. Maybe it’s an exaggeration but you get the point, it’s not personalized as the training you get working in Life Insurance. From advising you about your relationship with your girlfriend, to having the option to record every presentation you make which gets analyzed and sends you feedback in writing (yes, for every presentation) It may sound extreme but its all designed so you can be a better salesman, period. It will show you great leadership and force you to become a leader as well.
• 4: For some this will be the best reason and that is the tax evasion. No one tells us this but being an independent contractor I can write off expenses such as rent to dinners with colleagues. If you do it right, you barely have to pay any taxes, and if you do it like a ninja, you get back more money then was taken out total! Don’t worry, 100% legal. Here is a link to a detailed explanation.

Anyways, this article is getting sort of long. I’ll start wrapping up. So knowing the above, I started looking into a few companies and within an hour of applying, I got my first job. Yes, if you ever tried to get a sales job, you would be quick to realize that it doesn’t take long for them to pull you in. In fact, a lot of people reading this probably have been part of a cult recruitment that they did no such applying for. But, I took note that the manager (or whoever I was exchanging e-mails with) did not give me a description of the work. So I did what anyone would do, Google. Articles after articles, posts after posts of nothing but horror stories, I remember thinking: This company’s reputation management department must have gotten hit by the black plague because people were just ripping them apart online. But there was one thing that struck my eye which allowed me to carry myself to the interview even after reading those posts.

*That’s another lesson for y’all, if the masses are all howling of how horrific one thing is, head in the direction they are howling at.*

Day of Interview:

A lot of hype was performed, promoting the ideas of lots of money, women, trips abroad, plaques, gold chains and much more. My emotions were very monotone because I was patiently waiting for them to bring up and confirm what I had already read online, and that was; A supply of leads. The worst part of carving your own path is cold calling and door knocking whilst the person standing in front of me was promising they would provide 50 leads as frequently as a monthly basis and wait or it – for FREE! I couldn’t believe what I was hearing because I knew there were companies that were making their agents pay upwards of $20 per lead! I was hooked and signed up to get licensed.

Looking back, I will be honest and tell you that not everyone in my office got lead packs every month, for there were people just wasting the resources and complaining. But that is everywhere, like I said.

One Word: Mindset

There is a massive difference between the following scenarios:

1. Walking into a sales job thinking “Stop & Shop isn’t hiring so let me try this”
2. Knowing billionaires like Kenneth Fisher recommend adults go in life insurance sales and then walking in.

Massive difference in Mindset. On a side note! Get that book, 10 roads to riches. Great book!

Conclusion

I’ll end with this. The person you are is what dictates how far you can and will go. The definition of “who you are” isn’t what movies you fancy and how good hearted you are – it is about what you have been through, what you have not given up on and what you can deal with. I am here to tell you that if you want to feel in control of your finances, stop trying to spend less all the time and try to make MORE for once.

Taking your chance in an industry that pays you commission upfront, while providing constant leads is hard to find. I reside in New York, but there are many other companies like this all over United States. In fact, I have compiled a record of a few just for the sake of this article! Just fill the form out below or email me at shibga@hotmail.com and I will send you a list of companies and their websites!

Update 2017!

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