(An edited version of this article appeared in the February 1996 issue of Claims Magazine)

GET SMARTER OR LEAVE BY THE BACK DOOR

By Ronald J Zaremba, CPCU, AIC, ARM

We can safely presume that as a reader of Claims Magazine, you are a responsible, mature adult. You may even be a parent although that can occur without being a responsible mature adult. So I pose a hypothetical question (hopefully) to you since you are either one or both. When your teen age son or daughter comes home from school and tells you that school is "dumb", they have enough schooling and intend to quit school tomorrow, what is your response ? Chances are that you will go "ballistic" with their incredible stupidity and shortsightedness.

The list of reasons to stay in school and complete your formal education is long and convincing. You need the basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic to achieve any modicum of success socially and economically. The basic skills are the trunk of the tree of knowledge and you will be hard pressed to reach the limbs of the tree and explore and learn what fruits of knowledge exist without mastering the core skills.

In simpler and less dynamic times, a person could possibly exist comfortably for a lifetime with little or no progression of their knowledge beyond the basic skills acquired in their formal education. But not now. The pastoral years are gone. Today they would be like people sunning themselves on the beach as a tidal wave approaches. Content though they are in their moment of bliss, yet their ignorance dooms them.

If you believe that you finished your learning when you finished your formal education, then you are becoming obsolete at an accelerating rate. Lets face it, whatever you learned at college, the material taught to you was already on the verge of obsolescence. Five or ten years later, you are now a typewriter in a world of word processors. Sure there are other typewriters out there, but so what ? The fate of the typewriters of the world is not promising. Is that to be your fate as well ?

Socrates has been quoted as saying, "I know one thing and that is that I know nothing" Compared to the whole universe of knowledge, what we comprehend is nothing. Mathematically, any finite number divided by infinity is always zero. So you say why should I know more when what we collectively know is so little ? Because what we collectively know( our universal body of knowledge) is growing exponentially. Fortunately for us, the application of the expanding knowledge is not growing exponentially, but the application of knowledge is growing at an accelerating rate. Your individual body of knowledge needs to grow at the same or greater rate, for you to keep up. Its like inflation but worse. If we have four percent inflation annually and you put $1000 into a can and bury it for ten years, what will your purchasing power be of the $1000 in ten years? Not much! Change the metaphor replacing the $1000 with your individual body of knowledge. You may not know less than what you knew ten years prior, but in relation to what is now known and what is required to be known, you will no longer know enough.

The reality of the hypothetical question posed above is that the same arguments that you use to keep your children in school apply to you as well. The end of your formal education is not the end of your education. It can't be if you share any of the social and economic aspirations that you try to impart to your children. So what is your excuse for not continuing your education in your chosen endeavor ? The number one excuse seems to be," my employer will not pay for it". Let me see if I have this straight; your employer will not invest in you for continuing education so therefore you will not invest in yourself. If that is the case, then your employer is probably right. Why invest in upgrading a recalcitrant older model when you can be replaced with a newer more obliging model. The number two excuse is, "I don't have time." Really ? Wouldn't it be more honest to say you don't have the interest or are too lazy. Frankly I am of the opinion that there are as many degrees of honesty as there are degrees of pregnancy, one. If time is a problem, then you will solve the problem if you are interested in continuing education. Any excuse or delay could be fatal to your career. Like it or not, the body of knowledge required to do your assigned tasks not only is changing but growing. Haven't you ever noticed how people who are prepared for opportunity get more opportunities ?

Now in all likelihood you consider yourself a professional in the claims field. Well you are not a professional in any field if you do not keep up with the current level of knowledge required for that field. A requirement of being a professional is competence and mastery of a systematic body of knowledge. How can those who rely on you trust you if you do not possess the necessary body of knowledge to meet their needs? Those who rely on you include not only your employer but also your co-workers, your family, friends, agents, insured's and the public at large.

As a professional you owe a duty to all to maintain your systematic body of knowledge at current levels. More importantly you owe the duty to yourself. If you are unwilling to invest in yourself, then who will be interested ? You are not going to be able to get smarter by osmosis. Continuing education requires commitment and effort on your part.

As a professional, you would have an association of professionals to advance the levels of the knowledge of its members. You can act in a professional manner by continuing your education but, by definition, you can not be a professional without a professional association advancing the needs of its members. Are you striving to be a professional or have you surrendered your fate to be hauled out the back door with the other typewriters ? The choice is yours. If you are interested in forming a professional national claims organization, send me your card.