The document summarizes the importance of protection as the foundation of a financial pyramid. It discusses how people use their body, mind and time to earn money, but death, disability or critical illness can severely impact finances. Life insurance is highlighted as the highest leveraged asset that can help protect a family's income and allow them to continue ascending the financial pyramid even if the primary earner's income stops. The 10% of income spent on life insurance can substitute for the 90% used on personal expenses and assets. Protection of earnings through life insurance is positioned as the most important first step in building lasting wealth.

1. INSCRIPTIONS 13
WALL 3 PANEL 1
HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS ISSUE:
1) FINANCIAL PYRAMID=
2)SUKANTA SINGHA ROY TALKS ABOUT HIS JOURNEY TO MDRT
AND THE SCULPTOR INSCRIBES TALKS ABOUT WORK ETHICS:
THE DIFFERENTIATOR - “OWNERSHIP”

2. i
TITLES SPACE FOR P.NO
Sculptor Inscribes RG 2
Gurus speak Faculty Members’ space 15
Caterpillar Space Students and Trainees 32
News Channel Happenings at Gopast 41

3. Inscriptions
13
WORK ETHICS-
THE DIFFERENTIATOR
“OWNERSHIP”

4. WORK ETHICS:
THE DIFFERENTIATOR
“OWNERSHIP”
WORK ETHICS:
THE DIFFERENTIATOR
“OWNERSHIP”
While the world is offering opportunities to
everyone, it is always a very few people who
use them and lift themselves up to heights un-
seen and unheard of before.And they do this
consistently.They do fail in their attempts at
times, but they succeed to such a great ex-
tent, their failures become pale and their suc-
cesses are glorified. They set benchmarks
which take considerable time and effort for
others to even near it.
3
R.GOPINATH
gopinathr@go-past.com

5. How do they do it again and again? Is it that
they have been blessed with talents that oth-
ers are deprived of? Or could it be that they
are the blue eyed boys (or girls) of God.Are
they super intelligent?
All this may appear to be true in their cases,
but the real factor lies elsewhere. It is their
work ethics.
Their Work Ethics. Work Ethics is their big-
gest strength, not just knowledge and talents.
Ethics means a set of values which have been
adopted voluntarily.They become their guide
posts whenever they are in any dilemma.
There are 5 aspects of Work Ethics: 1) Integ-
rity 2) Ownership 3) Quality 4) Discipline
and 5) Unrelenting hard work. In the last epi-
sode of this series we saw about the first fac-
tor that is “Integrity”.This time, let us exam-
ine the second one “Ownership”.
“OWNERSHIP”
Ownership is a very encompassing feeling.“It
is mine”.“I belong here”. Devotion, Pride are
all resultant of this feeling called “Owner-
ship”. Super performers posses this in abun-
dance. They own it. They never disown it.
They become an integral part of it. Grateful
for its availability.
If you watch a professional playing Sitar,
Veena or any instrument, see how they treat
that instrument. As if it has life, they kiss it,
worship it, respect it. Many a times they
name it. They are very attached to it. They
4

6. are very possessive about it. Look at some
sportsmen, when they enter the Arena, they
bow down to kiss that turf. Look at some
businessmen when they enter their cabin
they light up a candle or a lamp or murmur
some prayer before they take their seats.
When someone asks a question like, “Is he
your brother?” People reply yes he is my
own brother. Mark the word “own”.
This is my Country. This is my team. This is
my profession.This is my office. If the owner-
ship feeling was absent then the terms will
be “ I live in….. country”,“I play in this team”,
“I work here”. I am employed as a………..
5

7. and so on. That means it is “outside of ”
them.
This world boasts of many great sportsmen.
One of the leading lights amongst them is Sa-
chin Tendulkar. His fans call him “God of
Cricket”. I quote from his autobiography
book “Playing it my way”.
“ On 16 November 2013, my cricket-
ing journey finally came to an end at
theWankhade Stadium.After somehow
managing to complete my farewell
speech, I was having conversation with
my family, trying to soak in every mo-
ment, when my team-mate Virat Kohli
walked up to me. He said, “You asked
me to remind you that you had to go
to the pitch one final time”.To be hon-
est I hadn’t forgotten; I was just trying
to put the moment off for little longer.
It was to be my final visit to the 22
yards that had nurtured and cared for
me for so long.
As I walked across the outfield I knew
so well, my mind was a complete
blank. A lump was forming in my
throat as I reached the pitch to pay
my final regards. I was there for barely
6

8. fifteen seconds and all i said was,
Thank you for taking care of me.”
A SENSE OF DEVOTION TO THE
JOB ON HAND:
For super success this feeling of oneness
with the profession/ job/business is a prime
factor. Talents can make a person great tem-
porarily. But to consistently perform at that
levels, Ownership feeling is required. This is
where you take things seriously. Casualness
erodes.You pay attention.There is a sense of
devotion to the job on hand.
This is the secret behind the sports people
spending hours on physical fitness by doing
drills.They take it seriously.This is the secret
behind speakers spending more than re-
quired hours in preparation and rehearsal of
their speeches.They take it seriously.
ACCEPTING THE WHOLE AS A
PACKAGE:
One great advantage of “Ownership feeling”
is that we accept the whole as a package. For
example, as an Indian, I love India. I take it as
it is my country. Therefore it is my responsi-
bility to contribute. There can be some
things which i feel should improve in this
country. But then I accept this as a package.
The whole is a package and I love the whole.
Some parts of it has to change, but I like the
whole.America is a package, and the country-
men who feel that it as their own country
7

9. will accept the whole, even though they may
feel the need of improvement in some as-
pects. China is a package. If this ownership
feeling is not there, then people will always
be complaining and never be satisfied at all.
Because they feel it is outside them.They do
not feel a part of that country is in them.
DEVELOPS LOYALTY:
Employees who feel that the customers are
theirs, they treat even the smallest opportu-
nity to delight them seriously.Those who do
not have this feeling will be casual and some
major issues also will be treated light. They
will keep blaming the company policies and
rules for being inefficient. No need to guess,
who gets promoted to higher cadres, repeat-
edly, at every chance. Same way with profes-
sionals. Customers prefer such professionals
and they distance themselves from the com-
plaining ones.
Ownership feeling develops loyalty. Owner-
ship feeling develops selflessness. Ownership
feeling triggers unconditional support. Unre-
strained use of inherent energy flows. Follow-
ing rules becomes a natural instinct.
TWO EXAMPLES:
1) Let me give you an example of owning a
client by a professional. I know a leading Life
Insurance agent in India. His client died of a
road accident about 2000 kms away from his
city. The place of accident was on the high-
way near a small village. The police reports,
8

10. the hospital reports, eye witness reports
were all to be submitted to claim the acci-
dent benefit on his life insurance policy.All of
these have to be obtained from that village.
The wife of the policy holder is a housewife
and has no clue on the formalities. The son
of the policyholder was just 12 years of age.
The agent travelled to that village.The village
does not even have a good hotel to stay. He
stayed in a lodge for 4 days and approached
all the authorities persistently and got all the
required documents from them and came
back to his city and submitted them to the in-
surance company and got the claim of 74
lakhs (7.4 million) settled in favour of the
nominee within 2 days of his submission. It
was financial year ending, and the agent has
targets to reach. Losing valuable 7days during
the closing period can cost him heavily.
When i spoke to this agent, on what
prompted him to go to an unknown place
and get this job done, he said “He is my cli-
ent, I owe my profession to my clients. My
family is being nourished by the money I earn
from their patronage.They have options, but
they chose me. Their interests are my inter-
ests”. The client’s family know the hardship
he had undergone. They not only expressed
their thanks to him, but even after several
years they are still patronising him. That 12
year boy has become a big man now, second
in command of a big multi billion dollar soft-
ware company and is now based in USA. He
sends birthday cakes to this agent on his
birthday. Client sending cakes to agent on his
9

11. birthday. Talent or intelligence of this agent
can be equal to many others in the industry.
But this man is a super performer and has
been qualifying for the prestigious MDRT
qualification for 20 consecutive years, which
not many could do.
2) There is a big tea brokering house in Sri-
lanka. It has a history of more than 100 years
now. In a freak accident the roof of their
warehouse storing tea got blown away in a
unseasonal whirl wind. The stocks were ex-
posed to unkind weather. Millions of dollars
worth tea would be damaged. When the cli-
ents of this company came to know about
this, they advanced their taking deliveries and
within the same night each of them arranged
to pick up their stocks and store it in their
respective warehouses. They could have
taken advantage of the situation and got a ma-
jor discount on their forward prices, but
they did not do it.When i asked one of them,
he said, “They are our associates, what else
will we do?”. This empathy has a historical
background. There have been many times in
the past, when this broking company have
held the interests of their clients as theirs. If
the brokers have felt that the clients are
theirs, the clients also felt that the brokers
are theirs. Otherwise in this materialistic
world, such instances can never happen.
All the instances i have mentioned above
seemed natural to the respective parties con-
cerned.They never felt any other options, be-
cause they feel the ownership very strongly.
10

12. HIGHLY RECIPROCATIVE:
A big benefit of Ownership feeling is that it
is highly reciprocative. When the employees
feels that this company is his own, the com-
pany also feels similarly about the employee
and takes care of him big time.The company
feels the ownership towards its customers,
they also reciprocate the same way. “Treat
thy neighbour the way you would like to be”.
WHERE SHOULD THIS START?
The big question is where should this feeling
start. Should the company feel that first to-
wards the employee. Should my customers
feel that way first towards me and then I
must respond?
The answer is simple: It always starts with us
first. Towards our clients, our company, our
profession, our country, our fellowmen.
Now the next question is what if they do
not respond the same way. No need to
bother about it, we need to continue our
feeling of belongingness, for that is the cor-
rect thing to do.We are whatever we are to-
day, because all these elements around us
have in some form or other contributed for
it.
ITS MINE ITS MINE AND ITS MINE
I DO NOT FEEL THAT I AM WORK-
ING, I ONLY FEEL THAT I AM
11

13. OWNING IT, AND MY WORK IS
MAKING IT SHAPE BETTER.
Next issue of inscriptions we will be cover-
ing the 3rd factor of work ethics that is:
“Quality”
12

14. CHAPTER 2
GURUS
SPEAK
WEALTH THAT LASTS FOREVER
PART 8
R.GOPINATH
gopinathr@go-past.com
www.go-past.com

15. 14
8 Governing principles:
1) If a person adopts the formula “Income - Expenses = Savings” then he can never become
wealthy.The correct formula is “Income - Savings = Expenses.
2) Regularity is the key to wealth. (The key to wealth is not the ROI, IRR, CAGR etc)
3) Start early and reach safely.
4) Gold and greed can never stay together.
5) Purpose must decide the choice.
6) Financial Pyramid
7) Draw the map before you start the journey.
8) Professional support helps.

16. WEALTH THAT GROWS AND LASTS FOREVER
PRINCIPLE NO: 6
“FINANCIAL PYRAMID”
“PROTECTION- THE FOUNDATION”
gopinathr@go-past.com
15

17. 16

18. 17

19. In the last issue we saw the introduction of the Financial Pyramid and we
agreed that we will be discussing about this in detail in the coming issues.
Keeping up our promise, let us start this issue with the Foundation level of
the pyramid named “PROTECTION”. It was also mentioned in the previous
issue that Financial Products that offer Life insurance, Critical insurance
cover and Disability insurance cover will find place at this stage of the pyra-
mid. Let us see why is it so?
God gave 3 resources to humans. 1) Body, 2) Mind and 3) Time. It is the hu-
mans who invented a resource called Finance (money). How do they earn
Money? By using the three resources called body mind and time. People pro-
duce money by using these 3 resources in various propositions. A roadside
labourer may use more of body and less of mind, while a political leader
may use more of his mind and less of the body in comparison with the for-
mer.
18

20. This 4th resource finance invented by humans have become an integral
part of the day to day life and in the business arena as well. If a company
wants to expand its operations, it needs finance. If a person is planning for
a vacation long distance then he will need money. For children higher educa-
tion, we need money.
So how do we generate money? By using the 3 resources. Body, mind and
time. If any of these resources are affected, then the money flow is af-
fected. That is a serious risk. What events can trigger such losses in a big
way. Death, disability and critical illness.` There can be minor or temporary
losses in terms of ill-health, loss of job etc. But Death, Disability or Critical
illness can have a major impact and long lasting or even a permanent on
the finances of the person or his family.
If a person can ensure that his earning capacity is protected, then he has
the capacity to climb up the next stages of the financial pyramid. He and
his family can continue the ascent to the higher stages of the financial pyra-
mid without any set back.
19

21. Let us the fundamental reason that provides this capacity to the family and
self. Out of all the assets available in this world for purchase, Life insurance
is the highest leveraged asset. Look at this picture down below:
In a normal situation this is what happens: Person earns money by working
(Body, Mind and Time) out of which he spends on his personal expenses
and invests in personal assets almost 90%. Personal assets meaning that
such assets that are not intended to be sold. They are bought primarily
with an intention of to be used and enjoyed. Jewelries, Gadgets, motor cars,
residential houses etc are examples of such assets.
Only 10% of the income is used in buying financial assets, such assets are ca-
pable of generating profits or income later on.
20

22. What happens if the income stops? The requirements for the personal ex-
penses of the money to finance the personal assets which the family have
been used to will continue to a major extent. At that time the financial as-
21

23. sets play a very important role. They now produce income to sustain the
personal expenses and the personal assets.
22

24. Then how can 10% Asset substitute 90% requirement? IF it has to do then
the financial asset should be a highly leveraged asset, and the highest lever-
aged asset in the world is Life insurance. If you divide the Sum Assured of
the life insurance policy by the premium payable per annum it could be as
high as 200 times and on the low side can be 10 times. There is no any
other such asset that can be leveraged so much.
23

25. How does an insurance company get this done? How can they offer such a
high value leverage? The basis of this is “pooling of funds” and working on
the law of averages. The source for this topic will be in the science called
“Risk Management”. We will see more about this science in the coming is-
sues of inscriptions.
Now what is Leverage?
In physics we would have in our school days covered this topic. Leverage
means “With little efforts getting more results” I will give you an example
here. To lift a rock weighing 50kg as much (50Kg) effort is required. But if
we let a lever (crowbar) under the rock and have a cylindrical rod at the ful-
crum and lift the rock the efforts required will be only that of lifting a 5kg
rock.
24

26. In life insurance fund the same thing happens. When a group of people pay
the premiums, they are not certain about who amongst them or when can
die. But upon death, the family has to maintain the current standard of liv-
ing at the least, if not a providing for regular enhancement of the life style
in future too. Only a few of them die during a given term, but then the sum
assured under that policy is paid to the family of the life assured from the
fund that got pooled by the contribution of many. If Individually we had to
25

27. fund the needs of our family by our-own-selves, then it will be near impossi-
ble.
26

28. When we donate blood to a blood bank, we may not know for whom this
particular sachet of blood will be given as a life saver. The same way when
for some reason we need to avail blood form the blood bank, we do not
know as to who has given that blood, our life saviour.
Life insurance is a community by itself, each one supporting the other. It is
a very noble instrument. The invention of the principles of insurance can be
traced back to very ancient times. Therefore if not for our sake and for the
sake of our family, for the sake of the society we need to have adequate in-
surance coverage on our life.
The principle here is that of a leverage.
There is a difference between finance and money. Finance is the overall sky
which has assets, liabilities, plans, budgets, instruments, markets, econo-
mies and also money. Money is basically a instrument used to transact busi-
27

29. ness. It is a medium of exchange, therefore becomes all the more impor-
tant aspect of finance. “Cash is the king”
Why should anybody en-cash the assets suddenly to continue to fund their
needs and wants, which so far was done by the father or their mother or a
responsible person in the family? There is an easier alternative available in
the form of Life insurance.
When I happen to meet some wealthy people, who have a few properties,
cars and assets worth some millions, then they ask us, will they also need
to be insured. They many times express that it is the middle class or the
lesser ones that need insurance. Of course they need insurance, they need
more of it. What is the logic? Let me explain with some examples in the
next issue.
The very important question is “How much life insurance is adequate or ap-
propriate?” There are scientific methods to estimate that. Stay in touch
28

30. with “Inscriptions” we will see with examples on how to calculate what is
adequate? This will make us understand as to why some people have in-
sured their lives for billions? I myself have been associated with a insurance
planning to one wealthy, middle aged man worth 1.5 billion.
The coming issues are vital in terms of technical knowhow of the insurance
principles, so if required make a compilation of these articles into a folder
or file to string them together for a clear understanding.
29

31. CHAPTER 3
CATERPILLAR
SPACE
THIS SPACE IS MEANT FOR
THE STUDENTS OF GOPAST

32. A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
SUKANTA SINGHA ROY
urssukanta@gmail.com
31

33. This is a sharing of personal experience by Sukanta Singha Roy who is a financial advisor and an insurance
agent from Kolkata
I joined LIC in 1999 after completing my education. There was a lack of job opportunities and in a way I was
forced by my father to join this profession. I had a distinct dislike for the agent profession. Initially I received
good support from my dad to start the firm and I did well professionally for the first three years. However the se-
cret of my success was my father who delivered 90% of my business goals and I was just a shadow agent. The
firm achieved the LIC Chairman’s Club Membership within the first 3 years and won a number of LIC rewards at
that time. I also achieved the first position in my branch based on the net number of life insurance products
sold.
But being honest here, I did not have any knowledge about the industry nor did I develop an interest for it. My
view was that the work entailed requesting people to buy life insurance products when they probably weren’t
even interested in it.
But gradually this changed in 2007. I got took greater interest in the industry and joined the “ Life Insurance
Study Circle “ which is a renowned education and marketing learning centre in Kolkata for insurance profession-
als.
I can vividly remember that there was a programme called “TOT TOUR “ in Kolkata Hyatt Regency. An this meet-
ing the then MDRT President, Mr Walton Rogers and Mr Mark Hana, Mr Jaydev Patel, Mr R K Shetty, Mr R K Sa-
tosakar and Mr Anand Jathan were present as speakers. Itwas there I heard about MDRT for the first time. But I
was not serious about it and I regret it as a missed opportunity. In 2008 my father was detected with lung can-
cer. He passed away and my whole life changed. My father’s primary business in garments suffered as a result of
his death and I thought of concentrating on this business rather than the secondary LIC business. Between 2008
and 2011 I only used to meet the bare threshold of 12 minimum lives for LIC. I still remember that I used to think
back then that it was a wrong decision to have joined the LIC. Rather if I concentrated on my father’s business it
32

34. would be better. But today I blame myself for wasting time in the garments business. My father’s clients owed us
a huge sum of money and they refused to pay up, leaving me in debt. One fine morning in 2012 I decided to visit
my LIC branch to apply for a loan. After completing the required paper work I went to see the branch manager
for his signature and he flatly refused to sign.
When I asked him for the reason he clearly mentioned that I was unproductive for the last 3 years. When further
pressed him to sign he asked me to get of his office. I was angry at him. But today I can say it with pride that this
was a turning point in my life and I thank him for what he did to me.
I started thinking how can I prove him wrong that I am not an unproductive and useless agent. It then struck me
that I would achieve MDRT and present it to him in the next 12 months. The rest is history and I completed my
first MDRT in 2013. It was very tough but it was not IMPOSSIBLE and in order to achieve it, I not only changed
my working habits but my thinking process and completing life-style.
I also started using social media like Facebook as a medium to expand my network and client profile. When I
used to extend Facebook invitations to senior MDRT members some of them used to ask me if I was an MDRT
member. I would say not but I will in 2013. I used to dream that the there will be an MDRT certificate in my of-
fice I did it not just in 2013 but in 2014 and 2015!
I believe MDRT is not a business result which we are all trying to achieve but it teaches you every aspect of self
discipline.
I have immense respect for Sir Gopinath who has influenced my thinking. I still remember his teaching that
work hard, concentrate on the root of the tree and fruits will follow automatically.
So if you want to become an MDRT member I will say that start by changing your attitude to work and life. Take
small but impactful steps such as sleeping early and getting up early, do prospecting everyday, be honest with
your work, be accountable to your clients, be disciplined about your calendar. ,
When I achieved my first MDRT I visited the MDRT Experience meeting in Malaysia to understand how MDRT
works. I realised that MDRT teaches you to the spread the message and influence others to achieve t as well.
33

35. Since then I have been very active in the MDRT circle and have expanded my network immensely. MDRT also
asked me to represent MDRT as a local chair of Kolkata. MDRT invited me as a speaker in the 2016 Hong Kong
Experience and Global Conference Meeting and also for the next 2016 MDRT Annual Meeting in Vancouver. I
was privileged to speak to Hong Kong AIA agents. This year I also received an invitation from an USA based in-
surance company called State firm Insurance as a PGA Director.
So for those who are not yet MDRT members, I will say that if I can do it why not you. While for those who are
MDRT members my suggestion would be that it’s time to give back to the MDRT community.
YES! WE CAN ALL DO IT!
34
CABIN WALLS AT MR SUKANTA SINGHA ROY
OFFICE

36. CHAPTER 4
NEWS
CHANNEL
PALM LEAF HAS NEW ADDITIONS
NOW

37. 36
PALM LEAF NEXT RENEW-
ALS ACCEPTED ONLINE
WITH 3 OPTIONS:
1) ONEYEAR RENEWAL
2) THREEYEARS OPTION
3) FIVEYEAR OPTION

38. ADDED NOW
1) PURPOSE DECIDES THE CHOICE IN “MY RESOURCES”
READ ABOUT OTHER RATIOS
2) A WRITE-UP ON “RECESSION” IS ADDED TO MY RE-
SOURCES.THIS WILL EXPLAIN ON HOW COUNTRIES
FACE RECESSION IN ECONOMY AND WHAT STEPS
THE CENTRAL BANKS AND THE FINANCE MINISTERS
DO TO GET OUT OF SUCH SITUATION.

39. DEVELOPMENT OFFICERS PARTICIPATING IN THE
“MASTER MENTOR” TRAINING WORKING IN GROUPS DOING A
QUIZ WORKSHOP ON THE TOPICS COVERED FOR THEIR FINAL
EVALUATION AT HYDERABAD

40. “MASTER MENTOR” PARTICIPANTS
AT HYDERABAD DOING A GROUP
EXERCISE

41. “MASTER MENTOR” PARTICIPANTS
AT HYDERABAD DOING A GROUP
EXERCISE

42. TEAM OF MR
SUNIL SHAH ATVADODARA ON COMPLETION OF A
10 MONTH COURSE CALLED “GENIUS”

43. SPEAKUP BATCH AT MADURAI HONOURING THEIR FACULTY MEMBERS

44. “SPEAKUP” ENGLISH SPEAKING COURSE FOR AGENTS
AT MADURAI.

45. “GENIUS PARTICIPANTS ATVADODARA SETTING QUES-
TION PAPERS FOR THEIR EXAM