Brokers often talk about giving back to their local communities, but some Canadian brokers recently gave back to the international community.
Paul Martin, president and chief operating officer of RRJ Insurance Brokers Ltd. in Toronto, was one of several brokers who went to Nicaragua in January to help build a school there. The trip was supported by RSA Canada in partnership with the cross-cultural organization Bridges to Community.
For one week, Martin got to know his fellow brokers and travellers well. They slept within a few feet of each other for a week, under mosquito netting, as part of an effort to build a school in Jinotega, located in the coffee-growing, north-central part of Nicaragua.
Martin is well known for his role in several charitable organizations in Canada, including the KRG Charitable Foundation, which has raised millions of dollars for several charities in Canada.
But even for Martin, a strong advocate for the insurance industry giving back to the community, the opportunity to participate in the Bridges to Community program significantly stretched him beyond his comfort level.
“Our industry is a very charitable industry – we do an awful lot,” Martin said. “Myself in particular, I work with a lot of different charities. Very rarely would I actually put myself into a position where I am actually doing the work. It’s more that I would write the cheque and go to a fundraising event or a gala…
“This was RSA’s brokers giving back to a community that’s outside Canada, building a school for the local children, and making a mark on a society that is the second-poorest per capita in the world. We did that outside the normal bowl-a-thon or gala event that we attend.”
The program made an impact on several brokers who prepared the tiling to be installed on the school’s roof, which required a fair amount of manual labour. Martin recalled one young broker on the trip who had only been in the industry for nine months; prior to Nicaragua, she had been entertaining moments of doubt about whether insurance was the right fit for her.
Martin said he believed the opportunity in Nicaragua made a positive impression on her, reinforcing the camaraderie in the industry and the desire to do more for people than just write an insurance policy.
For Martin’s part, the experience taught him the importance of patience, resilience and flexibility. He recalled one day when the brokers had an opportunity to explore the community. They headed up the side of a mountain in a pick-up truck, in pouring rain, to visit a coffee plantation.
When they arrived, the plantation tour was cancelled. They were told a guerrilla had brought a child to the plantation as part of a plan to accuse the plantation owner of using child labourers.
Very shortly after leaving the plantation, the truck broke down, forcing the travelers to walk down the mountain in the rain. “What the Nicaraguan people teach you is that you have to have patience,” Martin said of the event. “You have to be somewhat resilient and flexible. That goes into any business.”
This would include Martin’s own business. While he was away on his trip, his brokerage in Toronto had installed a new central server, resulting in several unforeseen delays and glitches.
“I came back on the Monday, and I was hearing all about these little issues,” he said. “They were being fixed one at a time. The major issues were done. And I said to someone: ‘This is one thing I’m bringing back: nothing ever goes as planned, no matter how well prepared you are.’
“It’s logical stuff, but it reinforces the fact that things change. You have to be adaptable to those changes…”
