In 1989, Michael Aun was the closing keynote speaker at the Million Dollar Round Table in Toronto, Ontario. The following is a story he told from the Main Platform. Michael Aun is the only Knights of Columbus insurance agent to ever address the Main Platform of the Million Dollar Round Table.

I had just entered the insurance business in November of 1974 and my goals were simple- to make the Million Dollar Round Table and to do a good and honorable job for my clients.

I lived in Lexington, SC in those days but there were so few members of the Knights of Columbus to call on that I was licensed in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

One of the many small towns in which I had helped to form a council was in Thomson, Georgia. Like many of the small Catholic churches of that day, most men in the church joined the council. I recall in Barnwell, SC, there were about 55 men listed in the parish there and 45 of them were members of the Order. Turns out that the rest were non-Catholic men married to Catholic wives.

Thomson, Georgia was one of those typical southern towns. Socio-economically speaking, it was a modest community where people worked hard, many at two jobs, to make ends meet.

I called on a young man named Tom Monahan who ran a service station in Thompson back when service stations actually provided service, like pumping your gas, washing your windshield, checking under the hood and even checking your tires. And if you asked, he would vacuum the car as well.

Tom also ran a towing service and he had plenty of business from I-20, which skirted the small Georgia town south of Augusta. Tom was a young man with a wife and three small kids at home. Every time I went to Thomson, I always dropped by his station to gas up for my return trip back to Lexington, SC, some 90 miles away.

Tom had always been very cordial to me every time I visited Thomson and on more than one occasion, he invited me to his home to have dinner with him and his family before I returned to my home. In those days, I fashioned myself as an insurance executive and tried to make sales to business clients at their business, not at their home.

Had I been a true insurance professional, I would have gone to his home and broken bread with the most important people in his life, his wife and kids. But no, I was a hot-shot insurance executive who tried to sell a policy under a grease rack in his service station. Needless to say, I never sold him anything.

One Saturday afternoon, I was in Thomson for the funeral of a client. Tom knew I was there for that specific purpose because he saw me at the funeral. His first comment to me at the funeral was “Will she be alright?” He was referring to the widow, of course. Fortunately, I had done a good job and she was “alright.” But the Brother Knight’s death was very sobering to Tom, and he reiterated his invitation for me to come to his home for a meal.

I gassed up at his station and was about to leave town. When I went to pay for my tank of gas, Tom had the phone to his ear calling his wife to tell her that we were on our way to put an extra steak on the grill. I knew I had to either eat with the family or change gas stations.

When I arrived at Tom’s modest little duplex outside of town, I was pleased to learn he had just closed on the purchase, but if it weren’t for the neighbors renting the other side, he would never have been able to afford it.

When we went inside, his three ankle-biters came running to the door to greet their daddy. He hadn’t said half enough about the three boys. They were cute as they could be. I was a new father of twin boys myself, so when they crawled onto my lap to play with the pen in my pocket, I was right at home.

Tom’s wife, Cathy, was a wonderful cook and a saint who managed to do Tom’s books while doubling as a stay-at-home mom who took in kids to help pay the bills.

I had been trying to sell Tom a Knights of Columbus family plan for many months, but we could never seem to get the deal done as there was always an interruption under the grease rack at the gas station or the perennial “can’t afford it” excuses.

Had I been a professional salesman, I would have called on Tom in his home in front of the most important people in his life, his wife and children. But no, I was a hot-shot insurance executive… too good to go to the man’s home.

As Cathy cleaned up and put the boys to bed, Tom and I settled into a bottle of cherry wine that his dad had shipped him from the little town of Neenah, Wisconsin. We settled down to talk about the loss of our mutual friend. Tom said to me, “Mike, do you remember that plan I talked to you about several months ago?” Sure I remembered; it was all I thought about all through the meal.

“How about running out to your car and grab your ratebook (this was in the pre-computer days) and let’s review it again,” he said.

I took my sweet time going out to the car that night. I was praying every step along the way that Tom would do the right thing and go with the insurance I proposed. But I couldn’t help but recall his objection the price, “Mike I simply can’t afford another payment… we’re barely making ends meet as it is.”

The real question was could he afford NOT to take the insurance. I re-entered the duplex, sat down and went over the proposal I had made once again. “Mike, that’s not good enough.”

I said “What do you mean?” He responded, “Cathy can’t raise my boys on that.”

I said, “Tom, my company has a philosophy. We don’t want you to buy more than you can afford. If you drop the insurance six months from now, you lose, the company loses, your family loses… nobody wins.”

“Mike, that’s not good enough. If it is all your company can sell me, I’ll buy the balance of what I need from the local Woodmen of the World guy.”

I was born at night, but not last night, so I sold him what he wanted and he gave me the first three months of premium that very night. As we walked out to the porch that night, I asked him why he changed his mind and how could he possibly afford what he bought?

“Do you see that motorcycle over there?” he asked. “Do you know what I was going to do on my day off? I was going to take the motorcycle out for a ride. The payments on that thing alone are half again what the payments are on this insurance. I’m selling it Monday morning!”

That night Tom became a man and I became a “sales” man. I thanked him for making me a better salesman and complimented him on his decision.

He laughed and said, “You know men can drink a whole lot more than boys… let’s go back in there and finish up that cherry wine!”

As I drove the 90 miles home that night, for the first time in my young career, I was on fire. I had never felt the kind of excitement that I felt that day. I finally realized why we do what we do. We help to fulfill the dreams of our clients. We do the job that mommy or daddy would do if they die too soon. We take care of the widows and the orphans. We’re doing God’s work.

It was three years later that I received a call in the middle of the night. The phone’s ring shattered the silence of the night, and I bolted upward to answer the line, knowing that only tragedy would greet me on the other end of the line.

I listened as Cathy, in between sobs, described how Tom had just been killed in a tragic accident. He was killed instantly by a driver as he was trying to help another disabled driver whose car had broken down on I-20. My heart sunk and I was instantly in tears. “Tom told me if anything at all ever happened to him, I should call you before anyone else, including the Priest.”

As I drove the 90 miles to Tom’s home that night, I cried over the loss of my friend. Why did it have to happen to Tom? He had his entire life in front of him… a lovely wife… three beautiful children… all lost in a blink of the eye.

And then it occurred to me how important it was that I was able to provide the coverage that would allow Cathy to raise her children and rebuild her existence without the most important person in her life. It occurred to me that the men and women in life insurance are doing the job that mommy or daddy would do if God took them from this earth. We are doing the highest and most honorable work a man or woman could do. We’re doing God’s work.