Description

Art Williams was born in 1942 in Waycross, Georgia, to a middle-class, Christian family, and grew up in nearby Cairo, with the dream of becoming a football coach. After college and two high school coaching jobs, he took the head coaching job at Kendrick High School in Columbus, Georgia, where he built a newly-formed team into champions in only three years. In the midst of a rewarding career as a winning high school football coach, boasting two “State Coach of the Year” awards, Art made a decision that would change his life dramatically.His decision had its roots in a personal experience. In 1963, his father died unexpectedly of a heart attack, leaving his family with no will and very little life insurance. Art, in college at the time, knew little about life insurance, but several years later at a family reunion, a cousin introduced him to a different concept—“buy term and invest the difference.” Art was shocked to know that he could provide $150,000 of term coverage for the same premium he was paying for $15,000 of whole life. Remembering his parents’ experience, and believing that his father had been misled, and doing some research on life insurance, Art became a crusader for the term insurance concept.He began to sell term insurance part-time, and quickly found that his commissions surpassed his coach’s salary. In 1973 he left his first company, ITT, for Waddell & Reed, another term company. And on February 10, 1977, with no business education or corporate management experience, he formed A.L. Williams & Associates in Atlanta, Georgia, with just 85 agents. A.L. Williams became one of the fastest-growing companies in modern business history. After six years in the industry, it was the largest term life insurance company. In ten years, it was a billion-dollar company. By 1990, the company had a sales force of 225,000 people and ranked as the largest seller of individual life insurance in the United States, selling $93.5 billion in face value of individual life insurance. In just 12 years, the company became the first in the entire industry to have more than $300 billion of life insurance in force, a milestone no other company has reached yet. Several years under Art’s leadership, the company sold more face value individual life insurance than New York Life and Prudential combined, the number two and three ranked companies.In November 1989, Art sold his company to New York-based Primerica Corporation, a diversified financial services company – a decision that has been one of his biggest regrets. He then served as an advisor to Primerica for a short period of time. Essentially retired from business, Art and his wife moved from Atlanta to Palm Beach, Florida, and began to pursue other interests. Some 16 years removed from the presidency of A.L. Williams Corporation is now part of Citigroup. definately the most motivational and inspirational stuff ever!!