Coach: The A. L. Williams Story

by Art Williams and Karen Kassel Hutto

Book Overview

In a story rich with details and anecdotes, heroes and villians, Art Williams chronicles how A.L. Williams and it "ragtag army of part-timers" took on a Goliath-sezed insurance industry. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0978626605
• ISBN13: 9780978626600
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Art Williams Productions
• Length: 321 Pages
• Weight: 1.97 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Inspirational read

Art Williams shows in this book the strength of his character, the power of belief, and his ability to lea people on a crusade. I had a hard time putting the book down. He really helped open up and industry to new ideas and opportunities. His legacy will live on.

Coach, The A. L. Williams Story

The book was terrific for all types of business entrepreneurs. Anyone thinking that business is going to be easy, should read this book. Art used his coaching principals to win in football to help he and his team win in business and overcame amazing obstacles. A GREAT book at a real value in price too!

An All American Story

Doesn't matter who you are or where you come from - anyone one can relate to this book whether it's in regards to one's business life or personal life. It teaches the greatest life lesson of all - "Life will give you what you're willing to fight for -and- what you're willing to accept" READ IT TWICE AND BUY ONE AS A GIFT!!!

How A.L. Williams Changed the Life Insurance Industry

COACH The A.L. Williams Story "But I've never heard of term insurance." "It's the oldest form of insurance - nothing more than pure death protection. Everyone in the industry knows about it, but most companies don't sell it." "Why not?" "Because it's so inexpensive." One April night in 1963, a good man died of a heart attack. Just 48 years old, he left behind a wife and three children. And not much else... No will. Too little life insurance. No meaningful savings. The oldest son, Art Williams, already married with a family, watched with heartbreak as his mother struggled to raise his two younger brothers and pay the bills... alone. A high school football coach, Art Williams didn't know anything about insurance or investments. Most people he knew - including himself - bought just enough "whole life" to cover burial expenses. Life insurance was expensive. And growing up in Cairo, Georgia, in the 1950s, nobody had much money. People just worked hard... and got by. Then, four years after his father's premature death, a cousin introduced Art to a little-known financial concept called "Buy Term and Invest the Difference." The conversation revealed two shocking truths: Term insurance - pure "death protection - typically offered ten times more coverage than a whole life policy... for the same price. Why then did nobody own it or even know about it? The second shock: Most insurance companies offered term but rarely sold it. Why? Commissions! Term was simply too "cheap" to be profitable. "Wait a second. For the same price I'm paying a month now for a $15,000 whole life policy, you say I could get $150,000 of term? But that's one hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars more!" "That's right." The truth about life insurance made Art Williams angry. Why were insurance companies deliberately selling a product that left people poor in their wallets... and desperately underinsured? Why wasn't his father offered a choice between whole life and term? How different his mother's life would be today, if he'd known! What happened next proved providential: An unexpected opportunity to sell term insurance part-time... The discovery of a vast, untapped market... The birth of a crusade - and a company - that eventually brought a corrupt and outdated industry to its knees. On February 10, 1977, A.L. Williams entered the marketplace with a mere 85 agents. Over the next 13 years, the "peanut" company grew into an industry phenomenon - a licensed sales force of 225,000 agents, $300 billion in cumulative sales, thousands of offices across the United States and Canada. Controversial from the get-go, A.L. Williams exposed the "evils of cash value" and ingeniously used a part-time sales force to take "Buy Term and Invest Difference" to the people who needed it most - Middle America. Here, finally, in riveting and unprecedented detail, is the complete story of A.L. Williams - told by "the Coach" himself. From the high school football fields of