|
Bio of Rob Winter
My name is Rob Winter and I live in Sacramento,
California. I was born and raised thirty-seven years ago in New York in a small
town on Long Island. When he wasn’t taking our family out on the boat in the
bay for fishing trips or working on a project around the house, my father would
often bring me to the meat market he owned where I acted as his little helper so
perhaps that is where I developed my entrepreneurial desires. My mother was a
homemaker and took care of the modest brick home we lived in which sat on a nice
piece of property with a couple of fruit trees and a garden where my father and
I grew corn, lettuce, spinach and other vegetables. I remember my father
working very hard and putting in some long hours but we always seemed to be
together. There was always an abundance of family and good times at holidays and
other get togethers and I remember him being the center of it all; cooking the
holiday meals, telling stories, and making it special and taking the role of
true father to my half brother. Sadly, he passed away suddenly of a heart
attack when I was just nine years old.
Life changed overnight for my
mother, brother and I. We did try to stay in the house for a while, but since
the face amount on his life insurance policy was only ten thousand dollars, we
were forced to sell the house and downsize to an apartment. Although I
graduated at the top of my class and could choose just about any school I wanted
to go to, we did not have money for college. So I joined the Air Force in 1985
and after going to initial schooling in Mississippi for computer operations, I
was stationed in Okinawa, Japan. Here I worked at the base data processing
center, took college classes at night, did a lot of scuba diving, and learned
the language and culture of the area. I was 18, had quarters to myself, and
could legally drink a beer! After two years my tour was up and I returned
stateside to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. There was an old joke; “Once
you’re on it, you never get Offutt”. Since I didn’t relish the idea of being
stuck in Omaha, Nebraska for any real length of time, I decided to apply for
retraining as an aircrew-training instructor. This took me to Texas for a few
months, then back for a short stint in Nebraska and finally to Sacramento,
California for my last two years in the service where I trained undergraduate
navigators in all aspects of survival and aircrew training. I enjoyed this
immensely, especially being a classroom instructor, but I knew that I needed
freedom from the government and a career that would give me unlimited potential.
One-year prior I had already gotten my life insurance license. However, Japan
was calling me for one last “vacation” and when my term was up I went back to
Japan as a civilian to teach English in a prep school for high school students
taking extra classes.
Three months later, I returned
to Sacramento, California and took a sales position selling advertising. When
you are new and green in sales, its great! You just do what they tell you to do
without resistance and it usually works. From then on out, I was hooked on
sales. I began selling health independently and then progressed to getting a
property and casualty license and was then hired by a small agency, which gave
me an opportunity to help the owner build that business. It was a great
opportunity, which enabled me to purchase my first home at 25 years old, save
some money, and enjoy life. Although I had become a manager with a great income
and override of the office and its agents, after five years I craved
independence. So at age 30 I decided to start an agency, Golden State West
Insurance Services, where I continue today to sell business insurance to small
businesses. I live there today with my soon to be wife, Tiffani and our three
hounds Murray, Maggie, and Tabitha aka Woofy because she used to like to bark a
lot. We plan on buying a new home soon as we’ve outgrown this space and will
need it when we have children. When I decided to get a second income stream up
and running, becoming part of the OFG team and taking advantage of the direct
response niche seemed like the perfect fit. It is currently quite a challenge
doing both at the same time, but I’ve recently hired someone to help with this.
I’ve tried becoming involved with other, different businesses at the same time
as my insurance agency, including opening a sports bar and restaurant, and had
to realize that at times you can just pile your plate up too high to be
effective at anything. So I recently sold that business with the realization
that for now, I am an insurance guy! Perhaps it’s the early life lessons of
being under insured or a passion for being in business for myself and helping
other self-employed people that drives me. It’s a hard climb some days but as
Napolean Hill said in “Think and Grow Rich”, be persistent because you could be
three feet away from gold at any time.
Rob Winter
Golden State West Insurance Services
|
