Matt Hall

By Matt Hall
Merritt Hall Insurance

The other day I added up roughly 19 hours of high-priority “things to do” between now and the end of the month… with only 11 unscheduled hours available in my calendar. That leaves 8 hours of stuff that won’t get done.

Once again, a quick nod to the Law of Strategic Execution:
Infinite Opportunity. Finite Amount of Time.
So, as always, choices have to be made.

When you boil it down to its simplest form, there are really just two keys to success.  They can be expressed in a basic equation.
Strategy + Execution = Success.

Strategy is the aggregate of great ideas, organized into an Action Plan that suits your business and your goals.  (And anyone with a shortage of great ideas is just not listening or paying attention.)  Execution is simply the “getting it done” part.
A serious commitment and focus on execution will overcome even a weak strategy.  The biggest ideas and the greatest strategy will grind to a painful halt without execution.  Since we all have limited time, we must be vigilant to ensure we invest that time on the most important, high-leverage and profitable activities. read full article »

Matt Hall

By Matt Hall
Merritt Hall Insurance

I was eating lunch with a police officer friend of mine. We were talking about the risks associated with police work, and the conversation turned to ballistic vests.  He explained that there are light-weight “soft” vests for all-day wear that will stop the most common handgun rounds, but nothing over a .44 and definitely nothing fired from a rifle.  There are heavier and bulkier “hard” vests for tactical situations that can stop armor-piercing handgun rounds and even some rifle-fired rounds. These, he explained, are not very comfortable to wear for long periods of time.

There are special (and expensive) add-on ceramic, metal and composite plates that can be inserted in these vests to offer further protection against heightened threats. Some are even capable of stopping a round from a sniper riffle. And without add-ons and upgrades, most vests are not stab-resistant, which means knives and stabbing weapons can still rip right through.  It seems there is always a tradeoff between the level of protection a vest offers and its level of comfortable wearability and affordability. Those trade-offs come down to personal preference and the level of risk the wearer is willing to acceptable.
Turns out all bulletproof vests are not created equal. Who knew?  While driving back to the office, I couldn’t stop thinking about how bulletproof vests are similar to insurance. The right insurance works a lot like a bulletproof vest.

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