David Pierce shows us that achieving goals can be a good thing.With the brain drain in New Zealand showing no signs of stopping, I thought it will be refreshing to speak to someone coming the opposite way affecting our business DNA- and making a difference. An American, now settled and living in the Land of The Long White Cloud, David is sincere, ultra-competitive, well-educated and not afraid of change. He speaks his mind and tells us how he followed the opportunities around the globe and hurtled over obstacles, but remains steadfast in the values he grew up with, despite absorbing a little from wherever he has been. He has the makings of a tall poppy, and I mean that in the good sense. He demonstrates how being a tall poppie can be a good thing.
I’m an old draft-card burner from the Vietnam era. If my number had been called I wouldn’t have gone – you’d be talking to a Canadian.
My big break was leaving my homeland, the United States, after 23 years in the insurance business. My career took me from Minnesota to Kentucky to Tennessee to Ohio to Oklahoma. Then I moved to Asia, and now New Zealand.
I love the attitude of Kiwis: “I don’t care what your skin colour is, I don’t care what your station in life is.” Folks here are so accommodating and so accepting of others.
I think other cultures could teach Kiwis that it is okay to be a tall poppy as long as you don’t become full of yourself and arrogant. I’ve been around Senators and Congresspeople, Bill Clinton when he was President. The world is full of tall poppies who don’t think they’re special, who are humble, who are grateful – but if they can have the expensive watch and drive the expensive car, it’s okay, that’s okay.
This notion that we have in New Zealand of job titles, for example – we want to water them down because we don’t want a tall poppy. I understand it, but sometimes I think that leads to ‘all Indians and no chief,’ and it’s okay to be a chief.
We moved here from Hong Kong, which has the highest number of Rolls Royces per capita in the world – the tall poppies and the $10,000 watches, all of it. I’ve been to a dozen cities around New Zealand and heard about jafas, and people have said that in Auckland, it really is important what car you drive. But my wife and I don’t see it. You can go into any neighbourhood and you’ll see the beat-up 1972 next to the shiny new 2006. That is the better side of not having tall poppies – the spirit of ‘we are one’.
Over 28 years I’ve worn many different hats. As a young agent beating the street to put shoes on my kids’ feet, insurance quickly went from being a job to a career to a calling. I’m going to take early retirement in a few years to spend more time with my four wonderful grandchildren, but it will be a quasi-retirement. I have every intention of becoming an agent again, going back to my roots. That’s what drives me.
We call it the thread of discontent. As fulfilling as life was in my early 30s – the income was good, my kids were young, I was working on my Master’s degree – there was a thread of discontent, which we talk about when we’re recruiting a banker or investment adviser to the business. They say life is okay, but the more you talk to them, you find there’s that little thread. I had it, and needed more mental challenge. I’m a very competitive person.
I wanted a grander stage, so I sought out American General, the second largest life and health insurance company in the US. We had 12 million customers and issued 7,000 policies a week, and I got my fingers into every piece of the pie. Then AIG bought us and we became AIG American General, and the knock came on the door: would you like an opportunity overseas?
Management appealed to me because of the vagaries of the human condition, but I’m not a manager. Management is necessary when we’re talking about moving up in the world and dealing with people, but it’s not one of my core strengths. Rather than managing people, let’s lead them.
I’m a very type-B person. A lot of people don’t think that a type B can rise through the ranks to CEO, but I think it’s possible when a type-B learns to act like a type-A from time to time. Not everybody’s type-A, or we’d have a lot of people in penitentiaries and not enough Prozac, and if everybody was a type-B we’d be slugs.
My dad always said if you can’t manage your time, you can’t manage anything else. I have some basic rules for my life, both personal and professional: I say please and thank you, I show up on time, I do what I say I’m going to do, and whatever I start I finish. I believe in people, I believe in the power of leadership.
Two of the greatest heroes in my life were my dad and my mum. They gave me two great things, confidence and balance. I think to deal with everything, the big things like death, confidence is the single most important thing. And failure is a great teacher. I think of Harry Truman, who was a great President and an abject failure in the oil business and the men’s clothing business. Someone asked him how he was able to do what he’d done as President in light of those failures and he said, “Because I never took failure in a project to be failure in life – two different things.”
I’ve had a few failures along the way and I’ve had to start over. Some of this reinventing included working on having good self-esteem, which is very important as you age. The truth is we all get knocked out, but I happen to be one of those people that just keeps getting back up.
I was blessed in being the youngest of four kids, with two older brothers. They pulled me up and I had to compete with them. I was never as good-looking as them, never as good an athlete as they were. And throughout my life I’ve had to overcome congenital nystagmus – it’s very rare, a problem with the nerves that control the eye muscles. I took overcoming that as a challenge.
In 1984, when my first marriage ended, my ex-wife took my sons aged eight and six 1800 miles away, and said I could call them every Sunday night. Two Sundays later I couldn’t get through – she just unplugged the phone. I tried every night that week, and when I finally got through my six-year-old said, “Dad, how come you didn’t call on Sunday?” I’d become a long-distance dad.
I went to the phone company and asked for a toll-free number at my house. They said that’s not allowed, you have to be a company. So I proved I was one, and I was the first person I knew of in the United States to get a personal toll-free number. I told the kids, any pay phone, anytime you want, anywhere. Could have gotten bitter – chose not to.
Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent what you do with it. A good friend of mine said you never tell other people your problems, because 10 percent don’t care and the other 90 percent are delighted. Have a talk with yourself and snap out of it.
When I wake up in the morning I bounce out of bed – even though at this age I can hardly walk – and I sing and whistle and I’m happy. The world is just filled with heartache and death, and to combat that I have to think positively and be confident. My grandpa, who died when I was five, said, “Only one life will soon be past, only what’s done for others will last.”
Ben Franklin, a great American, wrote, “Your education shouldn’t stop until you do,” and I took that to heart. I have degrees and I’m a chartered life underwriter and financial consultant. It’s an unquenchable thirst to learn more, to do more, to always go forward.
I believe a life insurance policy is the greatest financial instrument ever created. What is so similar across all the countries I’ve lived and worked in is the difference that this makes in people’s lives, to meet their needs. Whether you’re in Singapore, Indonesia, South-east Asia, the Philippines, India, New Zealand – no matter what income level you’re at, there are still some basic needs. We have mortgages to pay off, kids to educate. People have a common need to provide.
David Pierce at a Glance
- Chief executive of AIG Life (formerly AIA) in New Zealand
- Was with AIG Life's parent company AIG for 11 years and has extensive experience in several of the company's major regional offices, most recently Hong Kong, Singapore and India.
- He is a 28-year veteran of the insurance and financial services industry, working as an agent and brokerage consultant before moving into senior management and leadership roles at the branch, regional and home offices levels in the United States and Asia.
- His mentors include his parents, pastors, bosses and sports coaches.
- He enjoys studying and has a Bachelor of Arts from The American University, a Master of Arts from the University of Minnesota, and a Master of Science in Management from The American College, where he has also been designated a Chartered Life Underwriter, a Chartered Financial Consultant, and a Chartered Leadership Fellow. He has served as Adjunct Professor of Business and Professional Communication at Western Kentucky University, and Adjunct Professor of Business and Economics at Middle Tennessee State University.
Goalgetting Tips for Today
- Don’t worry about whether you are a tall poppy or not. Worry about what contribution you make.
- Be prepared when opportunity knocks, often success happens when preparation and luck meet.
- Learn to prioritize and manage your time.
- Know your value system and stick with your beliefs, but be flexible too.
- Have you hugged a family member today? Relationships are important.
- Take responsibility for your own problems.
- Be prepared for the inevitable. Enjoy the moment, live in the now, but also have insurance.
Do you thing tall poppies can be a good thing?