Gujarati woman now top US insurance agent

Before joining New York Life, Jayshree Patel's only selling experience was in a video store in Chicago.

An Indian American woman who grew up in a small Gujarat town and taught herself English and marketing skills only after arriving in Chicago is now one of the top agents for New York Life in the US.

HT Image

Before joining New York Life, her only selling experience was in a video store on Chicago's Devon Avenue, Jayshree Patel, 32, said.

Nevertheless, within months of joining New York life as an agent in 1997, she made it to the company's executive council, an acknowledgement of her marketing skills.

Less than seven years later, Patel has sold policies with a total face value of $300 million. She has done business worth $60 million this year itself, putting her among the top New York Life agents nationwide and in the fourth rank in the company's West Central region that includes the Midwest.

Patel, whose family hails from Sokhda town in Gujarat, credits her success to an unwavering ambition. She said even as the fourth of five sisters, who had lost their father when very young, she had the urge to "achieve something in life".

In 2000, she made it to the New York Life Chairman's Cabinet, an honour given to the top 50 agents. It is a distinction she has won every year since then.