Kathmandu. Every person’s success depends on hard work. Hard work follows the path to success. If you can get used to hard work and struggle, you can overcome any mountain of challenges. A hard-working person never fails. Because with every success, there is a story of failure, confidence, struggle, cooperation and patience hidden. To put it simply, success is not achieved all at once and failure is the enemy of success. Only a hard-working person becomes a partner in success. Naresh Sigdel is a person who believes that the key to success is hard work.
Born in 2042 BS in Rampur Municipality-1, Palpa, Naresh’s childhood was spent in an ordinary farmer’s family. Naresh, who grew up in a farmer’s family, doing housework in the morning and evening. He completed his studies up to SLC from his birthplace, Rampur, Palpa. Then Naresh went to Tansen, the headquarters of Palpa, to study Plus Two. Then, with the mindset that he should do something while studying, Naresh came to Butwal to study for graduation in search of a golden opportunity. Along with this, he completed his bachelor’s degree in management from Butwal.
Naresh is currently the Regional Manager of Citizen Life’s Bhairahawa region. Naresh is currently supporting and monitoring all the branches in his area. He has been implementing the insurance policy and legal provisions under his area by himself, ensuring that employees, agents and his team follow the instructions of the regulatory body, reporting, visiting various places from time to time to train agents and employees to develop their capabilities, striving to fulfill the company’s business objectives, and making work plans. Not only this, he has been organizing insurance education and insurance awareness programs in his area and surrounding areas to expand everyone’s access to insurance. He is equally passionate about sharing insurance education, not only in his area of responsibility.
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## ##This is how Naresh joined the insurance sector
## Initially, Naresh, who did not understand the insurance market and was not familiar with the people in the market, found it difficult to work. No one knew him in the market. It was not easy to get a regular job in his time. His father did not have a job to study and always bring money from home, so before coming to the insurance sector, Naresh worked as an accountant in a company with the intention of doing something while studying. While doing that job, Naresh had the opportunity to meet Sunil Pokharel, the former branch manager of Surya Life (currently the Chief Business Officer of Citizen Life). The meeting with Pokharel became the turning point for him. Pokharel convinced Naresh that the insurance sector is good, let’s work together and come to a corporate company, it will be good for his career later. Naresh, who was looking for a career in the corporate sector, got the same opportunity. ‘I had only general knowledge about the insurance sector,’ said Naresh. ‘After Sunil sir suggested me to join insurance, I started studying about the insurance sector. I thought a lot, understood, and then, thinking that it would be good for my career, I gave my okay to Sir and started working as an agent after getting a license from the former Surya Life.’
Finally, Naresh got a license and started working as an agent in 2069 BS. Initially, the agent profession was very challenging for him. ‘It was not that easy to work at that time. At that time, there was a working environment, but it was not easy to get support from the company,’ he said, ‘Initially, I did not know many things including how to go to the market, how to convince people, how to present myself in the market. There was not much support from the company either. That is why I worked hard in the insurance market, researched and went to the market and sold insurance. I worked hard and struggled a lot. Later, the results were also good. Every target was met. At that time, I lacked knowledge and probably received less support from the big guys when I first entered the insurance market. Now, I want to support everyone from the new entrants to the old ones on how to enter the market, how to present themselves, how to convince people, how to win people’s hearts and how to get results in my favor, he said.
Naresh, who joined Sabik Surya Life from an agent in the month of Baisakh, got the opportunity to be an operations employee in the month of Kartik of the same year after doing good work. Within 1-2 months of that, Naresh got the opportunity to become a branch manager again. Perhaps it was because of immense hard work and struggle that sudden success followed for Naresh. Naresh worked for Sabik Surya Life for 5 years. Naresh ended his 5-year journey with Sabik Surya Life.
Naresh’s journey in Citizen Life
Naresh, who was performing well in his previous Surya Life by meeting every target, joined Citizen Life in 2074 BS. Naresh had joined Citizen Life as a branch manager in the Bhairahawa branch since its inception.
In the financial sector, Naresh said that he wanted to change companies because instead of always working in the same company, he would become better and learn a lot by working in different companies. ‘The financial sector is such a dynamic sector, where there are always new challenges and opportunities,’ said Naresh, ‘Since the management of each company is different, the team, everything is new, I changed the company and joined Citizen Life to face every new challenge, new management team, new policies, and to upgrade myself. Citizen Life’s management team, policies, management, employee management, and many other things attracted me, and I joined Citizen Life.’
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## Although he had previously held the role of branch manager, it was not easy for Naresh to become a branch manager in the initial period of joining Citizen Life. Because the company was new, despite all the challenges of management, finding new agents, team, office, etc., Naresh made his branch better. Naresh worked as a branch manager at the Bhairahawa branch for about 3 years, rose to become an area manager, and now has the privilege of becoming a regional manager.
Naresh says that there are many challenges in working in the insurance sector. ‘However, if you turn challenges into opportunities and strengthen the agents and team, then it is normal. Agents should be encouraged and made to work. They should be made happy by conducting training and motivational activities from time to time,’ says Naresh, ‘Agents are the backbone of our insurance sector. They are representatives. How can work be done if they are not made happy? Yes, in this regard, people who work should always be encouraged and encouraged. Only then can the company achieve success.’
‘Citizen Life has always supported agents and employees. We always focus on how to make agents competent. The first priority for insurance companies is to keep agents and empower them, only then can the company achieve its long-term goals,’ said Naresh.
Naresh suggests that agents should go to the market strong and competent. He emphasizes that the company should empower agents by providing them with capacity-building training from time to time. ‘There should be agents in the insurance market who can accept challenges. If such agents are available, the insurance market will benefit,’ he said.
Naresh believes that the lack of insurance education has led to a decline in insurance understanding. Naresh says that people are more positive about life insurance than before. ‘People today understand insurance. Now, if they are educated about insurance and can understand insurance, it is not difficult to get insurance,’ he said. ‘But, why should people with a lot of money get insurance? They say we have money. However, even people with money face disasters. Therefore, insurance is indispensable for everyone, whether they have money or not.’
Life insurance is better for which community? Naresh says that people of all levels and classes need life insurance. ‘Rather than insisting on insuring large amounts, we should try to bring even small insurance policies under the scope of insurance. It is not possible to insulate large amounts in this recession,’ he said, ‘That agent should also pay. If you have to save a small amount of money to insure, you should pay it to the general public.
Naresh says that insurance is paid based on how much you save rather than how much money you earn. ‘Insurance is also very good because it is associated with security. People’s lives do not always run smoothly,’ says Naresh, ‘Since sometimes there is sadness and sometimes happiness, if you have insurance, it helps you in times of sorrow. Insurance is a shield of security. In happiness, we have money and everything, but in sadness, insurance supports us. We should insure for tomorrow.’
Naresh says that no matter what kind of agent enters the insurance sector, if the company provides them with insurance-related knowledge and creates opportunities for them to survive in the long term by providing insurance, any agent will be long-term. He believes that if agents become long-term in the insurance market, the insurance market will also be good. He emphasizes that the company should make the insurance market long-term by making agents aware of the fact that they can survive in the insurance market, increase their team and enable everyone to earn. Naresh even suggests that if they work within the rules and regulations, they will not have to go abroad to make a career.
Naresh emphasizes that older employees should be encouraged rather than the trend of bringing in new employees in the insurance sector. ‘Since the insurance sector is a marketing sector that deals with financial transactions, older employees already have work experience,’ Naresh said, ‘Since it takes time for new employees to learn the job and understand the market, older employees should be encouraged. The senior old team has walked with a mission and vision, and in a competitive market, the old team understands the market better than the new ones. Therefore, retaining older employees is like adding assets to the company, since the old team has a better strategy.’
Naresh has experienced that Citizen Life’s digital concept has made it easier to get and do insurance. ‘People’s trust has increased after going digital,’ he added, ‘Most of the transactions in Citizen Life are done through digital means. This makes it easier for the customer and the insurance company.’ He believes that Citizen Life will move forward by always supporting the interests of the insured.
Finally, Naresh expressed his gratitude to the company, saying that his success is the success of the company. He thanked the management team, Chief Marketing Officer, employees and agents. Naresh said that he is moving forward not only to make his area successful and efficient, but also to improve the insurance business of the company as a whole. Naresh has been meeting every target given by the company. They have also expressed their commitment to continue to support every arrangement of the company in the coming days, seeking new opportunities and moving forward hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder to take the company to the top.
