The Answers are Yes! Certainly! Everyday!

"If better is possible, good is not enough." (Anon)

Quality is never an accident; it is the result of intention, effort, intelligent direction, and skillful execution. There is an old saying, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not a act but a habit." Our old friend Ben Franklin put it this way, "Well done is better than well said."

Martin Luther King, Jr. said it best, "If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well."

The ultimate victory is derived from the satisfaction of knowing you have done your best. Many of life’s failures are people who did not know how close they were to success when they gave up. Determination and persistence often win when nothing else will. In the darkest days of WWII, Winston Churchill inspired all Britain when he said, "Never, never, never quit."

One of my favorite anonymous quotes reads: "Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." When the history of RLI is finally written, there will be a chapter on innovation. It will contain the most pages and be the most interesting. It will detail how we created shareholder value.

Shareholder value is important. The shareholders are the residual claimants of the success of the company. The interests of all stakeholders must be taken care of first. Most importantly, customers must be satisfied. Then, employees are compensated, and taxes and other community needs are met. Only when these obligations are taken care of, can the shareholders win.

More than two centuries ago, Adam Smith maintained individual self-interest was the best regulator of an economic system. He called it the "invisible hand" of competition. He asserted that the most productive and innovative companies will create the highest returns to shareholders and attract better workers who will be more productive and increase returns further—a virtuous cycle. On the other hand, companies that destroy value will create a vicious cycle and eventually wither away.

Fundamentally Innovative? Yes! Concerned with our customers’ well being? Certainly! Building shareholder value? Everyday!