This poem was the cover piece for our Year 2000 Annual Report. Emily Dickinson -- "The Broker's Poetess" -- rewards careful readers directly and immediately. She was, for the larger part of her life, a housebound semi-invalid. So whatever she accomplished with the power of words -- carefully and intelligently chosen, artfully arranged, and insightfully presented -- she did not achieve by the resort to objective or earthly Power, Prestige, Wealth, Force, Tradition or Organization. Her work was all very personal with her, unique, as if what she thought and she did herself was a gift that mattered.

This poem is easily accessible to understanding if you simply imagine the word, "false", inserted before the word "economy" in the last line of the first stanza. Our poet is saying that the beauty of a thing -- whether an action, a piece of art, a creation, an effort, a world, or even the placement of an insurance policy -- is magnified by the utmost completeness of it.

Even small things or small acts are great if they are total in the fulfillment of their essential mission. By that same measure, to withhold, to reserve, to parcel out our creative impulse, misshapes our results by the very act of doing less than we might, even if the objective outcome is "successful" or "impressive" to one who does not understand the height of possibility that once existed.

A lot of our clients -- especially those who have worked with other brokers previously -- say we sometimes "overdo" some aspect or another of our service, policy guidance, claim preparation or client advocacy. Well, maybe so, but at IRC we agree with Emily. And we do not want her to ever find us out, not striving to display the munificence of our utmost.