Roger Smith is the past CEO of American Income Life Insurance Co, National Income Life
Insurance Co. And Liberty National Life Insurance Co. He is also the recipient of the Yitzhak
Rabin Legacy Award, Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award, Healthcare For All Champion
Award, Sol Stein Award, as well as numerous other awards and publications. For the first time ever, Roger Smith, takes readers on an unflinching journey through his remarkable life; a life that includes astronomical business success alongside family struggles and a life-threatening battle with addiction in his book, The most Unlikely Leader…An Unbelievable Journey from GED to CEO. Written in a fast-paced, no-holds-barred style, The Most Unlikely Leader is a tour-de-force. Why ‘unlikely’? By the time Smith was a teenager he was living on the streets of Santa Monica and addicted to drugs. He dropped out of high school, ran into trouble with the law, had his best friend shot right next to him while running away from a failed robbery attempt and, at one point, was so down and out and desperate for a fix in his early thirties that he walked into the Pacific Ocean expecting never to come back.
Share your background.
I am the author of The Most Unlikely Leader… An Unbelievable Journey From GED To CEO and
the former CEO of American Income Life and Liberty National Life Insurance Companies. My journey
through life embodies that no matter how low you are in life, you can always turn things around and
become anything you set your mind to. I am married and have five adult children, one grandchild, and
two dogs.
Has sales always been in your blood?
It seems like I’ve been selling since I was 5 or 6 years old. I used to steal my brother’s comic books
and sell them in Central Park. Of course, he wasn’t happy about it, but I was definitely working on my
closing skills.
Tell us when you hit rock bottom.
I hit rock bottom after 20 years of being a functioning addict. I remember being on all fours,
searching through the carpet for hours, looking for a sliver of crack cocaine that I may have dropped. I
lived in a little cottage on the beach in Malibu and decided at that moment that life wasn’t worth it and
that I wanted to end it by walking downstairs and into the ocean. That was my bottom, and that is the
picture I keep at the forefront of my mind, never to forget where I was.
Is money a blessing or a curse?
I think money is a blessing if used for the good of people and not just self-serving. Unfortunately, the
latter is being on a hamster wheel and very difficult to get off.
For the first time ever, you are sharing your remarkable life in your new book, The Most Unlikely Leader. Take us through the journey.
It is a journey of addiction, homelessness, and lack of education, to great success and my becoming
the CEO of two major insurance companies. It is a story of beating insurmountable odds, perseverance,
achievements, and failures.
What are key areas that you share in your book?
My life, sales, leadership, the importance of mentors, overcoming obstacles, and addiction.
Share your mission for your book.
My mission in writing this book was to motivate people that may be stuck in their life, or people that
may feel that the deck is stacked against them for various reasons, and show them that through
perseverance, they can overcome most obstacles
What do you want your legacy to be?
I would like my legacy to be that I sought to make a difference in people’s lives. By knowing me or
reading my book, their lives became exponentially better, and they were motivated to do more
extraordinary things in their own lives.
About The Author
