The Best Advisors Seem To Have The Deepest Scars

“I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it ceased to be one” – Mark Twain.

When I was 24 years old, I left university and graduate school to live in a northern Manitoba mining town and write my thesis. This was the 1970′s and the cost of living in northern Manitoba was skyrocketing. I had only my scholarship funds and a promise of a job on which to survive financially. Before too long, I had spent all the scholarship money and was working at three jobs to make ends meet. One of those jobs was running a truck leasing and rental operation. After six months of working at this job, my friend and chartered accountant, who had convinced  me to take this job, said that he had good news and bad news. The bad news was that I wasn’t going to get paid. The good news was that I could buy the rental company and assume its debt.

For six months, I continued to fulfill another contract, unloading 540 washers, dryers, fridges and stoves, and installing them in a townhouse complex. Then with my money from completing that contract, I flew off to Winnipeg, to meet a high priced lawyer, one of the partners of the city’s most prestigious and powerful law firms. I handed over all my money to him and took on the debt of the rental company and the rental vehicles. I went straight to my hotel room after this signing ceremony, with the intent of flying back to northern Manitoba the next day. I no sooner sat down, alone, in that hotel room, than I began to cry. I was a grown man, sort of, supposedly educated, and I had just given away all my savings and agreed to repay a huge debt. My crying lasted all of about 10 minutes when I realized that I had only one option; I needed to get back to my newly purchased business as quickly as I could and then get on with it. I called the airline, asked if I could get on that evening’s flight, and when they said yes, I rushed to the front desk of the hotel, slapped down my room money and hailed a cab to the airport. I never spent another minute thinking about what might happen. I was, as they say in poker, “all in”.

Over the next several years I put all my efforts into making my business as successful as I could. Eventually I sold it to another budding entrepreneur. I never did finish that thesis, but I received something more valuable.  I got a graduate degree in the actual practice of running a real business. It wasn’t the least bit theoretical. I also learned not to spend my time worrying about outcomes that might never materialize. I learned that it is better to take action. My business provided me with “on the job training”, including more lessons from other missteps, but with all the rewards that accrue to persistence. For that, I am thankful.

You might be temped to conclude that I place little value in education. I do not want to mislead you, because I do place a great deal of emphasis on advanced learning. When I entered the world of financial services I immediately recognized the need to learn all I could about financial planning and to obtain all the professional accreditations. And so I took action and completed all the requisite courses. Later in life, recognizing the need to continue learning,  I have added to the initials you see behind my name. I also still spend a great deal of time attending advanced learning seminars and professional workshops. In addition I completely embrace the concept of the Coop Program of Studies sponsored by my alma mater, the University of Regina. I have hired students to work in our business so they can appreciate the expectations of a business while they complete their program of studies and obtain  a degree. However, the experience I gained from starting and successfully running a business at 24 years of age will be the best graduate degree I could ever earn.

Perhaps someday I will return to the halls of learning to offer a course focused on the entrepreneurial initiative. If I do, it will involve some theory and a lot of actual experience in starting and successfully operating a new business.