The phone rang. It was Mr. Hemphill, the Principal of our high school. He was calling about my upcoming graduation ceremony.
It was almost the end of the year, and I had completed and passed all of my courses except for one.
The course that was standing between me and a high school diploma might surprise you…
We spent a few days at Copper Point Resort in Invermere the week of Canada Day. It was clear from the moment we arrived that the hotel employees were not fully trained, and their guest capacity was more than they were staffed to handle.
I’m a high school dropout.
But I’m also a 7-figure business owner.
You might be wondering how that’s possible, and the answer might surprise you. Sure, hard work, mentorship, and a little bit of luck played a role, but do you know what the single, most important factor in my success was? Yep, you guessed it. Books.
I grew up in Haliburton, a small town in rural Ontario that likely has more professional athletes per capita than any other small town in Canada.
The outside of the arena—where I watched more hockey games as a kid than I can count—is filled with murals celebrating the likes of various hockey and football superstars. The murals include Bernie Nicholls (you may remember he was a Stanley Cup winner when he played with Wayne Gretzky), Matt Duchene (I went to school with his Dad), Ron Stackhouse, Cody Hodgson and CFLer Mike Bradley, to name a few.
It was a quiet, sunny Saturday afternoon. As I stooped to pick up dog poop, all of a sudden, birds began flying around me, squawking and screeching like something awful was happening. As I turned to see what was going on, to my utter shock, horror and dismay, there was my beloved Sunshine with a baby fledgling in her mouth.
The baby bird was screaming loudly. The mom and dad were dive-bombing Sunshine. I was yelling at her to drop the bird with the hope it would survive.
I still can’t believe that my sweet dog killed their baby in the second it took me to stoop for poop!
A client recently shared a story of two start-ups with me. We spoke about their journey in building their business from start-up to where it is now, compared to a colleague who had started their business around the same time.
This client engaged my business advisory services very early on in their business and while we worked together, they achieved rapid growth year after year, beyond what they ever believed possible.
At the end of our strategy debrief, after I discussed what people typically do before they make a decision to reach out for business help, he said, “I was stalking you for nine months before I pulled the trigger.”
His handle is @FailedProtostar. But one look at the photos on his Instagram feed and you’ll immediately see that he is far from failing.
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