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Staff post about: Brett Wilson Become an Author

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That's how I became a capitalist with a heart. It was arguably the worst thing that ever happened to me. I was one of the smallest kids in the class. You can only come in last in a running race so many times before you feel like giving up.

[It] was a fresh start in terms of brand new relationships, brand new friendships, and I also discovered that I was no longer one of the brighter kids in the class.

I discovered that I was pretty average, and if I didn't get my ass in gear, I was going to be pretty much below average.

It was a great education about the real world of business.

Outward Bound changed my life. By doing the course, I took myself from being relatively insecure and uncomfortable in my own skin to the point where I could say, ‘I'm ok. No better than anyone else, but ok.

There were nine of us, and we each put in $200. At the time minimum wage was $1.65 an hour, so it was a fair bit of change for us and we just pretended like we knew what the stock market was all about. In the end, each of us got $221 back for our $200 investment. Not only were we successful financially, we were also successful in terms of process - understanding how the stock market worked: how to buy and sell; paying commissions; following research and market trends. Those were the early days, but it was a start.

We also financed Pacalta Resources Ltd. and eventually helped to sell the company for $1 billion.

It was hard not to enjoy the success we were having, doing a deal a day. It was enthralling to be at the office. I got as caught up in my career as any investment banker could be.

I worked for about three years as an engineer at one of the big oil companies. I discovered that I wasn't passionate about engineering. I was passionate about business.

Despite being told by one of my first employers that I wasn't management material, I enrolled in the MBA program at the University of Calgary. I was the first graduate to major in entrepreneurship.

I began working right away as an investment banker and never looked back. After I started my business - a company named Wilson Mackie - my dad asked me if I was still looking for a job.

Entrepreneurs have to be willing to stay the course even when those closest to you question what you're doing.

For many years I spent my life working 24/7. I lost my marriage and I almost lost my three greatest assets: my kids.... I'd been running pretty hard, hardly knew my kids and certainly had alienated my wife.

I radically reprioritized.

More people die of retirement than hard work. In this case, my priorities are my children and having fun.

It helped me understand things like product differentiation, how to make marketing memorable; advertising; the impact of brand logo and positioning, and post-purchase dissonance.

I believe that a class like that should be taught within every discipline at every university. It doesn't matter if you are a doctor, scientist, engineer, or a lawyer - the tools of marketing are invaluable."

Projects compete for capital, so you have to sell your projects. You sell your company against other companies to investors, staff and clients. It happens at every level.

I sometimes think people over worry this ‘take me under your wing' notion. People can be mentored by simply observing carefully. For example, I've been mentored by Richard Branson in the marketing world, and a variety of business people in terms of their business acumen. I watch and learn. And I'm still watching and learning.

I had several mentors at McLeod, Young, Weir: Dan Sullivan, Jim McDonald, David Wilson - probably the brightest M&A minds in those days. It was invaluable watching them walk the walk and talk the talk and learning from them just how important relationships are in transactional business. They were the sort of people I wanted to emulate when I got my opportunity to run an investment bank with my partners.

Misunderstanding your target market both as the product you're delivering and the desirability in that market, but that all ties to the bottom line of understanding your market.

From the start, FirstEnergy put charity under its marketing budget. The partners were 100 percent behind it. We recognized there was a lot of goodwill to be had there.

Learning doesn't just happen in school or on the job. Success is not about purely academic performance. Don't take unemployment as downtime - take it as an opportunity.

It's all about the rounded package. When I'm hiring, I want to see people who have excelled, whether in church, Club Scouts, starting a small business, charity, working for a student newspaper, being active in sports or coaching younger kids. I want people who have done more than just ride the business.

Think outside the job market.

If you're struggling to break into a tough job market, here's some advice your parents might not give you. There's no greater time than now to travel, spending some time making a difference in your community, and getting your education enhanced.

Every department has a weekly meeting, and all the partners have a weekly meeting. Many times the partners would come in begrudgingly saying, ‘There's nothing new to discuss.' But you know what? We'd take an hour and a half and discuss nothing new. It was about team building, it was about understanding how everybody responded under pressure, and taking the time to get to know each other.

In the first eight days, we evaluated 110 businesses. Some of them were fascinating, and some I was fascinated that they'd got through the door.

For me, the show was fun. I'm reasonably good at evaluating people - that's one of my greatest strengths. I ended up doing quite a few deals as a result of believing that some of the people put in front of us were onto something.

My hope is to the see the benefits of my labour spread out in the community.

In 1999, just days before our annual fundraising event called FirstRodeo, we contracted with a company to erect tents on the rodeo grounds. The tents were the standard variety used for weddings and large events. During set-up, a metal pole came in contact with an overhead wire and an employee of the tent rental company was electrocuted. It was a tragic accident, and we were subsequently sued. Certainly no one intended this sort of outcome from an event that was to raise money for charities in our community. Very shortly after, we implemented a company-wide policy to ensure safety at our corporate events - safety for workers and safety for guests. Although we couldn't change the outcome of this tragedy, we owed it to our employees and all those we contracted with to ensure changes were made. It was the right thing to do.

Always keep honesty and integrity at the centre of everything you do. There's right and there's wrong, and nothing in between.

I recall cutting lawns for the elderly widow next door. Dad had spoken with her earlier in the spring and suggested I take on the job. I knew a friend who was making $3 per cut, and I thought it would be a good way to earn some extra money.

I didn't negotiate a price up front. I just went right ahead and cut her lawn twice a week, which added up to about 30 cuts over the summer. When I went to collect, she invited me in for a cold pop, proudly handed me $10, and asked what I would spend it on.

I learned a lot about communicating and being up-front and establishing mutual expectations. In hindsight, a great learning experience and all for a great cause - the widowed neighbour!

Innovative thinkers are constantly asking the question: How can we make things better? No matter what stage you're at in your career or what industry you work in, everyone around you can benefit from new ideas. Don't be afraid to think outside of the box - just because something works doesn't mean it can't be better.

Don't expect not to be afraid. Real courage is being scared to death and going ahead anyway.

Hard times are an opportunity for growth. Struggle doesn't so much build character as reveal it.

We are always improving. To build a culture of innovation, you have to celebrate it and encourage it. You should always be looking for better, improved, more efficient, more intelligent ways of doing things.

For example, we are moving into new offices and we don't want to have a receptionist - it's not about economics, it's about the best use of people. I don't want to have someone stranded at reception to greet the odd person. So we are designing technology that doesn't yet exist for a virtual receptionist. My IT guys are ecstatic. We can't find it so we are creating it.

Entrepreneurship is in my blood. My biggest high came from co-founding my first business.

One way to reach your fullest potential is to keep learning.

Commit to reaching your own potential for the good of yourself and everyone else.

Innovation is an absolute. It's a constant.

One of the early things I did was plan my funeral, which was more about the celebration I hoped would occur. But after a couple of hours, I truly closed the book and said, ‘Enough of that.' It was a very cathartic process to feel that the end is planned. But now it's ‘Let's get on with living, because I have a fair number of new things to get done.

Related Articles

  The Capitalist With A Heart: The Early Years Of Brett Wilson
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  Lesson #1: “Entrepreneurs have to be willing to stay the course”
  Lesson #5: “Hard times are an opportunity for growth”
  How To Get More Done By Sleeping
  The Dragon Makes Nice: How Wilson Made His Money – And Then Gave It Away
  No-Spin Zone and Usher’s New Look Foundation
  Lesson #3: “Think outside the job market”
  Lesson #2: “I watch and learn. And I’m still watching and learning.”
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  The Small Town Boy Makes It Big: Wilson Finds His Own Brand of Success
  Lesson #4: “My hope is to the see the benefits of my labour spread out in the community”
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  Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson and the Sales Assessment Industry
  The Best Decline Letter of All-Time: Edmund Wilson
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