After Quitting School, What's Next? May 18, 2020
This blog focuses on refinement. What does that mean and why has it become important to me? Maybe it's a waste of time but hindsight is 20 - 20 and absolute honesty will be applied in looking at my successes and failures in my life.
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| A North American Black Duck decoy carved by my friend Tom Dowling |
But stop. This beautiful decoy arrived on my doorstep this week. Tom shipped it to me via Fedex from Logan Lake British Columbia. Inside the box was a personal letter and photocopies of various stages of its creation using a block of Ontario hardwood. Tom has carved and sculpted 70 different decoys and has offered one to me as a sign of our friendship which has lasted for 70 years.
Moreover, the group of friends I speak of still meet every year for a week-long fishing, golfing and card playing extravaganza. The ladies stay home. Once again, these men did not a College Graduate make. We have three home builders, one Pipeline supplier, a Shipping Container executive, an advertising agency computer layout artist, and three others who started small and ended up owning the companies they worked for.
My observation is that the education they received from home, school, friends and mentors helped to produce the individual characteristics, along with hard work, that lead to their success in business and their personal lives.
In my life, being in a specific place at a particular time is the foundation for many opportunities that came to me. I either see it and do something with it, or I let it go. I see the opportunities I jumped on; the ones I didn't follow are less clear and these are the thoughts that I grapple with from time to time. I know I have no idea what lies ahead for those we choose to neglect. For example, in 1963 I toyed with the idea of traveling to Australia with a tennis buddy of mine. He was an Ad Agency Art Director and I was a feeder on a printing press with a bad feeling about my chances for promotion. I talked about his idea with a few people and had not decided anything until another opportunity was offered to me. Duncan McGregor (one of the company's junior salesmen) asked me if I would like to apply for a sales position. I didn't give this opportunity any thought; my immediate answer was absolutely. Within 24 hours the Vice President of Arthurs-Jones Lithographing gave me the job. Soon after that day, Ken Clifton sailed for Australia with his tennis gear and paint brushes, and not surprisingly, we haven't spoken in 56 years. It's impossible to know what my life would have been like if I had gone through tennis door number one.
My observation is that the education they received from home, school, friends and mentors helped to produce the individual characteristics, along with hard work, that lead to their success in business and their personal lives.
In my life, being in a specific place at a particular time is the foundation for many opportunities that came to me. I either see it and do something with it, or I let it go. I see the opportunities I jumped on; the ones I didn't follow are less clear and these are the thoughts that I grapple with from time to time. I know I have no idea what lies ahead for those we choose to neglect. For example, in 1963 I toyed with the idea of traveling to Australia with a tennis buddy of mine. He was an Ad Agency Art Director and I was a feeder on a printing press with a bad feeling about my chances for promotion. I talked about his idea with a few people and had not decided anything until another opportunity was offered to me. Duncan McGregor (one of the company's junior salesmen) asked me if I would like to apply for a sales position. I didn't give this opportunity any thought; my immediate answer was absolutely. Within 24 hours the Vice President of Arthurs-Jones Lithographing gave me the job. Soon after that day, Ken Clifton sailed for Australia with his tennis gear and paint brushes, and not surprisingly, we haven't spoken in 56 years. It's impossible to know what my life would have been like if I had gone through tennis door number one.
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| Marie-Lou, Greg, Ben, Nate and Thomas June 2017 |
If I fast forward to my 57th year please don't think I'm using a shotgun approach for this post but the year of my retirement has come to mind. In 1998 another change to my profession's duties was offered by the CEO. Perhaps this was an opportunity to be carefully considered. For the past four years I had been President and Vice Chairman of our publicly traded company. Sales numbers were falling and our CEO thought it would benefit the organization if the number one salesman would return to a fully commissioned sales activity that I had relinquished in 1991. At least one problem was obvious: I had turned over several top clients to members of our sales staff and they enjoyed those commissions. (The sum of this is that it was costing the company more money in sales payments plus management salary for the same volume of sales.) We discussed the merits of the CEO's proposal for a very short time and I made the decision for him. I will not go into the sales department and I will not ask our sales staff to return my gift to them. I suggested retirement with an additional 18 months of salary to me. This was not a difficult decision for me and Leland Verner, he accepted my proposal and I packed my belongings and left the building in two weeks time. There was a retirement party for several key clients and our staff who would gather to hear what I had to say.
For the next few weeks I enjoyed Wimbledon with Kathy and Pat Jarvis, not to play tennis but to watch, and couldn't be happier, as I pondered my future activity with this extra time on my hands? These details were not top of mind on the evening of my retirement party where I spoke of the life I had built with the help and guidance of the people I'd met. I named Art Hill, Bill Adams, Duncan McGregor, Percy Skuy, Dianne Basciano, Grant McDiarmaid and several other fine men and women who helped me pave the road to success and good fortune for myself and many others. Bill Adams was the former President of Arthurs-Jones who taught me important points in communicating with clients and staff of our company. At his retirement, when speaking directly at the sales staff he said, "I recommend that each of you follow Gary around for a few days to see how it's done." I told a few more stories that some of the attendees may have heard before. At the end of the twenty minute speech I thanked everyone from the podium and then mingled with some that I will see again, and some for the last time.
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| Terryl Smith |
During my working years I read everything I could get my hands on; a great deal of which had been written by business people for business people. Additionally, I read Dickens, Austen, Dostoevsky, Knietzche, Twain, Mann, Bronte, Joyce, and many more to gain artful insights into English Literature. I called York University the day after the retirement party and asked for admittance to their first year English Literature course. The administrator required a two page letter regarding my activity since leaving high school. One week after its receipt, Professor Koretsky called my phone number and said, "May I speak to Gary McDonald?" after which I replied, "This is he." Koretsky then spoke for fifteen minutes on the beauty and correctness of my reply, the English Language and welcomed me into his class in September. Moreover, there would be no tuition fee required. I was 37 years older than the average aged student in class but they seemed to accept me and I certainly did them.
In October of that year my right foot's big toe bunion was surgically treated and a plaster cast was applied for the next six weeks. It was then that Florence Pappain called with an opportunity. She didn't put it that way; she said, "How would you like to meet a friend of mine that I work with at Air Canada?" She described Terryl and said that there were two ladies she had in mind. Florence is a friend from Brampton Golf Club where I've been golfing since 1984. My response was I'd love to meet them. My marriage of 25 years with Ann Marie had ended in 1994 and at this point I was between engagements. I was retired, financially sound after the assets were halved with alimony arranged. When Terryl and I met (after her inquiry about the plastic bag on my foot), she suggested a glass of wine at a small bar would be nice. It was, and so was she. We agreed to another date about a month later, and another later at my place with my fellow students with Terryl and her friend Gwenn hosting the party. Our relationship is sailing along beautifully. I never did meet the other lady Florence had mentioned.
In October of that year my right foot's big toe bunion was surgically treated and a plaster cast was applied for the next six weeks. It was then that Florence Pappain called with an opportunity. She didn't put it that way; she said, "How would you like to meet a friend of mine that I work with at Air Canada?" She described Terryl and said that there were two ladies she had in mind. Florence is a friend from Brampton Golf Club where I've been golfing since 1984. My response was I'd love to meet them. My marriage of 25 years with Ann Marie had ended in 1994 and at this point I was between engagements. I was retired, financially sound after the assets were halved with alimony arranged. When Terryl and I met (after her inquiry about the plastic bag on my foot), she suggested a glass of wine at a small bar would be nice. It was, and so was she. We agreed to another date about a month later, and another later at my place with my fellow students with Terryl and her friend Gwenn hosting the party. Our relationship is sailing along beautifully. I never did meet the other lady Florence had mentioned.
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| This photo of Terryl is on our favourite cruise line Azamara |
My academic career was in full swing at York University and the Literature that we studied was bringing the joy that I had hoped for. Koretsky became Holmes and then Kegan and Viktoria for six beautiful years until my studies began to interfere with our cruising. On one occasion Viktoria excused me from an exam until I had returned from a vacation in the Mediterranean. She offered her office to write my examination. Of course I passed. This was my last year at York University. In 2004 I began to read books without guidance from the Professors at York University because Terryl and I had decided to cruise or travel the four corners of the world as an educational experience.
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| The Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi January 2020 |
This picture of the Grande Mosque in Abu Dhabi in UAE is one of many taken during this day in January 2020. Everything about this place is magnificent especially its religious importance and incredible architecture. The Grand Mosque was ten years in the making and has 100,000 tons of white marble and 82 24-karat-gold-tipped domes shining in the sun. There were many people visiting the day we were there. The silence was golden, the behaviour was inspirational.
These pictures are in Mahatma Gandi Museum in Mumbai India. It's a small building with little small rooms similar to a school room fitted with desk/chairs and walls of Historic books and photographs. The memorabilia told the story of an Indian Lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist, who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule. Gandi was born in 1869 and was assassinated in 1948.
I think you'll find his letter to Adolf Hitler before WW11 illuminating to say the least. Gandi humbles himself before Hitler and addresses him as Dear Friend and closes, "if I have erred in writing to you."
I remain, Your sincere friend M.K. Gandi.
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| Gandi's letter to Hitler is on view in Mumbai India January 2020 |
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