so nearly five years ago I became CEO of
our family’s 50 year old trucking
company and since that time my team and
I have increased our revenues by nearly
five times I’m here to tell you what it
was like to lead hockey stick growth as
a high school dropout for those of you
not familiar with business growth charts
this is a hockey stick growth chart it
features a period of decline followed by
several years of exponential growth my
grandfather started our business in 1963
and for 50 years he and my forefathers
worked 16-hour days to produce just
enough to survive as a company I had the
privilege of becoming CEO of this
company right at that big red dot at the
age of 30 but when you’re looking for a
leader for an established company such
as ours a high school dropout should not
be at the top of your list but that was
my resume in fact had I graduated I
highly doubt that the caption under my
yearbook photo would have read most
likely to succeed in business even
though I went straight to the family
company right after leaving Grade eleven
I had no intention of making a career
there I didn’t even know what we did
besides the fact that we were a trucking
company I could see the trucks in the
yard so after a while and after five
more cousins joined the family business
it became apparent to me that we could
not sustainably employ all of us in the
business there just wasn’t enough in our
small agricultural supporting business
to sustainably employ us all so even
though I had no MBA no diploma and no
high school education other than grade
11 I had the boldness to approach my
family and and say you know what I think
we need to change the way we’re doing
things to my incredible surprise my
father and two uncles who were leaving
the company at the time said yes so what
do you do when you’re given the
opportunity to enact real change and
something you care about do you take the
leap and rise to the challenge or do you
just play it safe and go with the flow
this talk is for those of you who are
ready to rise to the challenge but also
for you if you just need a little push
or inspiration one thing’s for sure when
you’re given that opportunity and you
have the audacity to say yes your first
words and I guarantee you this will be
oh at least that’s how I responded
see I’d been learning how to lead the
company but I was not prepared to take
the reins fortunately however I did have
a good idea where to start because three
years earlier as a junior manager I
called our first business meeting our
first in 47 years of business and I
identified two things the first was that
no one was really leading it was like
there was no clearly defined leadership
structure in fact my dad and two uncles
who were quote leading the company at
the time each held the title of
co-president the second thing that I
identified was the company was in three
years of decline if we didn’t return to
sustainability soon there wouldn’t be a
future for any of us so here I am a high
school dropout equipped with nothing
more than a basic accounting course I’d
taken in the 11th grade and this
intrinsic belief that we could either
grow quickly or we would die slowly so I
had very good motivation to make it work
learning on the fly I assembled a an
executive team formalized our corporate
structure and identified three strategic
areas the first was that we were going
to need to drive growth the second we
would need to learn to face our fears in
the third was that we would need to
believe in ourselves to take over the
leadership all we would have to do is
tell the people that are currently in
power that it was time for them to let
go and let us take the reins it’s not as
easy as it sounds so I assembled the
next generation of leaders in our
company and together we faced the
problem we acknowledge the contribution
that our preceding generation had made
while simultaneously making a pitch for
their trust in us with the future of the
company
it was time to make their sealing our
floor now letting go of leadership is
never easy so we created a core
phrase honoring the past and embracing
the future and we knew that we needed to
create a transition point for people to
see a new way of doing things from a new
set of leaders the final thing that we
did was offer the neck the previous
generation of veto so if they didn’t
like what they what we were doing they
could change it I’m pleased to say that
they never did need to use that video
and it’s now expired so now I have
control of the company the buck stops
here
being in charge about an entirely
different dynamic the first thing that
my team and I did was conducted an
employee engagement survey we wanted to
see how things were in the company the
results were terrible the reviews were
harsh and hurtful I remember thinking to
myself did I make the right decision or
did I make a mistake should I be running
from this thing as fast as I could but
the thing about creating culture changes
that you have to acknowledge what hasn’t
been working and as a leader you have to
own it even if you aren’t responsible
for it so we reviewed these employee
engagement surveys and we it became
apparent that the employees didn’t feel
appreciated we had to create real
mechanisms of relationship between
management and employees we had to learn
to say thank you and not just once a
year at the company banquet but
regularly I remember around the time
that we were addressing the culture of
the company I covered the role of
dispatcher for a while and after giving
the driver his order information and
driving directions over the two-way mic
I added somewhat tentatively and we just
want to let you know that we appreciate
you after a few uncomfortable seconds of
dead air the radio cracked back to life
and the driver responded ten-four on
that Thanks
as we got better expressing appreciation
the morale of the company dramatically
improved and when people like well they
where they work guess what they begin to
work smarter and with more efficiency
they bring passion and vitality that to
their roles leaders were developed and
the best part appreciation is free does
not detract from the bottom line so
remember our catalyst the catalyst for
our transition into management was that
the company was in three years of
decline our first instinct was to do
what our parents had always done in the
past when faced with the challenging
situation they would simply work harder
put in longer hours but 16-hour days are
not sustainable and I think that that’s
why as a kid I only got to see my dad on
Sundays because throughout the rest of
the week he would go to work long before
I got out of bed and returned home long
after I had been tucked in he was busy
out working and out running our problems
I think that that work ethic is also the
reason that the day after I became CEO I
adjusted my work schedule to start at
3:00 a.m. instead of my usual start time
three hours later at 6:00 because of
this inherited instinctive reaction to
the weight of my new responsibilities
but like I said working 16-hour days is
not sustainable and it would take some
pretty serious signs of burnout nearly
two and a half years later that would
cause me to realize the value of rest
and the importance of working smarter
and not harder in order to try to change
the company in order to drive the growth
that we so desperately needed we would
have to change this story this family of
workaholics would need to learn to work
smarter because if you’re already
working 16-hour days what more can you
give so I called an assembly of the new
rising leaders in our family and
together we openly address what it was
like to grow up without having our
fathers around for much of our young
lives every family member had a chance
to speak and we together addressed what
it was like but also we created
consensus around the idea of working
smarter for our children so that we
could see them and show them that they
were valuable in a family business where
family had always come second we stood
up to the status quo and said no no more
16-hour days no more miss school plays
or basketball games this meant that I
had to adjust my own schedule and lead
by example so I started having breakfast
with my kids and seeing them off to
school it was time to take our family
values off the wall of the boardroom and
live them out where it really mattered
in the walls of our homes leading this
transition and turnaround has been one
of the hardest things I’ve ever done in
my entire life creating change and
leading growth in something you care
about is physically mentally and
emotionally exhausting but it’s also
worth it in order to change our story we
would need to face our fears underlying
and unidentified in our families culture
was a fear of change and a fear of
failure and a fear that change would
cause failure but the thing about fears
that is always facing us it takes
courage to lift our heads open our eyes
and face it right back and for me that
meant taking a group of people from a
place of never enough and leading them
to an understanding of abundance and
opportunity what I didn’t expect was the
necessity to face fear in my own life
the contention that comes with being a
catalyst for change would often
overwhelm me the feeling that I just
couldn’t do this anymore would overtake
me I would get that urge to just drive
off into the sunset and leave this all
behind
twice I gave in the first time I made it
about an hour down the highway before
getting some clarity and turning the car
around but the second time I ended up in
a hotel in downtown Vancouver and I was
sitting down in the cafe ready to write
my resignation I just couldn’t do it
anymore
but in that case calls for my wife and
from my brother brought me home still
employed this TEDx conference is all
about trailblazing as we sit here and
listen to these fabulous conversations
we’re wrestling with how to blaze a
trail ourselves we’re wrestling with our
own potential for success but we won’t
know that potential unless we first take
the risk
and learn to believe in ourselves we
can’t know the journey unless we take
the first step and I stand here today
with the realization that I was born for
this and helping more my management team
and our employees understand that same
confidence was and is crucial to our
success but it can seem offensive to
continually challenge the way things are
there were people on our team that
actually felt that we were being
rebellious and disrespectful because
every single day we would have to fight
against the way things were in do so
with grace right in front of the very
people who designed the way things were
in the traditional sense
I was not equipped to lead but I saw an
opportunity and I took a risk and my
team my family and my company took a
risk with me so here we have a 50 year
old company that’s acting more like a
startup growing 20% year over year led
by an inexperienced and uneducated CEO
and an executive team that’s been
trained on the job and on the fly what
would have happened if I had fit myself
into the status quo what would have
happened if I’d believed that I was not
qualified to lead what would have
happened if I’d waited to become better
experienced or more educated I highly
doubt the opportunity would have existed
at all because an opportunity had
presented itself with a somewhat urgent
time frame in which action needed to be
taken we could either grow or die and I
chose to take the risk and the best
thing that I can do with you is give you
a reminder of why you take the risk
remember your wife for me it was about
creating a valuable life with my family
I wanted to have breakfast with my kids
and make meaningful experiences with the
love of my life
it’s been a wild ride just last week it
was announced that our company had been
listed on the profit 500 list of fastest
growing companies in Canada so yes I’ve
had the privilege of leading hockey
stick growth but I’m not an all-star CEO
I just took a risk and I chose to lead I
chose to embrace change face my fears
and belief in myself just remember don’t
spend all your time preparing you might
already be ready when the opportunity
presents itself you just might be ready
to change your world and the rest you
could pick it up on the fly
[Applause]
you
our family’s 50 year old trucking
company and since that time my team and
I have increased our revenues by nearly
five times I’m here to tell you what it
was like to lead hockey stick growth as
a high school dropout for those of you
not familiar with business growth charts
this is a hockey stick growth chart it
features a period of decline followed by
several years of exponential growth my
grandfather started our business in 1963
and for 50 years he and my forefathers
worked 16-hour days to produce just
enough to survive as a company I had the
privilege of becoming CEO of this
company right at that big red dot at the
age of 30 but when you’re looking for a
leader for an established company such
as ours a high school dropout should not
be at the top of your list but that was
my resume in fact had I graduated I
highly doubt that the caption under my
yearbook photo would have read most
likely to succeed in business even
though I went straight to the family
company right after leaving Grade eleven
I had no intention of making a career
there I didn’t even know what we did
besides the fact that we were a trucking
company I could see the trucks in the
yard so after a while and after five
more cousins joined the family business
it became apparent to me that we could
not sustainably employ all of us in the
business there just wasn’t enough in our
small agricultural supporting business
to sustainably employ us all so even
though I had no MBA no diploma and no
high school education other than grade
11 I had the boldness to approach my
family and and say you know what I think
we need to change the way we’re doing
things to my incredible surprise my
father and two uncles who were leaving
the company at the time said yes so what
do you do when you’re given the
opportunity to enact real change and
something you care about do you take the
leap and rise to the challenge or do you
just play it safe and go with the flow
this talk is for those of you who are
ready to rise to the challenge but also
for you if you just need a little push
or inspiration one thing’s for sure when
you’re given that opportunity and you
have the audacity to say yes your first
words and I guarantee you this will be
oh at least that’s how I responded
see I’d been learning how to lead the
company but I was not prepared to take
the reins fortunately however I did have
a good idea where to start because three
years earlier as a junior manager I
called our first business meeting our
first in 47 years of business and I
identified two things the first was that
no one was really leading it was like
there was no clearly defined leadership
structure in fact my dad and two uncles
who were quote leading the company at
the time each held the title of
co-president the second thing that I
identified was the company was in three
years of decline if we didn’t return to
sustainability soon there wouldn’t be a
future for any of us so here I am a high
school dropout equipped with nothing
more than a basic accounting course I’d
taken in the 11th grade and this
intrinsic belief that we could either
grow quickly or we would die slowly so I
had very good motivation to make it work
learning on the fly I assembled a an
executive team formalized our corporate
structure and identified three strategic
areas the first was that we were going
to need to drive growth the second we
would need to learn to face our fears in
the third was that we would need to
believe in ourselves to take over the
leadership all we would have to do is
tell the people that are currently in
power that it was time for them to let
go and let us take the reins it’s not as
easy as it sounds so I assembled the
next generation of leaders in our
company and together we faced the
problem we acknowledge the contribution
that our preceding generation had made
while simultaneously making a pitch for
their trust in us with the future of the
company
it was time to make their sealing our
floor now letting go of leadership is
never easy so we created a core
phrase honoring the past and embracing
the future and we knew that we needed to
create a transition point for people to
see a new way of doing things from a new
set of leaders the final thing that we
did was offer the neck the previous
generation of veto so if they didn’t
like what they what we were doing they
could change it I’m pleased to say that
they never did need to use that video
and it’s now expired so now I have
control of the company the buck stops
here
being in charge about an entirely
different dynamic the first thing that
my team and I did was conducted an
employee engagement survey we wanted to
see how things were in the company the
results were terrible the reviews were
harsh and hurtful I remember thinking to
myself did I make the right decision or
did I make a mistake should I be running
from this thing as fast as I could but
the thing about creating culture changes
that you have to acknowledge what hasn’t
been working and as a leader you have to
own it even if you aren’t responsible
for it so we reviewed these employee
engagement surveys and we it became
apparent that the employees didn’t feel
appreciated we had to create real
mechanisms of relationship between
management and employees we had to learn
to say thank you and not just once a
year at the company banquet but
regularly I remember around the time
that we were addressing the culture of
the company I covered the role of
dispatcher for a while and after giving
the driver his order information and
driving directions over the two-way mic
I added somewhat tentatively and we just
want to let you know that we appreciate
you after a few uncomfortable seconds of
dead air the radio cracked back to life
and the driver responded ten-four on
that Thanks
as we got better expressing appreciation
the morale of the company dramatically
improved and when people like well they
where they work guess what they begin to
work smarter and with more efficiency
they bring passion and vitality that to
their roles leaders were developed and
the best part appreciation is free does
not detract from the bottom line so
remember our catalyst the catalyst for
our transition into management was that
the company was in three years of
decline our first instinct was to do
what our parents had always done in the
past when faced with the challenging
situation they would simply work harder
put in longer hours but 16-hour days are
not sustainable and I think that that’s
why as a kid I only got to see my dad on
Sundays because throughout the rest of
the week he would go to work long before
I got out of bed and returned home long
after I had been tucked in he was busy
out working and out running our problems
I think that that work ethic is also the
reason that the day after I became CEO I
adjusted my work schedule to start at
3:00 a.m. instead of my usual start time
three hours later at 6:00 because of
this inherited instinctive reaction to
the weight of my new responsibilities
but like I said working 16-hour days is
not sustainable and it would take some
pretty serious signs of burnout nearly
two and a half years later that would
cause me to realize the value of rest
and the importance of working smarter
and not harder in order to try to change
the company in order to drive the growth
that we so desperately needed we would
have to change this story this family of
workaholics would need to learn to work
smarter because if you’re already
working 16-hour days what more can you
give so I called an assembly of the new
rising leaders in our family and
together we openly address what it was
like to grow up without having our
fathers around for much of our young
lives every family member had a chance
to speak and we together addressed what
it was like but also we created
consensus around the idea of working
smarter for our children so that we
could see them and show them that they
were valuable in a family business where
family had always come second we stood
up to the status quo and said no no more
16-hour days no more miss school plays
or basketball games this meant that I
had to adjust my own schedule and lead
by example so I started having breakfast
with my kids and seeing them off to
school it was time to take our family
values off the wall of the boardroom and
live them out where it really mattered
in the walls of our homes leading this
transition and turnaround has been one
of the hardest things I’ve ever done in
my entire life creating change and
leading growth in something you care
about is physically mentally and
emotionally exhausting but it’s also
worth it in order to change our story we
would need to face our fears underlying
and unidentified in our families culture
was a fear of change and a fear of
failure and a fear that change would
cause failure but the thing about fears
that is always facing us it takes
courage to lift our heads open our eyes
and face it right back and for me that
meant taking a group of people from a
place of never enough and leading them
to an understanding of abundance and
opportunity what I didn’t expect was the
necessity to face fear in my own life
the contention that comes with being a
catalyst for change would often
overwhelm me the feeling that I just
couldn’t do this anymore would overtake
me I would get that urge to just drive
off into the sunset and leave this all
behind
twice I gave in the first time I made it
about an hour down the highway before
getting some clarity and turning the car
around but the second time I ended up in
a hotel in downtown Vancouver and I was
sitting down in the cafe ready to write
my resignation I just couldn’t do it
anymore
but in that case calls for my wife and
from my brother brought me home still
employed this TEDx conference is all
about trailblazing as we sit here and
listen to these fabulous conversations
we’re wrestling with how to blaze a
trail ourselves we’re wrestling with our
own potential for success but we won’t
know that potential unless we first take
the risk
and learn to believe in ourselves we
can’t know the journey unless we take
the first step and I stand here today
with the realization that I was born for
this and helping more my management team
and our employees understand that same
confidence was and is crucial to our
success but it can seem offensive to
continually challenge the way things are
there were people on our team that
actually felt that we were being
rebellious and disrespectful because
every single day we would have to fight
against the way things were in do so
with grace right in front of the very
people who designed the way things were
in the traditional sense
I was not equipped to lead but I saw an
opportunity and I took a risk and my
team my family and my company took a
risk with me so here we have a 50 year
old company that’s acting more like a
startup growing 20% year over year led
by an inexperienced and uneducated CEO
and an executive team that’s been
trained on the job and on the fly what
would have happened if I had fit myself
into the status quo what would have
happened if I’d believed that I was not
qualified to lead what would have
happened if I’d waited to become better
experienced or more educated I highly
doubt the opportunity would have existed
at all because an opportunity had
presented itself with a somewhat urgent
time frame in which action needed to be
taken we could either grow or die and I
chose to take the risk and the best
thing that I can do with you is give you
a reminder of why you take the risk
remember your wife for me it was about
creating a valuable life with my family
I wanted to have breakfast with my kids
and make meaningful experiences with the
love of my life
it’s been a wild ride just last week it
was announced that our company had been
listed on the profit 500 list of fastest
growing companies in Canada so yes I’ve
had the privilege of leading hockey
stick growth but I’m not an all-star CEO
I just took a risk and I chose to lead I
chose to embrace change face my fears
and belief in myself just remember don’t
spend all your time preparing you might
already be ready when the opportunity
presents itself you just might be ready
to change your world and the rest you
could pick it up on the fly
[Applause]
you
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