July/August 2012

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W. BrettWilson

From television shows and investment to philanthropyand social media. One of Canada’s top business mindsgives us an inside view on what makes him tick.

Angel InvestmentEnterprise NOWEdwards School of Business Israel Trip

Our world is experiencing change at exponential rates. Someof us see the opportunities that may arrive in change, while others possibly fear the consequence or negative impacts. TheSaskatchewan economy is strong, and forecasted to be strongfor the next twenty-five years or more by many analysts. At thesame time we see whole countries on the brink of bankruptcy.Companies within the potash, oil and gas, construction, technology, biotechnology, and many more sectors seem to beexperiencing a relative blessing, while former icons (rememberKodak) are fading from the picture.In one sense, when we speak of “change” we speak of “uncer-

tainty.” Given that the climate for business changes from season to season, does this necessitate a new breed of entrepre-neur? What are the essential characteristics of successful entre-preneurs? What makes them impactful? What makes themsustainable? Do today’s entrepreneurs have stronger skillsand/or character than those of yesterday, or do they lack in anyway? Ultimately, what must entrepreneurs aspire to become inorder to survive a changing world?World-renowned business guru Peter Ducker defines an

entrepreneur as “someone who actually searches for change,responds to it, and exploits changes as an opportunity.”We thought we would go to our own Saskatchewan-born,

W. Brett Wilson, businessman, philanthropist and sponsor of theWilson Centre for Entrepreneurial Excellence at the Universityof Saskatchewan, to see if we could gain some insight.

Photo: Roth and Ramberg July/August 2012 Saskatchewan Business Magazine 9

From Dragons’ Den, Risky Business and the Centre for Entrepreneurial Exellence to his vast portfolio and diversifying himself from real estate and energy, W. Brett Wilson is the poster boy for business success. The lessons that he has learned (and is learning) are applicable to everyone in business.

by David E. White

W. BR ETTW I L SON

10 Saskatchewan Business Magazine July/August 2012

“It’s a classic debate,” reflects Wilson, “Are entrepre-neurs born or are they made; is it nature or nurture?The innate skill to run through business, negotiate, hag-gle, work hard, passion…there is a whole bunch ofthings that constitute the entrepreneurial experience. Istudied entrepreneurship as part of my business degree,without fully appreciating the level to which I had someof those entrepreneurial seeds embedded in me. Whathappened was an awareness that came as a result ofthese classes.”Wilson did not start out to be an entrepreneur, or to

even be directly involved in business, but rather engi-neering. After just a few short years in the engineeringfield, he returned to university and enrolled in an MBAprogram.“These classes started to shape my thinking on entre-

preneurship, in the fact that entrepreneurs can be bornand they can be made. Entrepreneurs are not necessar-ily risk-takers for the sake of taking risk, like whensomeone goes to Vegas and they get a thrill out of stand-ing at the table, rolling the dice and seeing if they get areturn, while they get an adrenaline rush. That’s not, tome, what a great entrepreneur is about. They might takerisks that other people think are unconscionable orunreasonable…but they are not risk-takers for the sakeof taking risk, they simply view risk differently. Theirbelief in themselves, their belief in their analysis, theirbelief in the future, their belief in their gut…gives themthe confidence to go ahead in the face of other peoplesaying ‘that doesn’t make any sense.’”I joked with Wilson that “being an entrepreneur, at

times, felt like being unemployed.” No one would arguefor unemployment for a wide variety of reasons, not theleast of which is financial pressure, yet entrepreneursfind themselves often in a place of financial pressure,sometimes even working side jobs to support their ven-ture. What’s the difference, I wondered. When should aperson just surrender, when should they keep going?“It’s an interesting discussion about tenacity versus

intelligence,” illustrates Wilson, “because sometimesyou will see the entrepreneur as delusional, given thetenacity with which they pursue an idea. There’s a greatline that salesmen use: ‘the next phone call is the sale.’Sure, the last ten (calls) were dead, but the next one isyour sale. So, you must have the willingness to make thenext phone call, and continuously make ‘the next phonecall.’ Other people may view what you are doing as delu-sional, and think you are not that smart…but you knowyou just have to get a sale. On the flip side, there has tobe a dose of reality. I saw this on Dragons’ Den some-times, where I would ask the question of every entre-preneur that I was really interested in, ‘how much timeand how much money have you invested in this idea?’I just need to know the data points to understand, andto measure intelligence versus delusion on the tenacityscale. There is no right answer or wrong answer…it justhelps me understand relative to how far the product hasbeen advanced.”

When Wilson formed the Centre for EntrepreneurialExcellence at the University of Saskatchewan, he wasasked to look back at his entrepreneurial experiencesfrom birth. “I first thought there weren’t any, but then Irecalled how I started with lawn mowing, and gatheringused hangers to take back to the dry cleaners as a kid.Then while I was in University, I set up a bus to movekids from campus to the Centennial Auditorium…making hundreds of dollars a night, against a marketwhere minimum wage was $1.75 an hour. I didn’t thinkof those as entrepreneurial, I just thought of those expe-riences as solving a problem.”Not thinking of oneself as an entrepreneur is likely

something that Patricia Hack, one of the ten ladies lead-ing Breast Friends (one of Wilson’s Dragons’ Den invest-ments) could relate to. “We never had the idea of beinga corporation,” explains Hack. “We had some closefriends pass away of breast cancer, and we just wantedto make a cookbook in their honour and donate somemoney to breast cancer research. We don’t know wherethis is all going exactly, but we are having fun andachieving good impacts, so we are okay to just followthe momentum, going where it takes us!”Breast Friends has released six national bestsellers

and donated over $1.2 million to cancer research in justeight years. A common theme seemed to be emerging, in that

entrepreneurs must be willing to follow the trail ofopportunity to see where it will lead, or as Wilson putsit, “It’s like seeds that are planted, while the identity,growth rate and characteristics of the crop are yetunknown. The farming analogy is perfect, because ittakes time, and sometimes we measure too quickly theoutcomes. You teach through an entrepreneurship class,

The ten founders of Breast Friends. For more information see their website atwww.breastfriends.ca

t

July/August 2012 Saskatchewan Business Magazine 11

and some want to know ‘how many start-up busi-nesses?’ Over the next thirty years take a look at howmany started businesses…and how many businesses(those businesses started).”“I took on Dragons’ Den because I was excited by the

opportunity to do television,” continues Wilson, “and thepossibility of doing deals in other areas (than real estateand energy)…but it wasn’t until the second season thatI started to appreciate that the following of Dragons’ Denranged from kids from three, four and five years old…toeighty-year-olds. I began to realize that Dragons’ Denwas not a reality show about business, but it was a showabout the possibility of business. The show was plantingseeds. I started to realize that the power of entrepre-neurship to change the world starts with planting seeds,and in my view planting seeds of entrepreneurship andphilanthropy is critical to the next generation. We don’tknow how those seeds are going to grow, or when theywill grow…but we do know that they need to be planted,then watered, and then considered.”The majority of people pausing to consider entre-

preneurship would confirm an understanding of eco-nomic growth, but would they go as far as to suggestthat entrepreneurship could influence deep issues suchas Canadian culture or third world poverty?“Entrepreneurship is a solution, a key solution, to

Canada’s economic challenges, and third world chal-lenges, and First Nations challenges, because entrepre-neurs are about empowerment over entitlement. Thereis a sense of dignity and self-worth when you are run-ning your own show. Whether you are a one man bandversus a company with two, three or four hundredemployees, there is a sense of dignity that goes withentrepreneurship, and that’s why I get excited about it.”On April 12th, CBC hosted Boom Box, an all-

Aboriginal business challenge, where proponents wouldforward a two- to four-minute video clip describing anew business idea, product or service for Saskatchewan.Wilson served as one of the judges, and offered $5,000in prize money to be split among three winners. Abroad cross-section of First Nations youth providedentries, and the list was reduced to the top five. As usual,Wilson was looking for an investment idea based on hisfocus on the person…someone that could navigate the“zigzag” of business life.“My reaction [to Boom Box] was excitement,

because the aboriginal people’s reaction to it was excite-ment. I think that we just grabbed the tip of the icebergin terms of exposing what the real appetite and interestis within the aboriginal community. There are a lot ofaboriginal youth who understand that addiction todrugs, alcohol, recreation, and so on…and to entitle-ment; the cash flow stream that comes from govern-ment…is not in their own long-term self-interest. Thereal empowerment comes if they can, on reserve or off,start to do their own thing; to be responsible and incharge of their own future. The enthusiasm of these kidswas extraordinary.”

Hearing this experience brings me back to the ques-tion of differences. Is there a difference, advantage ordisadvantage, inherent within our new entrepreneurs,and also specifically First Nations?“First Nations kids may not be better suited to be

entrepreneurs than any other group of people,” contin-ues Wilson, “But they are no less; they are just likeeveryone else. They need to understand that they areequal, and that means that the world is their oyster.Those who think with an entrepreneurial mind do notsit back and watch…they want to drive the bus. These[Boom Box] kids were part of that genre.”Given the response of First Nations youth to Boom

Box, Wilson’s passion for the growth of entrepreneurismis not without merit. However, what is the real opportu-nity to impact the third world through entrepreneurism?“In the third world, even in the NGOs that are giving

them money,” explains Wilson, “the concept of profit isoften viewed negatively – as a capitalist thing. We’re sup-posed to give our money away. But there is nothing wrongwith also getting a return on the money you give out, toallow you to cover your overhead, invest capital and thengive back more…it’s sustainability; the full cycle.“It’s a matter of discerning between being a philan-

thropic entrepreneur, versus an entrepreneurial philan-thropist. Within both of these, giving back to the worldis important, but the philanthropic entrepreneur issomeone that gets value in a couple of ways. One, whenI invest I enjoy helping people at early stage investment.I need to make money, to be sure, but I also get a returnout of helping someone maybe live out his or herdreams. When I did a portfolio of thirty deals onDragons’ Den, I knew up front that ten would die, prob-ably within a year…but that is the essence of a portfolio.“Secondly,” continues Wilson, “entrepreneurial phi-

lanthropy is also about being more entrepreneurial inyour giving, and more entrepreneurial in your asking.Entrepreneurial giving is being more creative in howyou build your brand for the dollars you give out andmore creative in how you expect a return from the char-ity. I don’t expect a cash return from a charity, but whatis the change to society that is occurring as a result ofthe dollars invested?”Wilson explains that some people measure charitable

impact by comparing the cost of overhead in relation todollars raised, but he’s more interested in outcomes thanthroughput. “What changes are being made?” asksWilson. “If there is a high cost to get it done, relative tooverhead, I can live with that, but what is the outcomein the end? I made my living as a broker, where Icharged a fee, and sometimes I have made a hell of a lotof money with one phone call, but I smile and point outthat the other five thousand calls I made were free.Those are the five thousand that built my network andmy relationships that allowed me to make that onephone call that triggered the deal that made the dollars.You have to look at the bigger picture. That is whatentrepreneurial philanthropy is about.”

12 Saskatchewan Business Magazine July/August 2012 Photo: Roth and Ramberg

Wilson has softly pitched the idea of a Dragons’ Den style showfor charities…five judges willing to give away a million dollarsover the course of the season. The obligation would be to give itaway. “That excites me,” exclaims Wilson, “because it is thenabout planting the seeds of entrepreneurship, in the way of think-ing, within the charities. The charities then have to be more cre-ative within their ask, their accountability, their deliverymechanisms…their whole process.” Thomas Andres of Capacity Development Group (CDG) is

one of these entrepreneurial philanthropists. CDG is looking topartner with Green Energy Company in Chennai, India. Theirgoal is to establish a manufacturing facility to producepolyurethane panels for the growing construction market inIndia. Their vision, however, is to reinvest the profits from thesales of production panels into the children of India, through thebacking of children’s summer camps within that country. Theyhope to be at a level of $500,000 annually by year two.Okay, so there is loads of potential in thinking differently

about the intersection of philanthropy and entrepreneurism, andhow it may positively impact the lives of others, in our nation,and around the world. Now, how do we get more of it done?Wilson is quick to respond, “The most important thing at the

start is getting these seeds planted across as big a crop as possi-ble. Again, you don’t know when they are going to germinate, andyou don’t really know what is going to happen. Ray Crock startedMcDonald’s at fifty-six years old, Colonel Harlan Sanders was inhis sixties when this idea of deep-frying chicken came to him.These guys were serial entrepreneurs. They tried twenty differentthings before one hit. It wasn’t like they had one idea.”“We have to encourage people to think that entrepreneurship

is a good thing,” continues Wilson. “As Canadians, we sometimesput our winners on pedestals, but they are wooden pedestals andwe hope that the beavers will chew them down, because we don’tcelebrate them the way we could. We say that they ‘got lucky.’ Weneed to be more celebratory.”This was the first time in the interview that I felt a bit of hope-

lessness. The human condition surfaces once again. We ashumans are generally so insecure that it kills us to see someoneelse succeed or fly past us in some way. Yet Wilson remains unde-terred, and launches into an example: “The guy that founded PitaPit was flipping burgers for $400 a week, and a year later he is liv-ing in the back seat of his car. Why the back seat? Because hispartner was living in the front seat! Why are they living in thecar? They are servicing the four Pita Pits that they started fromKingston in Toronto, and the only way of living, because they hadnothing to pay their overhead, was to live in their car. They soldthat chain for forty or fifty million dollars. We need to explorethose stories, understand them and celebrate them. He was flip-ping burgers for four hundred bucks…and he took it on. It tellsus that the entrepreneurial experience is not outside the realm ofanybody.”Wilson has often been cited as saying that passion and work

ethic are the key drivers within entrepreneurship, yet at the sametime he has also spoken of the need for balance, while sharinglessons learned through some of his personal failings. If farmingis the metaphor, then what is the possibility of balance during therelatively intense early stages of entrepreneurship…similar to theintensity of the seasons of seeding and harvest?

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14 Saskatchewan Business Magazine July/August 2012

“The most important thing (in maintaining balance)is to test your own measure, your own definition, ofsuccess,” explains Wilson. “If success means that youhave the big house and the car, a couple of good vaca-tions and money in the bank, and you’re running acompany, that’s the vision, and that might be where youget to. The cost might be that the house is emptybecause your now ex-wife and children are only aroundonce in a while, because you burned too many days atthe office, and let too many days at home slip away.“If you set your definition of success measured by

family vacations, weekly dinners, family time,” he continues, “and the relationships you enjoy with familyand friends…and your own health, that definition ofsuccess might create a different picture at the end of tenyears. The house might not be as big and the car mightnot be as luxurious, but you might be a whole lot happier. It’s a personal choice, but I actively encouragepeople to think hard about their definition of success.When I ask people about their definition of success, it’s often based on material measures or on relativemeasures; status, that sort of thing, as opposed to theButan measure of gross national happiness. The samepeople will argue that happiness is a given, but I believethat if it is not on the list, it does not always happen. Mysingle-minded pursuit of wealth and power got mewhat I wanted, but I then spent the next fifteen yearstrying to backfill in terms of building relationships withmy own family. I just let those relationships slip.”When I asked Corla Rokochy (Wilson’s Snappy Socks

investment on Dragons’ Den) about her definition ofsuccess, she replied with, “That’s a good question! Thisventure is the one where I have not seen an immediatereturn on investment. It has been three years so far, andin fact I have come full circle, wherein I left teaching tobe an entrepreneur (while raising a family), but now I have had to return to substitute teaching to supportmy entrepreneurship. I am still hopeful that it will beprofitable in the end, but it has been well worth thetime, effort and money that I have invested into it. I have connected with so many great people, and wehave shared many great experiences, such as buildinghomes for the homeless, and combatting bullying andeating disorders.”Each of the leaders of Wilson’s Dragons’ Den invest-

ments interviewed for this article had many points incommon, but the one possibly most noteworthy washappiness. Within each conversation, McCrae (3twentySolutions), Rokochy (Snappy Socks) and Hack (BreastFriends), spoke of “fun” within a context of optimism,growth and making a difference.“We ask each other on a regular basis if we are still

having fun,” states McCrae. “We hope for long termgain, but on the way it is the experience and adventure.Success to us is really about creating, especially creatingvalue where it did not exist. We enjoy the power to cre-ate every day, and to impact the lives of others. Ourbank account does not allow us to give away a lot of

July/August 2012 Saskatchewan Business Magazine 15

money yet, but we try to give back by giving lots of time,telling our story, hoping it will inspire others.”As I prepared for this interview, I came across a few

places where Brett had expounded on the benefits oftravel, further suggesting that this was an often-over-looked opportunity for young people between jobs.“World travel has done a couple of things for my

family,” explains Wilson. “We have strengthened bondsthrough shared memories, but it has also proved thebenefit of opening our eyes to world.”Wilson went on to tell of how travel has instilled a

sense of self-confidence within his children, while open-ing their eyes to the needs of others: “I have been to fifty-seven countries in the last fifteen years. One of mydaughters, she is twenty-four, has been to fifty-two coun-tries, my son has been to forty-two, and my other daugh-ter has been to around thirty. The world has opened theeyes of my children. We have travelled well, and we havetravelled poorly. I was in South Africa two weeks agowith my son and his best friend, and my eighty-year-oldfather. We spent a couple of days travelling with one ofthe charities in an area called Vrygrond (African for “freeground”), some of the highest density poverty that youwill ever encounter. This was eye-opening for my son.He and his friend were already talking about going backto South Africa to volunteer in Vrygrond. It wasn’t to goback to safari. Those two days meant more than the twoweeks, relative to exposing them to what the world has.”“I see that world travel helps us to understand how

small the world really is,” continues Wilson, “and howsimilar the challenges are, leading us to be more empa-thetic to other cultures. Bigotry exists in every culture.The reality is that no matter what colour you are, thereis bigotry towards other colours…it’s just the nature ofthe way that the world has unfolded. Seeing it helpssoften it, and then there’s just a higher degree of empa-thy for the challenges of the world.”Wilson spent nine weeks last year traveling with his

three adult children. He has had to work to build flexi-bility into his business commitments. “There are timeswhen assets encumber,” he explains. “They control me,and it’s not always as easy as I would like. It is becomingobvious to me that my fun factor goes up as the amountof stuff I own goes down.”After all of this, I still had one question remaining,

one suggested by a young entrepreneurial friend. Withall of Wilson’s apparent success, did he ever doubt him-self? Was he ever at a place where he did not have theanswer and did not know which way to turn?As usual, Wilson was open and honest. He began to

retell the story of how he had come to a crossroads inhis business life, wherein he was well employed, butunder the leadership of an individual who was unethi-cal and who challenged Wilson’s principles of honestyand integrity. Ultimately, this situation was the catalystfor Wilson launching out on his own.“My back was against the wall,” recalls Wilson, “I

didn’t know what to do, and I was miserable. I looked at

it, and given my options, I was in a corner. I thought tomyself that this is the only door (out), and this door islooking like it is only going to be open for a short time,I am going through it…and I am glad I did!”In hindsight, we would all agree that Wilson made a

great decision. However, while hindsight is twenty-twenty vision, in the actual moment Wilson had severalpeople around him thinking he was nuts! This is oftenthe way it is with the entrepreneurial experience.“There is a range of entrepreneurial experience,”

states Wilson. “I am involved today with several hun-dred entrepreneurial experiences. Every time we buyanother building, it is another entrepreneurial experi-ence. Every time I invest in another stock, I am backingan early stage versus late stage, or I am backing a man-agement team or another private company that westarted to get involved with. The engagement is differ-ent, and the amount of time and effort I have to put intoeach is different. The entrepreneurial experience of whois getting what out of it, how they are treating it andtheir own confidence, varies widely. There is the paral-lel entrepreneurial experience, where people try multi-ple things at once and see what sticks; there is thefocused entrepreneur, those who pour their heart andsoul into one [venture], and that’s all they do; and thenthere is the serial entrepreneur, where they will try, sell,or fail…or succeed…but they will continuously movefrom one thing to another.”It is not so much that people think that Corla

Rokochy is crazy, though she has heard it stated at times,it is more that they can’t understand how she “does it”;how she can be so entrepreneurial while raising fivekids! When I spoke with her I was not sure whether totag her a serial entrepreneur, or a parallel one. The ideafor Snappy Socks was generated from within a baby bou-tique business that Rokochy was running at the time. Inaddition, she has a photography business, runs a wed-ding show, and does substitute teaching. “I have no regrets,” explains Rokochy, “At points

along the way I have just realized that my time could bebetter focused elsewhere, but each undertaking was thepathway to the next.” I did not have to speak with Rokochy for very long

before coming to the conclusion that she is a forwardthinker. In fact, looking back at each of the conversa-tions held in the process of writing this article, I couldconfirm that all are forward-thinking individuals. Theysimply spend more time pursuing the opportunitybefore them, even creating the opportunity at times,than they do in regretting past failure, or in being par-alyzed by a fear of the unknown. Each entrepreneurheld a healthy dose of self-confidence.“There are so many variations on entrepreneurial

experience,” confirms Wilson, “but the most impor-tant thing goes back to getting those seeds plantedwhere people believe in themselves…and that is reallythe essence of the entrepreneur: the belief that they cando it.” n

3twenty Solutionsdesigns and manufac-tures housing and office units. For more informationsee their websitewww.3twenty.ca

Corla Rokochy andKaren McElwain of Snappy Socks. For more informationvisit their website atwww.snappysocks.ca

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