dern women in business is this: he never did anything by half measures. If he committed to something then he saw it through and did it to perfection. Nothing less would do.

Another message he passed along was to believe in himself and what he was doing. When others were so busy enjoying the good times that they were blind to the other side of economic booms, he kept his own counsel and created something that would withstand economic decline. He saw trends in both directions. And he understood there are opportunities in good times and bad times-- cha

If you could sit down with someone very successful and pick their brain—what would you ask?

As a child, I knew of a man who was born in the latter part of the last century who fit that criterion. He was the youngest child of a woman whose husband died when he was a baby. He and his brothers moved from England as young men and homesteaded land in Alberta. He married a woman he had known in the old country that had traveled to join him in a new country. She was a midwife whose father was a doctor back in England. Anyway, during the Depression, when everyone else was going broke around him, he became a millionaire.

The million dollars he made in the 1930s came from the sale of work horses to farmers and trades people. Huge, big Morgan horses. He had been told that he was foolish to keep raising these magnificent animals when fuel-driven machines began to appear on the farms in the 20s and money was to be made on homesteads now well established with second generation families. But he kept on doing it because he was aware that fortunes can change. So when nobody could afford the fuel and parts for their new tractors, they came to him to buy horses for their traditional equipment.

I have often said I would love to sit down and talk to him now. Ask him what his mindset was to be successful when all around him was failure and heartbreak. The lessons he learned from mistakes he had made, as well as the triumphs he had experienced along the way.

He was a quiet man, almost stern in demeanor. A true Victorian gentleman that rather intimidated the little girl who would perch on the sofa beside his rocking chair in the farmhouse he had built with his own two hands. But that all changed years later, when she was a grown woman with a life of her own, and she found the Valentines he had sent to his love back in England as he struggled to make a home for them on the wide open Prairie. He worked hard, even taking a job in a lumber camp for the winters to make ends meet (he was the cook and his bread was absolutely the best). He deeply loved that woman who was considered above his class in England and it came through in the tender words he wrote in beautiful script on the cards.

But the message here for modern women in business is this: he never did anything by half measures. If he committed to something then he saw it through and did it to perfection. Nothing less would do.

Another message he passed along was to believe in himself and what he was doing. When others were so busy enjoying the good times that they were blind to the other side of economic booms, he kept his own counsel and created something that would withstand economic decline. He saw trends in both directions. And he understood there are opportunities in good times and bad times-- chan

ryone else was going broke around him, he became a millionaire.

The million dollars he made in the 1930s came from the sale of work horses to farmers and trades people. Huge, big Morgan horses. He had been told that he was foolish to keep raising these magnificent animals when fuel-driven machines began to appear on the farms in the 20s and money was to be made on homesteads now well established with second generation families. But he kept on doing it because he was aware that fortunes can change. So when nobody could afford the fuel and parts for their new tractors, they came to him to buy horses for their traditional equipment.

I have often said I would love to sit down and talk to him now. Ask him what his mindset was to be successful when all around him was failure and heartbreak. The lessons he learned from mistakes he had made, as well as the triumphs he had experienced along the way.

He was a quiet man, almost stern in demeanor. A true Victorian gentleman that rather intimidated the little girl who would perch on the sofa beside his rocking chair in the farmhouse he had built with his own two hands. But that all changed years later, when she was a grown woman with a life of her own, and she found the Valentines he had sent to his love back in England as he struggled to make a home for them on the wide open Prairie. He worked hard, even taking a job in a lumber camp for the winters to make ends meet (he was the cook and his bread was absolutely the best). He deeply loved that woman who was considered above his class in England and it came through in the tender words he wrote in beautiful script on the cards.

But the message here for modern women in business is this: he never did anything by half measures. If he committed to something then he saw it through and did it to perfection. Nothing less would do.

Another message he passed along was to believe in himself and what he was doing. When others were so busy enjoying the good times that they were blind to the other side of economic booms, he kept his own counsel and created something that would withstand economic decline. He saw trends in both directions. And he understood there are opportunities in good times and bad times-- cha

ir new tractors, they came to him to buy horses for their traditional equipment.

I have often said I would love to sit down and talk to him now. Ask him what his mindset was to be successful when all around him was failure and heartbreak. The lessons he learned from mistakes he had made, as well as the triumphs he had experienced along the way.

He was a quiet man, almost stern in demeanor. A true Victorian gentleman that rather intimidated the little girl who would perch on the sofa beside his rocking chair in the farmhouse he had built with his own two hands. But that all changed years later, when she was a grown woman with a life of her own, and she found the Valentines he had sent to his love back in England as he struggled to make a home for them on the wide open Prairie. He worked hard, even taking a job in a lumber camp for the winters to make ends meet (he was the cook and his bread was absolutely the best). He deeply loved that woman who was considered above his class in England and it came through in the tender words he wrote in beautiful script on the cards.

But the message here for modern women in business is this: he never did anything by half measures. If he committed to something then he saw it through and did it to perfection. Nothing less would do.

Another message he passed along was to believe in himself and what he was doing. When others were so busy enjoying the good times that they were blind to the other side of economic booms, he kept his own counsel and created something that would withstand economic decline. He saw trends in both directions. And he understood there are opportunities in good times and bad times-- cha

n two hands. But that all changed years later, when she was a grown woman with a life of her own, and she found the Valentines he had sent to his love back in England as he struggled to make a home for them on the wide open Prairie. He worked hard, even taking a job in a lumber camp for the winters to make ends meet (he was the cook and his bread was absolutely the best). He deeply loved that woman who was considered above his class in England and it came through in the tender words he wrote in beautiful script on the cards.

But the message here for modern women in business is this: he never did anything by half measures. If he committed to something then he saw it through and did it to perfection. Nothing less would do.

Another message he passed along was to believe in himself and what he was doing. When others were so busy enjoying the good times that they were blind to the other side of economic booms, he kept his own counsel and created something that would withstand economic decline. He saw trends in both directions. And he understood there are opportunities in good times and bad times-- cha

dern women in business is this: he never did anything by half measures. If he committed to something then he saw it through and did it to perfection. Nothing less would do.

Another message he passed along was to believe in himself and what he was doing. When others were so busy enjoying the good times that they were blind to the other side of economic booms, he kept his own counsel and created something that would withstand economic decline. He saw trends in both directions. And he understood there are opportunities in good times and bad times-- change is opportunity.

Is he a mentor? Absolutely. His knowledge and business sense have survived him. Just one question-- if you could sit down to tea, what would you ask?