Page 92 - Sorry, We're Not Hiring Any Visionaries Today
P. 92

SORRY, WE’RE NOT HIRING ANY VISIONARIES TODAY
The candles only cost me about $2 to make. I paid each person $2 to sell them, and I sold them for $20 to $30. And, of course, will you say “No” when you see a cute 12- or 13-year-old going door to door in a small town?
Growing up, my best friends were Steve, Steve, and Steve. These guys were brilliant. I had to work hard even to come close to matching them academically. So, I was more of a B to an A. They were straight A’s. They went to UBC to become computer engineers. Who fixes their computer now? Me.
In high school, there were some rather unusual moments. For example, I took a law course and was the only person who ever got a 100% average. The teacher said, “We can’t give out 100%; there’s no such thing.” So, I wrote an entire rebuttal of why I deserved 100%. And he went, “You know, that is such a good rebuttal that I’m going to give it to you.”
Because I was so far ahead academically, I had a class just by myself where I could study. So because of that, I made a deal with the teacher that I could go out and freestyle skateboard during his period.
There was a skateboard contest in Cranbrook in 1977. I’d only skated for less than four months. All my friends and I won first place in each of our cat- egories. It was a tie, so the person who could spin the most 360s was the guy who would fly to Vancouver for the Nationals.
Now, I was the spinner, and Rob Leschgold was one of the judges. Thirty-plus years after that contest, Rob became the landlord for the shop I’m in right now. When I won that 360 spin-off, I got free tickets to Vancouver to represent Cran- brook in that contest.
I was excited to get to Vancouver, and while we were sitting on the plane, there was a sudden crash. Blood appeared all over the windows. It turned out the plane hit a flock of Canada geese. We heard a little siren, and the flight attend- ant said, “Everybody put your head between your knees, we have to do an emergency landing.” The geese took out the engine.
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