chances and choices

Something happened for my birthday this year that I never saw coming: The Canadian Tenors sang "Happy Birthday" to me. It was definitely a "top five" moment and the combination of their four voices focused on the celebration of my entry into this world was the sweetest sound I'd ever heard. It was like a dream. Surreal to say the least and something I'll continue to process for some time to come.

When I was driving back from their concert with my wife Tania and business partner Aly, it occurred to me that that night and everyone in it was the result of a single choice I made more than 22 years ago.

I was in the second year of design school taking a course on entrepreneurship in the MBA school. Hal Thompson came to the class at the request of our professor to give us some real world perspective. Hal was a gold medalist from both the engineering school and the business school he attended and as a young man had been exposed to a roller coaster of business experience. At the end of his lecture, he handed his business cards out to the 24 students in the class (23 MBA candidates and me) with the offer to spend an hour with whomever called him. I thought that if someone of his calibre was giving away free hours, it was a no-brainer. It turns out I was the only one who called.

When I started my first business–an industrial design consultancy–Hal was my mentor. Several years into that enterprise, I complained to Hal that I was lacking a sense of purpose and he introduced me to a company called Context Associated, which offered a series of personal growth courses.

In the second course in their series, I met and promptly fell in love with Tania. We've been married over 15 years.

After I completed all the courses I fell in in love with the personal growth business and bought the rights to market the courses in Calgary. That venture ultimately did not succeed but I met Aly in one of the courses and ended up hiring Phil from Context to be my coach.

I moved out of the seminar business and into the coaching business and Phil introduced me to one of his clients called Tom.

I did a good job coaching Tom and Tom introduced me to John. Their families vacationed in the same area every summer.

I did a good job coaching John and John introduced me to Dave. They were professional colleagues.

I did a good job for Dave and Dave introduced me to Richard. They were also professional colleagues.

I did a good job for Richard and Richard introduced me to Brett. They had done some deals together.

I did a good job for Brett and Brett introduced me to Jeffrey. Jeffrey manages the Canadian Tenors. The Tenors are becoming very successful and Jeffrey wanted Aly and I to coach them. Like any other kind of elite performers, the Tenors are facing the challenges typical of success and Aly and I started coaching them on the day I turned 46. Which is why they sung to me. That result was the last in a series of alternating chances and choices: things I had no control over mixed with things I had absolute control over.

Here is a video of our work with the Canadian Tenors:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkqiXSCHo34

I can only imagine where this thread of introductions and connections will go next.

So the moral of the story is this: if someone offers you an hour of their time take it. You could end up with a dream wife, a dream partner, dream clients and four guys singing to you like you were in a dream.