W. Brett Wilson’s Secret to Success

Posted on April 28, 2014 by institute B

Deal-maker. Investment banker. Developer. TV celebrity. Best-selling author. Philanthropist. Outspoken Canadian business mogul Brett Wilson is certainly a man on the move. However, institute B managed to corral the maverick when he was in town for our sold out premiere screening of Not Business as Usual at the Vancity Theatre.

This is Part 1 of a three part series from our conversation that night and includes his personal observations on life, business and success. Including the power of a two-letter word, the sense of entitlement in those with less, and his personal challenge to charities and non-profits to do better.

When looking at the picture painted by mass media, we often assume that illustrious people neither face real nor personal challenges. But in speaking candidly with Brett, we understand firsthand that this simply isn’t true. As much as Brett Wilson enjoyed his time on Dragons’ Den, he’s clearly more about building life-long relationships now than just making money. He spoke to us about his new priorities, and how contemplating what was truly important to him changed his life. But he also emphasized that he didn’t always see it that way.

A Different Definition of Success

By all accounts, Brett Wilson was the epitome of success. But after ten years of running hard, he experienced something many entrepreneurs eventually face: the disconnect between work life and family life. It came to a head one evening during an argument with his then nine-year old son who had declared to a friend that his father was “never home”. Brett exploded, “I couldn’t believe he said that. I just looked at him and yelled ‘Who are you to tell someone I’m not home?!’ And [my son] looked up at me with these big brown eyes and said quietly ‘But you never are!’ And it was then, when that little…nine year old got to me.” Brett’s emotional side flickers for a moment, and admittedly, ours did too. Many of us may have experienced a moment of regret as a result of taking our loved ones for granted. But most of us don’t do what Brett did next: he checked himself into a weeklong addiction treatment program to address his workaholism. “It was there that I really developed the essence of this idea that a different definition of success would give me a different set of priorities. Going into the program, my priorities would have been:
1. Deals
2. Wealth
3. Art
4. Cars
5. Travel
he pauses and chuckles, “It wouldn’t have been until number twenty before I put family, because - they know I love them, why would I have to put them on my priority list? My health? I’ll be fine. So, those things weren’t priorities. But when they became priorities, it was life changing for me.”

Just Say No

Familiar to many entrepreneurs is the adage I’ll sleep when I’m dead followed closely by nothing worth doing is ever easy. And certainly there’s nothing inherently wrong with these truisms. But what is perhaps more important than ‘working hard’ is to be working hard in alignment with what truly matters to us. Brett now spends much of his time urging young people to redefine what success means to them. “I still see it today, kids come out of school and they go into something like investment banking or technology; they’re chasing the big dollar because there’s still this misperception that the superficial trappings of wealth somehow equal happiness. And I was in that trap.”

But old habits die hard. Despite that remarkable moment with his son, and his stint in rehab, he was soon back burning the candle at both ends. Ironically, the big ‘C’ ultimately became the irrevocable catalyst for Brett’s shift in priorities. His diagnosis with prostate cancer at age 43 gave him a reason to regularly use a very powerful word. “Cancer. Sometimes I say it saved my life, because it allowed me to say ‘no’ in the strongest terms to anyone that wanted my time. It’s just ‘no’. And for once, people respected it.” he says.

Life’s Ultimate Currency

Dragon’s Den and its accompanying stardom have helped Brett build a very prominent personal brand. The list of his recent projects and successful ventures go on and on, but relationships with people are clearly now of foremost importance in his life. This was punctuated as he closed our conversation a little early so he’d have time to phone his daughter before the screening of the film. “I often say, there’s nothing wrong with a capitalist society, and the pursuit of wealth. But if it’s done at the exclusion of your health, and to the detriment of your family, done to the exclusion or narrowing of friends, then certainly, if you fall behind in all of those things, what do you have? What do you really have?”

“Well you have a funeral with lots of toys,” he laughs.

By way of that perspective, not only will Brett have all the toys, but he’ll also have a packed house.

Written by Oona Eager with inspiration from Rik Klingle-Watt.