Biz Card Deciphered

“The way to do is to be.” Lao Tzu

Here’s an explanation of the terms and images on my Business Card.

Flaneur

Definition: “One who meditates and observes life in the parks, cafes and bars across the world.”

I feel this noble goal of mine to become a “flaneur” is justified as I near the end of my journey on the planet.

Being a “flaneur” (I learned of this term, and this unique definition, from Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of “The Black Swan”) may seem frivolous to some but for me it is an excellent way to contemplate the meaning of life. For some reason this goal reminds me of what Michel de Montaigne said of Socrates:

“There is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old man, to learn music and dancing, and thought it time well spent.”

You can spot experienced Flaneurs when you see someone in a bar or coffee shop who is simply watching people, or seemingly daydreaming - you won’t catch them taking refuge in smart phones or computers, pretending to be busy or important, like so many insecure singles do in those situations…authentic flaneurs are simply content to be with themselves.

As for me, in the spirit of Socrates' example, I’m hoping to improve my guitar skills and, perhaps, take up surfing.

D.R.O.M.P.A.I.W.R.O.Y.

I invented this acronym a few years ago. Translated it means, “Don’t rain on my parade and I won’t rain on yours.” When I retired I decided to associate with and surround myself with upbeat people. In short, optimists.

The acronym was partly inspired by some lyrics from the great Bob Marley who sang: “Please don’t you rock my boat, no ‘cause I don’t want my boat to be rocking.” In other words, bring me your positivity and help me relish the simple things in this life. The acronym is sort of the Golden Rule backwards - “Do unto others as you’d have them do onto you.” My philosophy is basically the same… only I’m focusing on being with happy and content folks first. And, part of my bargain is that I’ll be like that (i.e. positive and upbeat) with them. One advantage I have is that I’m married to a woman who is always upbeat, often laughing,…and she’s also a great travelling companion…in large part, she allows my invented acronym to become a reality. As an extra bonus, even though her family are on the other side of the planet (Australia) we are, in some ways, closer to them than my Canadian extended family. We try to visit them as often as possible.

One thing I’ve noticed is that it’s amazing to see what a group of optimists can do together. I’ve seen the best results in my restaurants from Management Teams that inspire good attitudes, with a sense of fun, among their staff. A motivated team helps to make a restaurant successful, profitable and turns the following quotation into a reality:

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

This optimism and our adherence to a Blue Ocean strategy (check out “Blue Ocean” online) has driven most of our restaurants to the top ten of Trip Advisor standings in our region.

Metamorphosis

I used this idea as a metaphor for my multiple careers.

Career #1 - Golf

As a youngster I became quite proficient in the game of golf. When I was ten years old we lived on a golf course in Rosemere, Quebec. My summers were spent practising and playing every day with friends. I was lucky. By the time I was in my teens I started to win some local tournaments. At the age of nineteen I turned pro and dedicated myself to perfecting my game. Over the next fifteen years I played in many professional tournaments. I also played on the Australian PGA tour (1975) and the Canadian PGA tour (1976-1979). At the peak of my game I managed to win three regional tournaments and held four course records (only one still stands - a 63 at Cedarhurst Golf Club in Beaverton, Ont.). My best tournament on the Canadian tour was during a month where I never shot over par! In that month at one particular tournament I had a score of four under in a three-day tournament. I came fifth to winner George Knudson who shot twelve under. My score was about as good as I could possibly play, yet I was eight shots behind the Canadian great Knudson! After a while I gave up my professional tour player aspirations and took a job as General Manager and Club Professional at Cedarhurst. Within two years I had it with my new job and accepted a teaching position at the School of Hotel and Food Administration, University of Guelph, in their Bachelor of Commerce program. (I had managed the University’s Faculty Club part time and, of course, I had my experience as a General Manager at Cedarhurst). As for golf, I continued for a few years playing as an amateur. However, in 2018 I had lost that loving feeling and found myself completely disinterested in playing and decided to quit the game that year. Nevertheless, I was still determined to play some competitive golf in that same summer, as one last hurrah. Part of the reason I wanted to play was because of my experiences the prior year…in the summer of 2017 I had one of my best years playing senior tournaments - winning two Invitationals and coming second and third, respectively, in two others so I was really excited to play in 2018 and continue my winning ways. What I didn’t count on was a feeling of fatigue that plagued me throughout the year - it turns out that the tiredness was a result of medications I had been taking because of a heart attack I had in the fall of 2017. I was also suffering from some lingering effects from my 2015 Prostrate cancer surgery which prevented me from walking the golf courses, forcing me to ride in carts (which I don’t enjoy because I can’t develop a rhythm in my game). Anyway, turns out, I had a disastrous competitive season in 2018. But my ego stepped in and said “play one more year!”…which I did. My hope was to go out of the game with a “bang”, and finish at the top of my game. Well, it didn’t happen as I was still plagued by fatigue and played poorly…as a result I finished my competitive carrier with a “whimper,” which is probably fitting, as it convinced me to call it quits for good. So, finally, I decided to “hang up my sticks” and quit playing completely in 2019. It will be a big change for me as in my twenties golf virtually defined me. Nevertheless, I’m happy to leave some parts of the golf world behind. For example, golf courses are major polluters with their use of fertilizers, fungicides and herbicides. A second reason is the elitist nature of the game…it’s largely a rich persons pursuit. The golf communities in places like Florida, Arizona and California are often in exclusive gated communities…just not my bag…they often appear contrived, and superficial (a little like Disneyland’s faux reality).

My only involvement in golf in the future will be teaching kids and showing them how to play…one thing the game can do for youngsters is build character - golf teaches kids to persevere and be tenacious, honesty is emphasized, and golf gives them valuable lessons in good etiquette.

Career #2 - Professor

For eleven years (1981-1991) I became Professor Desautels (hired because of my experience managing clubs) teaching eight different courses to undergraduate students in The School of Hospitality and Tourism, at the University of Guelph. Being my usual bored self, I studied for a Masters degree in Philosophy (graduating in 1984) at the same time. After ten years teaching I was ready to move on to the “real” world. I found the University to be more interested in fundraising, administrative duties and publishing than teaching students - in my eyes, some of the best Professors were ‘weeded’ out because they were not suited to a bureaucratic system and tended to focus on teaching, which they were often really good at, versus publishing papers (that no one would ever read). Despite twice being offered tenure, I resigned in 1991 and started my restaurant group, The Neighbourhood Group of Companies Ltd.

Career #3 - Restaurateur

In 1990 I inherited a bankrupt restaurant which I had sold in 1987 (it’s a complicated story). Due to my research while teaching at the University I learned about the resurgence of the brewing industry. So, I decided to convert the restaurant to a pub that only served local micro-brewed craft beers on tap along with Niagara wines and Ontario sourced foods. The pub became a huge hit with sales climbing from $450,000 to over $1.2 million in only eight years. After over expanding in the 1990’s (I had pubs in Peterborough, Ottawa, Kingston and Toronto) I decided to sell off all the pubs outside of Guelph and regroup. The Neighbourhood Group of Companies Ltd. now has five restaurants in Guelph and Kitchener grossing over $10 million in sales in 2019. It certainly was an interesting journey! My buy-local, sustainable philosophy was well ahead of the curve re consumer trends and was integral to our success. Along the way I was twice named Ontario’s ‘Restaurateur of the Year’ and in 2019 The Toronto Dominion Bank gave me an Environmental Stewardship award (one of only seven North American Community awards.).

In 2016 my son, Court took over at the helm of the restaurant group - he is astutely managing the Group to heights I only dreamed of in 1990. One of his crowning achievements was to get all our restaurants BCorp certified, making us one of the largest group of restaurants in the world that holds that certification. (BTW: My prediction is that the BCorp movement will be the most important development in business in the 21st century). The good news about my son being at the helm of my business is that it freed me up to do my next love; writing. I'm also lucky to have my daughter Emily, who once managed our iconic pub “The Wooly,” observing and commenting on all aspects of our operations and keeping us on our toes. She is also a veteran of the alcohol beverage industry and ensures that we are up to date on trends in that part of our business.

Career #4 - Writer

It seems my changing careers have all evolved by meaningful coincidences. As one example, when I inherited the bankrupt restaurant in 1990 I was more than ready to leave the university and express my values of “buy-local” and “sustainability” through a business lens - the timing was perfect, so I dove in!

Now I am experiencing a great deal of pleasure writing. First, I self-published the wine book, “WineSense - The Three Keys to Understanding Wine” in 2016, and have sold nearly 2,000 copies in bookstores and Ontario wineries. Second, I co-published a bilingual children’s book, “The Girl Who Loved Cheese”, with my first grand daughter Ava. At the book launch we sold over a hundred copies!

Now I’m concentrating on writing weekly Blogs (published each Friday with the invaluable help of my wife, Sue, and CAO, Louise McMullen) under the title of a prospective book: “A Book of Sayings - An Old Man’s Reflections and Lessons Learned for his Children’s Children." The content of this book encapsulates my views on achieving contentment, life philosophy, politics, love, entrepreneurship and humour. I also have another Blog called “Bobby D’s Locavores Digest” which features articles about my travels and all the local foods I encounter in far away places. Both Blogs are on my website which you’re now navigating.

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In conclusion, I must confess that my multiple career path has left me content.

Even though my Pro golf career is long gone and my days of shooting par a distant memory, I still feel kind of satisfied with the thought - “It’s better to be a ‘hasbeen’ than a never was.”

One of my literary heroes is Michel de Montaigne. The following quote of his gives me some comfort that my choice to change careers regularly was smart because the outcome has left me in a pleasant and, dare I say, happy moment in life.

“The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness”. Amen.