It was the summer of 1973, and I was exhausted. We were starting to grow, but as we grew nationally, the job of supporting each new hire was getting beyond me.
Our history was based on the explosive fight against the government’s tax proposals which gave me a public profile next only to Prime Minister Trudeau for the three-year period 1971-73. Along with this profile came 5-10 public speaking engagements per day. But what I decided to do was to only speak when there was a CFIB District Manager in the audience.
Then an interesting event changed my thinking. A friend and salesman at my father’s tailoring firm, Bill Hanlon, said he was moving back to Sidney, Cape Breton, because his wife was terminally ill and wanted to be with her family. I suggested that he train selling CFIB memberships in Ontario and if he could do it we would employ him as our first District Manager in Atlantic Canada. And that is what he agreed to do. I said I would come down to Sydney to help him get started just as I was doing with new hires in Manitoba and Saskatchewan at the time. In the photo taken 15 years later, Bill can be seen with me and our new Director of Research, Catherine Swift.
But with my travelling and training agenda, I could not get back to support Bill, and they decided to get him started without me. And, holy moly, for three weeks he led the country in sales. When I found out what happened, I went into shock. I remember staring into the wall for about three hours, and saying, “I have started a sales organization. I have started a sales organization.”
If we can build a field operation across Canada without me helping new hires, we are going to be huge. That is what it all meant. I had finally realized the kind of organization I had created and just how big and powerful it could become. Bill Hanlon was a pioneer for CFIB in Atlantic Canada and played a huge role in our history.
All through my history building CFIB, and trying to turn a dream into a reality, my success was always about the contribution of others. The history of CFIB is about me, yes. But more importantly, it is about people that shared my dream. You never accomplish anything on your own.