Structure and Balance - Jack McDonald (Partner, Leeza Distribution Inc.)

Jack McDonald is a partner at Leeza Distribution Inc., a leading supplier of premium surfaces for counter-tops, sinks, vanity tops, and wall cladding in showers. In addition to his professional work, he also volunteers as a Scouts Leader and serves of Director of Dix Milles Villages, a non-profit organization that strives to better the lives of thousands of artisans and small business people in developing countries. This mix of business in community involvement is a perfect example of the kind of balance we talk about in entrepreneurial circles and it is balance that Jack talks about with us today. In his Paper Napkin Wisdom, Jack shares a piece of advice his grandfather gave him years ago. He says: “Never get too busy making a living that you forget to make a life.” Like Jack, his grandfather was a successful entrepreneur. He was involved in a great deal of social activities in Montreal in the 1940’s and 50s and was able, as a result of his success, to provide his children with anything they wanted…except his time. Jack believes that his grandfather gave him this advice when he saw his grandson start on his own entrepreneurial journey. Jack started his first business at 17 and he thinks that might be what prompted the conversation. Though he has always remembered his grandfather’s advice, Jack hasn’t always followed it. He freely admits that in his 20s, he had an unbalanced life that put a lot of emphasis on working on his businesses. He thinks it was really on 6 or 7 years ago that he realized the wisdom in his grandfather’s words and realized how easy it is to become a one dimensional person. Previous Paper Napkin guests like Damon Gersh, Kevin Dee, and Jim Sheils have talked about the importance of balance. If you don’t strive to have that balance, to empower your team and your business enough that they can function without you, you won’t be able to have a successful exit strategy. As Jack points out, many businesses grow to the capacity of the entrepreneur and then die because they haven’t put the right structures in place. There will be times in your life where things are going to be unbalanced, but when it comes to the business side of things, it’s really a function of choice. Those choices revolve around your willingness to delegate, schedule, and keep yourself disciplined. Jack says that it’s easy to get drawn into the conversation at home of “I need to do this for the business, the business is how we maintain the way we live” but he warns that that conversation is a damaging one if it’s invoked too often because at the end of the day, it implies that you value your business over your family. It’s easy to say you value your family but unless you show that you do through your actions, it won’t matter. What we do is more important than what we say. What we do leaves a legacy behind us. To those who say balance is something that can’t be done for their situation, Jack has one reply: “Well, you probably haven’t really tried,” He says that you have to sort out what’s busy work from what’s important and that if you find yourself swamped after the first 2-3 years of business, there’s probably something wrong with how you’ve structured it. Take the time to schedule, to evaluate, and to ask yourself what’s really important. If you don’t have balance, the only thing that’s holding you back from achieving it, is you. Listen to the conversation with Jack here: