The Tanacity of Entrepreneurship

The penguin, moose, and polar bear are icons of winter representing the tenacity required to endure the wilderness during times when food is scarce and the environment is uncomfortable.

This is true of the entrepreneur as well. Business is like winter in the sense that money can be scarce and the environment uncomfortable, especially for anyone who was once an employee. The true entrepreneur does not migrate but digs in, works hard through the scarce times with full faith that spring will come again.

Long after my grandfather had passed away my father passed on a statement of wisdom that his father had given to him.

“Don’t worry about the money, worry about the business and the money will come.”

My father explains that Grandpa always strove to provide the best service for his customers and that is why everyone liked “The Timbrell Boys” and patronized their store. They where part of their community and hence part of the environment that made the winters of business more than bearable.

Timbrell's Meat Market circa 1900's Thomas G. Timbrell on left

The Entrepreneur

Jack Timbrell was a special man to me. He was fun and funny, intelligent and intellectual with business smarts to spare. Jack had a first year university education (almost unheard of in his day) and he was an entrepreneur. He was my grandfather.
Jack owned the family business, a butcher shop, with his brother Tom. The butcher shop, inherited from their father and his father before him (seen above in the shop), was known as Timbrell’s Meat Market, and was located at 255 Dundas Street in London Ontario. They were well liked and respected in the community. Growing up I could go almost anywhere in London and toss out my name and someone would know my grandfather or his brother and welcome me. It was a comfortable shadow to grow up under and it explains my tendency towards entrepreneurship as well.

Who is your inspiration to endure, your drive to become successful, the founder of your tenacity?