| Last updated at 9:09 AM on 26/05/08 |
Everyone can succeed 
Just ask those who have
DONNA NEBENZAHL
Montreal Gazette
What could be more fascinating than finding out that as a university student, Home Depot Canada president Annette Verschuren earned an award for downing a beer in four seconds? Or, that she aced her first job interview by spending three days learning so much about the company that she came up with a turnaround plan?
The secret of succeeding in an interview, Verschuren told the authors of "Kickstart: How Successful Canadians Got Started," is: "be prepared, be knowledgeable, respect your interviewer and be clear about the direction you want the organization to take."
Her advice was just one piece of a puzzle that Alexander Herman, Paul Matthews and Andrew Feindel were trying to assemble as they embarked on their ambitious plan to figure out how to get the best out of life once they had left school. The trio, who met in high school in Toronto, had graduated from university a few years ago and got to talking about how difficult they were finding it to begin the next stage of their lives.
"We were kind of lost and didn't know what to do," said Herman, 26, who is studying law at McGill University.
So they took a year off, wrote hundreds of letters to people they imagined could teach them something, and after getting approval from 70, embarked on a cross-Canada interview tour.
They looked for diversity in careers, geography and gender and subdivided the work into their respective fields so law student Herman, for instance, had a chance to interview chief Justice Beverley McLaughlin. Matthews, 27, is now a filmmaker, while Feindel, 26, is a financial planner.
"We decided to ask well-known Canadians," Herman said. "We wanted to show young people who are looking that these things have all been done before. As long as you keep your head up and are doing what you love, you'll succeed in the end."
Interestingly, the story that affected Herman most belonged to David Shore, the lawyer-turned-TV writer who created the character House for the popular TV series.
"He showed me that if you go to law school, you don't necessarily have to be a lawyer," Herman said.
It turns out that Shore wasn't much good at the interpersonal end of law - he based the anti-social character of House on himself. He ended up using his legal skills early in his career writing for shows like "Law & Order."
Shore is one of the people the authors placed in the category of "Searchers: Canadians who took their time."
In another category, "Survivors: People who persevered," Herman was blown away by Lynda Haverstock, who recently stepped down as lieutenant-governor of Saskatchewan.
"Her story is one of real struggle," Herman said.
Pregnant at 15, Haverstock refused to give up her child as so many did at the time and was a single mother by age 18. Nevertheless, she put herself through school, finally earning a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, spending years in a wheelchair because of severe rheumatoid arthritis.
"She said, 'It's not about living a life that's perfect, because you don't learn anything from that,'" Herman said.
A lot of people they met were continuing on a path begun in their youth, he said, like conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin, artistic director of the Orchestre Metropolitain du Grand Montreal.
"He knew what he wanted to do when he was 13."
But even when these Canadians didn't know what they wanted to do, and despite huge problems along the way - prima ballerina Karen Kain, for instance, was nearly overcome by shyness that increased as she got older - everyone they interviewed clearly loved the work they were doing.
"Not a single person said 'I really didn't like it and just happened to be good at it.' Never, not even close," Herman said. "In business or management or music, they always said, 'This is what I love to do'. "
Often, they soldiered on in the face of little reward. Designer Bruce Mau, for instance, worked for many years without huge remuneration. Cervelo bicycle creators Phil White and Gerard Vroomen lived on $50 a week, making their bikes in a spare bedroom.
The message that comes through in the book?
"The money isn't always there, but will come as a fringe benefit," Herman said.
Another message the book offers their generation, he believes, is to be more aggressive.
"We're a bit too timid, for whatever reason. You have to have nerve. You can't expect it all to fall into place."
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