How can one idea lead to a career? And how can a career create a global legacy? Best ask Jimmy Pattison – one of the world’s most successful business leaders. Born in Saskatchewan, Jimmy is the Vancouver-based founder, chairman, CEO and sole owner of the Jim Pattison Group – the second largest privately-held company in Canada, with over $10 billion in sales and more than 45,000 employees. With interests in food, packaging, entertainment, fisheries and forestry, Jimmy oversees brands such as Save-on-Foods, Pattison Sign Group, CanFor, Ripley’s Believe It or Not and even the Guinness World Records.
Jimmy didn’t begin with wealth, he started with a commitment to hard work, selling magazines door-to-door at the age of 9 to help his family through the Great Depression. He worked his way through school doing jobs ranging from hotel pageboy to fruit picker to general laborer and canner. Throughout it all, Jimmy’s been willing to take calculated risks – risks that allowed him to take a bank loan, turn it into car dealership and, over time, become one of Canada’s wealthiest people. And that wealth has also allowed Jimmy to give back. He is, without debate, one of Canada’s most generous philanthropists. He’s built hospitals and he’s revitalized Vancouver’s Stanley Park after a devastating windstorm. Jimmy even worked for $1 to make Expo 86 the massive success that it was, putting his adopted home of BC on the global stage.
Jimmy has been inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame and the Canadian Business Hall of Fame. He’s been appointed to the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia, as well as having received Entrepreneur of the Year – Lifetime Achievement Award, the Governor General’s Commemorative Medal and the Young Presidents Organization Canadian Icon Award. And one of his passions? Spending time in nature and watching wildlife in BC Parks. No joke.
We had the opportunity to sit down with Jimmy in his Vancouver boardroom to better understand what it takes to launch a successful career and why good stewardship is simply good business.
What do you think?
- What did you takeaway from Jimmy’s story?
- Do you think entrepreneurship is a tool you can use in your career?
- Are you a risk-taker like Jimmy? Or are risky decisions only an option for some?
- What’s your passion and how can you use it to advance your career goals?
- Do you believe that career can be a vehicle to give back?
- How might you do good and make money?
More on Jimmy
Read articles with his insights: Billionaire Jimmy Pattison says Canada not in a recession despite COVID-19 uncertainty, Jimmy on Forbes, On his 90th birthday, B.C. billionaire Jim Pattison says he still loves going to work every day