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An Entrepreneur’s Return on Investment

Paul Craven, President,
Responsive Brands Inc.

Written by: Paul Craven, President, Responsive Brands Inc.

As fellow entrepreneurs, we recognize that we go into business for ourselves to control our fate and look after our families. However, one of the main differences between entrepreneurs and financial investors is that we get a strong sense of satisfaction in making a difference outside our immediate families. We take a great deal of satisfaction when our employees grow, when our employees buy homes, cars etc. and the difference we can make in our communities. This is what encompasses an entrepreneur’s return on investment!

In my prior business I was one of four principal partners, and I don’t think we did as good a job as we could have in giving back to the community. When I was searching out my next business venture this was one of the attractions – giving back to community or in other words, increasing my entrepreneurial return on investment.

In terms of a charitable organization, we tried to identify one which would align with our brand and that we could all feel good about. Personally, this means a lot to me and I will tell you why. My mother has had breast cancer for over 35 years. When we were in high school (yes I know I look older than I am!) my father told us my mother had to have some surgery but did not tell us why. I didn’t really focus on it as my mother was absent for a week or so, I remember visiting her, but we had no idea that she had breast cancer. In those days it wasn’t something we really talked about. As I understood much later she had a double mastectomy followed by radiation every 6 weeks. The radiation left terrible scarring on the chest in those days. Chemotherapy was not performed back then and my mother has been told that if she would have had it back then the cancer likely would not have resurfaced.

Fast-forward 30 years and unfortunately my mother’s cancer metastasized. We began revisiting the oncologist whom prescribed various treatments over the last 5 years culminating in her first chemotherapy sessions starting in December. She is recovering well
but clearly tired. My mother is an extremely tough lady and I had only see her cry once when her mother died in 1967. I will tell you though, when we made a decision to support Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation partly on her behalf, I heard her cry for the second time. She was extremely happy, even in midst of chemotherapy, that we had chosen to make a difference.

Picture taken from last year’s CIBC Run for the
Cure.

Michael Dooley, Mister Transmission Kitchener,
70 Westmount Rd. W.

Darlene Dooley, Mister Transmission Kitchener, shares her story:

The very first time that I was affected by cancer was at 16 years of age; I lost my mom to ovarian cancer. She was only 46. Many years later I was faced with this again. My nephew was diagnosed
with leukemia in 2001, six months later my brother was diagnosed with severe melanoma, less than a year later my husband was diagnosed with kidney cancer, and only one year after him, I was
diagnosed with breast cancer.

Only 42 and I truly thought that I would never get to see my kids get married, or see my future grand-children. Happily: more than 10 years later, we have all survived. I watched my son Kyle
marry his sweetheart last year and my son Dave will be married in June. I truly believe we have all survived in large part due to the ongoing research. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have strong family support and a positive attitude.

“Life is grand and I never take it for granted.” – Darlene Dooley

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