1143. Recognizing Opportunities Before Other People Do

“After university I had three jobs offered to me. I decided that I should get some experience in the tax department of Canada. It is there that I became a business auditor. I knew I was only going to be there about a year, but I learned an awful lot about how the tax department functions. And I actually was able to help some businesses that were being audited get on the right path, shall we say.

“After one year I went to work for Century 21 Canada, which was part of the biggest real estate global franchise organization at the time. I was put in charge of auditing all of their 550 franchises and keeping them on the straight and narrow. I became adept at auditing things and lining things up, and it was a good background for me, but it wasn’t something I wanted to do forever. Balancing Numbers all day long so that somebody else benefits greatly from it is not very exciting, shall we say.

“What I learned about myself, when I decided to step over the line and become a risk taker, is that I like stuff that scares me and where I don’t know what I’m doing. And that’s not auditing!”

Brian Collins, B.Comm accountant, has been an entrepreneur since the age of 31, when he quit his job with a large American customs and trucking company where he was C.F.O for the Canadian region. Brian got the fever to be his own boss and has not looked back. He started four businesses, all in very different business sectors, with zero experience in any of those fields. Today, Brian spends his time growing his gold mine business in Nevada, CA, he is at the gym three times a week, and he is always on the hunt for the next challenge in an arena he has not tackled before.