Harvard Business School

Transcript

You know, I find that is a moving target.

I used to think, you know, there's that expression where you say the train -- you've heard the story of the train, when you get on the train, you say, "Okay, when I get to the station, there will be the bands playing, everything will be fine. And I'll get off at the station, and they'll all go, ’Wow,‘ and they'll say, ’you're here, you're done.‘" And then, you know, you get back on the train, and you keep on going to the next station.

And I find success has changed a lot. I mean, in the last 20 years, since business school, for me before that it was make a billion bucks, you know, sort of thing, go to the beach, have a beautiful woman and, you know, some kids, I guess, at some point. But that was 20 years ago.

Then as you move forward it is, okay, yes. Have some business success. But you want to also, you know, be healthy, I mean, sort of thing as you get older and you see some of your friends aren't making it, or not as well, I mean, you start recognizing that. You also want to have a relationship with the family, and an individual that you can share things and do. I mean, so all those things really come into the equation.

I mean, I have a group that I have once a year, and I call it the Boys Weekend, and we have CEOs from all over the world that come. And when we were first there, we were talking about, you know, girls, and what's our number? How much money is our success number?

Now I'd say that's only a sixth of our conversation. Now it's focused on, you know, what are we trying to do, in terms of our family, I mean, sort of thing. What are we trying to do with our spouse? How are we doing for our health? What are we doing for giving back? I mean, so that's another big thing that's, you know, if you had asked me 20 years ago I would have said the giving back part, that's way in the future. Now it is as we do achieve some of the financial successes, we're saying, "Okay, how can we make things better a little bit?" And we recognize we're not going to boil the ocean, but focus on key areas that we can do.

An example is this year we're tossing a party. And in Montreal we have hospitals, and people are dedicated, you know, to the Jewish hospital, and that's it. That's all they invest in and support. And others are just the French hospitals. And the other ones are just the English hospitals. I mean, and so for the first time my wife and I—and it's mostly my wife's work, right now—are saying, "Okay, we're going to do an event for all the hospitals in Montreal. And everybody's going to get together, and it's going to be a party that's going to support the whole hospital community, I mean, as a whole." And that's never been done in Montreal because, you know, we create these little sects.

And so the idea is make a difference.