20
Jason Barrett’s family has provided some of the finest men’s suit buttons that have closed suits worn by Presi- dents, Popes, Kings, and Businessmen the world over since 1922. So why did Barrett leave his family’s fourth generations business, his answer is clear and simple, “I was meant for a different path.” So, he broke tradition and started to make whiskey. The lessons he had learned in his family’s factory as a kid still guide him to this day; work hard, work with your hands, make your product the best on the market, and you can’t cheat time. Although he is now in a completely different business, his distillery pays homage to his grandfather and the world he knew – where real men worked hard and drank real pot distilled whiskey. When we sat down with Jason Barrett and asked if it was a hard decision to start his own company. We learned that it was not just one decision, but a series of them along with a driving desire to strike out on his own; to make his mark on the world.
As far as apprenticeships go in the home construction industry, Dave Waldner had the best. Dave, the founder of Master Painting and Renovations in Chilliwack, British Columbia, grew up in a family of flippers. “I lived in a reno for the first 18 years of my life,” he explained proudly when he spoke with Spotlight on Business in early November. “In total I think we moved 23 times – there were six of us. Dad would buy the junkiest house on the nicest block, we’d move into that house and in a year, we’d have it lickety-split and ready for sale.” Dave can remember as early as seven years old helping his family with simple demolition-relat- ed tasks. “Even then I was carrying two-by-fours, cleaning up, that sort of thing,” he said. “We never hired out con- tractors; Dad would do everything with us, just the family, from scratch.” Even his father’s full-time job provided Dave with invaluable early insight into the industry in which he’d one day build a successful business. “Dad was a drywall taper, so he was on job sites all day. It was the evenings and weekends where we would work as a family and we’d get these houses up and running – and eventually sell them to make some profit.” Today, Dave still relies on family teamwork to deliver premium craftsmanship at a competi- tive price to customers throughout the Fraser Valley and...
50
4
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • JANUARY 2019
Made with FlippingBook HTML5