Making money is not something that directed me in the way you hear someone on the television proclaim that they intend to go out and make money, to fulfill the so-called American Dream, as though it were the only lifetime objective. By contrast I am far more acquainted with the talent of spending money, not bargaining, rather knowing where to spend it for desirable return (which usually means perfection of some description). But making money was always for me survival, getting by, but aligned with value (in the same way I spent it).
My first confrontation with making money was in a student summer job – my first, in my first year of undergraduate studies. My father arranged for me to work for Standard Paving of which my father’s friend Don MacKinnon was a senior executive (perhaps the Vice-President). The company (which I believe was headquartered in Toronto) was involved in street paving in the newly developed eastern areas abounding Ottawa approaching Orleans. I recall we were paid $2.50 per hour which at the time was about double what others were paid for student employment. Initially I had welcomed the opportunity because I knew the work was outside and I planned to work with my shirt off to get a good summer tan. That ambition quickly evaporated when the Foreman told me I had to wear a T-shirt and a hardhat. The entire purpose of the summer job was gone. Things went from bad to worse when I was transferred to the sand pit to work in the booth that managed the ritual weighing of the trucks. I was then predominantly inside the booth.
As it happened the sand pit was on Cedarview Road past the Cedarhill Golf and Country Club (being developed by the Chiarelli family I believe). My parents lived not far from there in Bruce Farms. Somehow I succeeded to gain employment at the golf club as lifeguard at the pool. My job at Standard Paving lasted about 2 weeks. As for what I was paid as a lifeguard I have no recollection.
The following summer – during my second year of undergraduate studies – I accepted an offer with Creation 2 theatre company in Toronto to act as a fundraiser. The entire theatre company lived in a large house on Madison Avenue in Toronto (near Rochdale College I recall). I don’t think I was paid any money for my employment other than having a place to live and food to eat. Whatever money I raised was directed to the theatre management.
My next summer job was with the Judge Advocate General (another connection by my father). I was then in my first year of law school. JAG advised that, if I committed to work for them for 5 years, they would pay me throughout law school, then pay my summer employment and finally hire me as legal counsel and pay accordingly. I declined.
When I began working as an articling student with Messrs. Macdonald, Affleck at 100 Sparks Street, Ottawa, I was paid $4,000 per annum. Going to Harvey’s restaurant was for me an outing. When they hired me as a lawyer after being called to the Bar at Osgoode Hall, they paid me $12,000 per annum. I was miffed when, the following year, they hired a new articling student as a lawyer for $12,500 per annum. I quit.
At the coincidental behest of Senator George J. McIraith PC QC (Counsel at Macdonald, Affleck) I applied for employment in Almonte with Messrs. Galligan & Sheffield. They paid me $13,000 per annum. After two years there, and having not been offered any prospect of partnership, I left that firm and started my own. From that point on, making money was a matter of doing a good job and being paid what it was worth. It was the same theory I applied to the expenditure of money; namely, get a good product and pay what it was worth.
Generally speaking I was spending my money as fast as I was making it. I tried to protect myself from profligacy by buying real estate. I first bought 25 acres of land in Lanark Township; then a small house on St. George Street in Almonte; then my office building at 77 Little Bridge Street in Almonte; then a new house at 4 Laura Crescent in Almonte; then a condominium in By Ward Market in Ottawa. I forcibly learned the fright of economic decline when the real estate market plunged in the 1990s. It materially affected my business. During those dry times I learned to transition my accounting system from the 1-write system to electronic Simply Accounting. I was the first lawyer in Lanark County to get a computer and use it in the office to replace the IBM electronic memory typewriters. It was all hard work and not without its frightful moments when I doubted whether I would be able to get it all to work. My first computer in the 1990s cost $3,500. Years later I was buying a new far more intelligent computer for $500. When I downloaded on-line title insurance, the company from Toronto (Teraview) sent two gentlemen to work in my office for three days to establish why the system was not working properly. They fixed it and departed. Meanwhile the Land Registry Office in Perth (the County seat) was closed and replaced by the new LRO in Almonte. The entire Land Titles system in the County was converted to the electronic system, one of the first throughout the entire Province of Ontario (we were a beta site). I later began on-line incorporation and management.
Throughout this modification I continued to perfect my practice of law, defining my models of last will and testament, Powers of Attorney for Property Management and Personal Car, and my inter vivos trust agreement for probate management. And in the process I continued to adjust my compensation to reflect the value of my work. When I told my predecessor Raymond A. Jamieson QC that I thought I was charging more for my work than other local lawyers did for the same type of work, he said wryly, “Let the shit go down the street!” To my thinking I never abused the confidence of my clients. If I failed to produce as they were rightfully entitled to expect, I ensured the cost was absorbed by me. I kept an accurate account of everything I did and provided that report to my client with the bill. Seldom did I charge exactly what I reportedly earned, always less, my way of accommodating the expenditure and the work.
In case you are interested, I never succeeded to have a lot of money. I kept spending it on complicated watches, grand pianos (I had 2), art, Persian rugs, bespoke solid wood furnishings, crystal vases and decanters, and of course automobiles. As for my real estate, I never let it dwindle. I was always maintaining and improving it. Plus bespoke gardening by Almonte’s finest Allan Goddard. My tenants, once installed, never faced a rise in their monthly cost. I learned from John Levi (a formidable real estate investor) who told me, “When you get a good tenant, leave them be!”
Meanwhile I had the benefit of excellent clients like John H. Kerry who, upon my arrival in Almonte, said, “If you worked on your own, I would support you.” And he did. To the end. Eventually I worked only for those who were willing to employ me on my terms. I learned to streamline and specialize my work. I avoided anything that was beyond my scope or experience – in which case I referred my client to a competent solicitor (usually in the city). Always the process was to be compensated for the work that I did – and that the work I did must be of excellent quality. There was never any other ambition related to money. The focus wasn’t making money; it was doing a good job and being compensated accordingly.
If I were interested in making money, it was only at the end of my career – after I had stopped working – that I sold everything we owned – all the real estate, all the expensive watches and trinkets, much of the art and furnishings. I even watched an auction of my stuff in Toronto on a computer over lunch in Almonte.
I invested everything I had with a financial advisor who charges us monthly. Now my interest is seldom in expenditure other than keeping afloat, travel and – shamefully – still automobiles. Otherwise I never really cottoned to making money.