“I bandied about the pros and cons in my head for days in regards to buying the hotel I had been working at. A feeling akin to hunger lingered in the pit of my stomach although I lacked an appetite. How many scenarios would I think of before I could make a decision? With each new thought, I became more certain that one never knows what will happen in the future.
My conversation continues with Thomas Seekins, a lone traveler, while we are on an archaeological dig in 2011.
“Then, like a sign, a mild breeze swept into my room and gave me a feeling that I deciphered as, Take the step that is before you now. Believe in your ability to survive, and the next step will follow. In that instant, I decided to buy Harry’s business and see what would happen. I signed a note to pay Harry thirty thousand dollars directly from money earned from the hotel’s revenues, with further terms to be discussed.”
“That was brave and bold! You didn’t have any backing?”
“No. And I didn’t know about the process of due diligence until it was actually happening. I quickly found out Harry didn’t have much of a business. It had negative equity because of the large mortgage held by the local bank. Its various lines of credit from one institution or another were being used to pay employees. Harry faced top-line revenue problems due to increased competition from newer hotels. And the leasing agreements on most of the equipment were in arrears, with other accounts receivable long overdue.
“The only asset Harry had on the balance sheet was goodwill—well, and I guess me. Harry was a good old guy and a mainstay in the community. He intended no malice in offering me a chance to share in a company on the brink of bankruptcy. He simply couldn’t accept the idea of walking away from something he worked so hard to grow. I understood this about him, but it was an intuitive understanding that had grown while I worked as his employee. Two years earlier, I would have snubbed the opportunity by applying too much logic to the situation. But then I would have missed the emotional reward of accepting this miraculous gift. I was in—and I just kept doing my best.”
Thomas told me that news of the partnership spread fast, thanks to gossip. But people saw a man who was like a son to Harry take hold of a handicapped situation and manage the limited resources with executive motion.
At the time, Jasper had a year-round population. That made Thomas quite visible, and it also gave him a distinct advantage to succeed in implementing his plan. After a long recession, the city of Calgary, a major metropolitan area close to Jasper, was becoming the hub of the Canadian oil industry. Thomas knew he could use that factor as a macro driver for his business’s success.
“You are an astute man. Did you learn that from business school?”
“Not really. I just paid attention. The Jasper population typically increases fourfold during peak summer visiting periods. The opposite happens in winter. Tourists disappear from the town in direct proportion to the amount of snow. Business freezes over as well, but I used that first winter as a co-owner of Harry’s hotel to incubate a plan. I knew that for the hotel to be a successful endeavor, it had to be managed with cunning. I spent long hours poring over the all of the challenges and possibilities until one morning, the lightbulb turned on.
“During the oil and gas boom in the 1970s, Calgary had grown fast. Its location was close enough for people working hard to travel to Jasper on weekends. If I could offer a three-day-stay package complete with transportation, food, lodging, and activities at a better price than anyone from miles around, I could fill the resort every weekend. Then I wouldn’t have to count on longer-stay customers from far away.”
“What a process. Tell me about how you used the downtime.”
Read the complete success story in the book, The Quiet Rich: Ordinary People Reawakening an American Dream.
Kevin J. Palmer, Author
The Quiet Rich
