The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘Madagascar’

Today we present part two of Ron LeBlanc’s interview. Ron loves the concept of the hero’s journey so it’s no surprise that the one book that profoundly impacted his life is Joseph Campbell‘s The Hero With a Thousand Faces. To generate great ideas, he immerses himself in art and hangs out with “great” people. This makes sense because a study by INSEAD business school revealed that networking is one of the five discovery skills for innovation.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I am a 58-year old Canadian and the Chairman of Madacana Holding Inc, a fairly major player in the gem business in Madagascar. I have a sapphire mine and land bank in Madagascar. We’ve been in Madagascar since 2004, and I took over operation and control of the mine in 2006, which is located in the south of Madagascar. Prior to 2006, I was a gem buyer.

Madagascar is a complex place, but I have experience doing business in Africa and I enjoy it. Madagascar is probably the best place in the world for gems so it was the right place and the right time. I am a low functioning polymath and I have done a lot of things: I’ve been in bars, restaurants and I have been in the aesthetics business for a long, long time. After two years of exploration, I am ready to go into serious mechanized mining in the gem business in Madagascar.

As an Invisible Mentor, what is one piece of advice that you would give to readers?

Follow your bliss, follow your passion and stay current at all times. You are always unfinished, you are always working on something you want to be and will be. Have a leading kind of curiosity that gets you access to all the information in your particular sector. You have to be passionate, and if you are not, the universe will conspire against you. You want the universe to support you. The intelligent universe will support someone who is operating within their passion and following it.

How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

It’s together and I think in some ways the guys who are surviving here do not separate their personal and professional life, it’s all integrated. But when I say that, there has to be sacrifices. But most powerful people don’t see it as a sacrifice.

What’s a major regret that you’ve had in life?

I don’t really have any regrets. I think I will have regrets when I finish having life. While you are in life you do not have regrets. Regret is the illumination you get by looking back when you have finished having life. I do not have regrets because I keep moving forward.

What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

1. Follow your bliss, follow your passion: when you follow your passion you find that the universe conspires to help you along the way
2. Notwithstanding that passion, you need an honest assessment of the possibilities within the choice which you have taken. If your passion is to move piano you know there is a limitation there. If your passion is to be a head of a company you know that’s a different thing completely so you have to have a realistic view on your ambitions
3. Once your way has been chosen, the lesson in life is that you have to be the best. Every individual is unique in some way and has unique sets of talents of experiences and that uniqueness has to be shored up by all the information possible. You have to know what you are doing and be efficient in the career that you’ve chosen.
4. You cannot expand your business without co-operating. One of the imperatives is survival of the co-operatives. Every expanding business needs a level of faith and you need trusting people around you. You need to be able to give up some of the power and co-operate.
5. You can be wrong, and you have to be able to take a bullet, be candid about it and say that you are wrong. You have to be quick about it. That’s the best way forward. Meet those challenges, meet those failures with candor.

When you have some down time, how do you spend it?

I read at least 50 books each year. I am constantly reading and going to the theatre. I do this because I need the balm of escape so when I am in the theatre I just lose myself. I need that. The driving consciousness during wakefulness that I need for my business is nice, but the balm of escape allows me to get relief from that.

What process do you use to generate great ideas?

I hang out with great people, I read a lot, and I find that there is sympathy between what I’m reading and what I’m thinking, so the topics and the ambience is often found in the literature. I often go to the arts that I personally choose, or the friends that I hang around with, when I need to generate great ideas.

What’s your favourite quotation and why?

“Man plans, God laughs.” Yiddish proverb

It’s difficult to make a plan. You need a vision for it moving forward and you need to place milestones and you better be ready to adapt because making plans is like trying to predict the weather.

How do you define success?

I think success really is living with your passions. If you are a busker on the street and you’re playing music, or you’re trading on the floor or you’re being a mother, if you are doing what you want to do, that’s success. Living to your talents and your passions is really the measure of success.

In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

If you are blessed with a clearly defined and delineated passion, the formula for success is to be brave and to jump into that passion of interest.

What are the steps you took to succeed in your field?

Straight and unmitigated courage and confidence in my own talent and intelligence but also I have learned more and more that I need a supporting group of professionals as I move forward, education and professional support and a great deal of courage. Go for it!

What advice do you have for someone just starting out in your field?

Collect all the information possible about the field, look at it and really be mindful of how the field moves you, and make sure that it is field that you want to be in. Look at yourself and make sure that it is the place for you. You only have one life so you want to be sure.

If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?

Barack Obama: I think he is a fascinating and interesting character

Joseph Campbell: I would like to have met Joseph Campbell and talk to him about the mythological state of  man and the power of myth

Albert Einstein: I would have liked to meet Einstein because I am interested in science and math and would have liked to talk to him about gravity

Georgia O’Keefe: She is an interesting and fascinating painter and of course I’d like to talk to all the painters. I’d like to talk to Clinton, Van Gogh and a few of the other guys. I’m also interested in the impressionists.

Bill Gates: He has an interesting view on things. Steve Jobs would also be interesting too because he has an innovative and creative mind

And I would like to say to them, “What have you learned?” I think every character has a place of pure experience and I would love to learn what they have learned over and above everybody else.

Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply? Did you have an emotional or intellectual attachment to this book? Why?

The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. I see myself as being on a low grade journey and I’ve always been out in the world doing deeds,  and I guess this is a self mythology and Joseph Campbell without question has  gathered quite clearly all the pan-global myths and has articulated a pretty distinct underpinning of man’s journey, a kind of hero’s journey. He talks about Prometheus, Jason and so on. He talks about all these journeys and he really spoke to me. I have been out there on this mythological journey. I think it is very true and we are all mythological beasts and we follow the stages of mythology whether we know it or not.

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what are five books that you would like to have with you and why? Summarize the book in two sentences.

Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth

Fall On Your Knees

1001 Arabian Nights

Don Quixote, Miguel  de Cervantes

Short stories by Alice Munroe

Bill Moyer’s Interview with Joseph Campbell, Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth: He asks the pivotal questions and collates the information for us

Ann Michael’s Fall On Your Knees: I love poets who become writers. The story is about the Canadian experience, very richly articulated.

Short stories by Alice Munroe: I love Alice Munroe. She can make even the most mundane experience a kind of graceful experience. She is regarded as the best short story writer in the world.

What one music CD and movie would you like to have with you (on the deserted island) and why?

Movie: The 2001 Space Odyssey

Music: The Greatest Hits of Leonard Cohen

What excites you about life?

Beauty

How do you nurture your soul?

Beauty, I am in the gems business

If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for? Or, if I gave you a magic wand, what would you use it for?

I have got most of what I want so maybe I wish to be more tolerant, less hostile,  and to be more compassionate

Complete the following, I am happy when…..

I am beginning a project, the creative first few days of a project. And after a long night of dancing

What gems of wisdom can you glean from this interview? What aspects of the interview can you apply to your situation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please comment. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

For your research and writing needs, consider my firm Ambeck Enterprise. Since I am the best kept secret you may not know this, but I have over 15 years research and writing experience. I KNOW content.

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Today and Wednesday we feature Ron Leblanc, Chairman of Madacana Holding Inc. located in south Madagascar. I met Ron in Starbucks and I chatted with him for a bit and was fascinated by his story so I asked if I could interview him. You never know where your next connection will come from so you have to be open. Do you know who is sitting beside you? As usual, the interview is information rich. One of the toughest decisions that Ron had to make was fire a friend he had hired because he was under-performing? Growing up in a small town in Ontario, Ron couldn’t wait to spread his wings and soar, so finally leaving that town was one of the events which shaped his life. Enjoy the interview, this is my way of paying it forward.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I am a 58-year old Canadian and the Chairman of Madacana Holding Inc, a fairly major player in the gem business in Madagascar. I have a sapphire mine and land bank in Madagascar. We’ve been in Madagascar since 2004, and I took over operation and control of the mine in 2006, which is located in the south of Madagascar. Prior to 2006, I was a gem buyer.

Madagascar is a complex place, but I have experience doing business in Africa and I enjoy it. Madagascar is probably the best place in the world for gems so it was the right place and the right time. I am a low functioning polymath and I have done a lot of things: I’ve been in bars, restaurant and I have been in the aesthetics business for a long, long time. After two years of exploration, I am ready to go into serious mechanized mining in the gem business in Madagascar.

What’s a typical day like for you?

There is no typical day for me. My days are different because of the responsibilities of running a mining company in Madagascar. In my particular business in Madagascar you have to be awake all the time. There is no real regiment. When I am in the field there are production and operations demands on my time. Most of my investors are Canadians so I am often in Canada raising funds for the company. At other times, I am putting those funds “in the ground” so to speak. I also have a cutting stone factory. Because I have raised most of the funds privately, I feel like I have to lead many things personally.

How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?

Everything I do is a consequence of my passion so I never have a problem getting up in the morning because I like what I do. I am completely animated by beauty and I have always been in aesthetics and that which animates life.  I never really have to motivate myself other than being in my passion which is gems, so I don’t need to motivate myself because I am motivated naturally.

If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

That’s an interesting question but I don’t know if I’d do anything differently because all success is inevitably a compound of success and failures and I am convinced both my failures and vices have gotten me to where I am at, and I cannot see taking out one component over another because that would unsettle the nice integrated success to date so I do not see myself doing anything differently.

What’s the most important business (or other) discovery you’ve made in the past year?

The most important business discovery I’ve made is really about myself, and that is to grow, you have to be collaborative these days. And the new Darwinian imperatives are not just survival of the fittest but survival of the most cooperative.

What’s one of the biggest advances in your industry over the past five years?

In the gem business the biggest advance is a new business model which attempts to control colored stones by doing it in a larger and more scaled up fashion and that’s been the difference. All along the colored gem business has been a mine here and a mine there and it’s been too random and the issue of randomness in any business is that you cannot establish market price. Now we are dealing with bigger mines that have dominion over the product so that we can begin to have stable pricing.

What are the three threats to your business, your success, and how are you handling them?

The first threat to my business is political because I am in Madagascar. The country just went through a revolution. You have to be able to navigate the rapids when you are in Africa. Second, when the world markets are waning you have to be able to outlast the poor markets, and the third threat is you have to be adaptable in your company to foresee what’s coming.

What’s unique about the service that you provide?

I am the most inexpensive gem merchant in the world.

What do you observe most people in your field doing badly that you think you do well?

Most people don’t understand that you need to have an economy of scale, you need to do things big enough to be able to afford to realize your potential.

Describe a major business (or other) challenge you had and how you resolved it.

The business challenge I had was a revolution in Madagascar, and at the same time the world international community was collapsing. How I resolved this I simply turned the lights way, way down and stopped doing any kind of work, ensured that we had security in place, but I just knew that I had to outlast the revolution. I cut the cost down radically. I had to make sharp personal and business cuts.

What lessons did you learn in the process?

You need to have a plan B because you cannot make plans that disregard external events. You need to see your business in relation to all the other factors, and you have to know what those factors are that impose themselves on your business. You have to move quickly to take advantage of open and closed windows. I got too arrogant, too prideful and presumed that things were too good for me, and disregarded the ambiance of the market. I think that’s a big, big mistake and you have to learn to go when it’s good and pull back when it’s not.

Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

When you are in line with your destiny, a kind of intuitive certainty of the way forward, the world becomes benevolent and many things come to you. And there are always mentors around, as well as circumstances, but when you are aligned with your destiny and your passion you are always  fortunate.

Describe one of your biggest failures. What lessons did you learn, and how did it contribute to a greater success?

One of my biggest mistakes I made was to presume that I did not have to deal with professionals. When you deal with professional the world becomes symmetrical and when you deal with fools the world becomes asymmetrical. I have dealt a few times with amateurs and the consequence of that is my world became more difficult to control.

What has been your biggest disappointment in your life – and what are you doing to prevent its reoccurrence?

I haven’t really been disappointed. But it’s very disappointing that loyalty is so fickle, and one should not presume it in life, but reward it if it comes to you. I am talking about the people who work for you, your friends, and the people around you. Don’t look for it but if it comes celebrate it.

What’s one of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make and how did it impact your life?

The toughest decision I had to make was axe someone I hired who turned out to be not very good at the job. You sometimes have to sacrifice friendships for the greater good, which is the shareholders.

What are three events that helped to shape your life?

1. Living in a small town, the world appears big and exciting. I had a kind of mythology that I shaped for myself, and that small town represented constraints. It was a bit of a dark little town, and every thing beyond that world unfolded with all its possibilities. It was a big thing in my life to leave that small town.
2. Back in the sixties and early seventies I got entwined in nefarious activities and I think meeting my first wife really helped me cross that river stick. I had to move from that very dangerous life that I had taken on for myself and move into a straight life and she was pivotal in helping me to do that. It essentially changed the context of my life which was getting too dangerous and so that was a big thing. When I got into another life, I felt that business was easy because the courage that I applied to my nefarious world could be applied to the world of business. She gave be a choice between a life in darkness and one in the light.
3. I was in Morocco and bought a bunch of gems as gifts. I was traveling with a friend and he later said “I hope you didn’t pay more than $5 for that crap.” I’d bought these gems which turned out to be valueless and worthless, and I said to myself that I’d never be fooled again. I felt shamed, and I steered my ambition to understand all things beautiful and aesthetic and decided that I would learn about gems.

What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?

It’s what I am doing right now. It’s the inflexible drive to ensure that this company, despite all the odds, turned out alright. I am most proud of my stalwart push to ensure that this company will succeed against a lot of odds.

How did mentors influence your life?

I have always surrounded myself with very bright people, and my mentors have always been good to me. I am always striving to improve myself.

What’s one core message you received from your mentors?

Always deal with professionals and always get the very best people. If you do not have the best people you are not going to succeed in a difficult industry.

Which resources (books, movies, training etc.) did your mentors recommend to you?

I was told to keep current on the front side of things because of the constant oscillations of the market and everything else. Everything that affects your business is always shifting so stay on the front side.  Get the best data and voices. I used to read Harvard Business Review, and marketing magazines.

What nuggets of wisdom can you glean from the interview? What are five takeaways?

Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please comment. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

For your research and writing needs, consider my firm Ambeck Enterprise. Since I am the best kept secret you may not know this, but I have over 15 years research and writing experience. I KNOW content.