The Invisible Mentor Interviews Carrie Katz Part Two

Here is Part Two of Carrie Katz's interview and once again relationships play a prominent role. After you have digested the entire interview, what are 10 takeaways?

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Carrie Katz:  When I lived in Montreal I was always involved in community affairs. From when I was a child my mother would take me when she went from door-to-door under the heading of UJA requesting money for the poor. My mother has three children, and for some reason, I’m the one that that resonated with. So from a young child I was always involved in something in the community. As a young mother I started the Montreal Career Women’s Network in 1984. At the time, there weren’t any similar services of its kind. In Quebec it was more difficult to get it going because of the line between French Quebecois and the Anglophones, so that was a lot of work, but it was fantastic how we brought the two groups together. The Network is still operating today so I am very proud of that.

I also started a successful business with a friend called Origami Plus which operated for 19 years until it closed in 2009. Origami Plus was synonymous with people who were interested in paper. It was the first paper store that people could come in and do creative things, like make invitations, anything that had to do with paper.

I moved to Toronto and once again became involved in community work. For me, I think it’s my essence, it helps me to feel like I’m participating in the world.

How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

Carrie Katz:  I noticed something interesting about women, and it may be my vintage of women because we never talk about our work life when we are socializing, and it could be among very close friends. We are very matter-of-fact, whereas with men it’s most of what they discuss. I have a friend who is renowned throughout North America and when we get together we rarely ever talk about her world of work. I happen to be interested in it so I ask her lots of questions but otherwise we don’t. The way you integrate both worlds is to socialize with people you work with so they get to see another side of you, and for your friends you talk a little bit about your work so they get to see that side of you.

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

Carrie Katz:  I keep on coming back to the end of my marriage. I think because he passed away and we didn’t get the opportunity to complete things. We were in the midst of leaving one another and he passed away, so it left a real big dent for me. It was regretful for me to watch my children grow up not having a dad.

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

Carrie Katz:

1. Family is the most important thing
2. Be kind to others
3. Listen when someone speaks
4. Like yourself
5. Have laughter in your life

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

Carrie Katz:  I run around a lot so my down time is a bit of a giggle. The only time I ever read is when I’m on a plane or away so my new thing is to read a chapter of something a day. I tell myself that I do not have to do the entire book just the chapter.

What process do you use to generate great ideas?

Carrie Katz:  I have a friend in HR who I’ve been friends with for over 35 years. She conducted a series of test and the thing that keeps coming through is that I’m an idea person. I’m always idea generating about whatever, it could be about making dinner for friends. It’s part of my DNA, it’s an every day process for me.

I write down what I’d like to get across and bring in more than one idea at a time. I do this by email, then I come back and let’s say there were five ideas, I narrow it down to one, then start generating the concept.

What’s your favourite quotation and why?

Carrie Katz:  I think at my stage in life since I’m almost 70, it would have to be “Enjoy every moment, bring laughter into your life and share lots of hugs.”

How do you define success?

Carrie Katz:  I can define success very easily for other people, success for myself, if I give myself a pat on the back for what I’ve considered to have done well, it stays there for about 10 seconds then I’m on to how can I do this better. The most successful thing for me is having children and that they have a sense of understanding of living in the world. I think success has to do with the stage of life that I’m at, and I think when you have a family that functions and the children like each other and like you, that’s success. I have worked hard at this in my life.

In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

Carrie Katz:  Never give up and understand that whatever you do it takes a great deal of work to become successful, it just doesn’t  happen overnight. Watching someone on the tennis court to the CEO of a big corporation, nobody gets there without a lot of input and a lot of work. If you go into a family situation and you look at kids who are doing well, it could never be because parents were not involved. The kids I know are from 28 to 50 and every one that I admire, there was so much that went into bringing up that child.

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

Carrie Katz:  We started off Origami Plus in a room and we ended up in a big store and it was the passion that we felt for what we were doing. We often worked 10 to 13 hours each day, and the joy we felt every time we had a little success, translated into something bigger and bigger until we got there. It’s a constant dayness, and I do think success comes when you do what you love. It’s very difficult when someone lives in a space where they constantly think that I have to do this. There is that line when you get to a place where you are working on something that you connect with, but this is a luxury because not everyone has the ability and opportunity to do something that they love. Some people just have to do something to eat, so it’s another dimension how to do that. Don’t we often hear stories about someone who has become very successful and you ask them how they started and they say I swept the floors. They didn’t like doing that, but how did they go from sweeping the floors to where they are now? I would love to speak to someone who did that, they’d have a lot to teach us.

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

Carrie Katz:  A friend who is now turning 50, graduated from Barnard in New York City and wanted to write for Time Magazine. At the time, I had a friend George Russell who worked for Time Magazine, so I asked him to see my friend Lisa. He said, “Carrie, there is no room,” and I said that he could give her some advice, so off she went to have lunch with him. He called shortly after lunch and told me that they had found room for her. What was it about her why he found room for her? It was about her attitude. He told her that she would be bringing coffee.

She graduated from Barnard, a highly recognized university and was going to serve coffee for the next year. But while serving coffee she would be learning. She didn’t have a problem doing coffee, she didn’t have a problem running to the store to pick-up an apple for someone because he wanted it at that moment. And she has excelled in whatever she has had to do, and she is brilliant at what she does. But I think that the attitude of saying it’s okay it’s my time it doesn’t matter, I’m going to get to where I want to go.

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?

Carrie Katz:

1. I’d like to meet John Mackey the co-founder and owner of Whole Foods, the naturalized grocery chain across North America and the United Kingdom. You look at the products on the shelves and you can see that a lot of thought was put into each item. For me, it’s like being the best at something. Whole Foods shows a sense of best. I love the idea of best, and he knows how to do best. My daughter lives in Nappa and I could be there for seven days and I’d be in Whole Foods four or five times just enjoying the best.
2. I’d want to meet the writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn who recently passed away. He wrote about the transformation of Russia, what happened there and the political background. He was in the Gulag for 10 years so I’d like to talk to him about how he got there, what kind of paper he wrote on. He is someone who I admire a great deal.
3. I’d also like to meet George Soros who is responsible for giving away millions and millions of dollars.
4. I’d like to meet someone who has a passion for art, and they become art collectors and share their art with art museums. To have that passion and inquisitive nature, to start a collection and have the joy of sharing it with others speaks to me. Personal art collectors include the Lauders – Estee Lauder’s family has an impressive art collection, which I’d love to see.
5. I’d also like to meet a director of a museum

I’d want to say something specific to each person, so for instance, if I knew that I was going to meet Solzhenitsyn I’d ask him about after he went to America what was the big pull to return to Russia. I’m sure it’s obvious to him, but for me it would be interesting to hear how he came from living in Vermont then finding his way back to Russia. So for George Soros, I’d like to know when he chooses things out of the box to provide funding for, when and how did it start for him, when did this become a part of his life? With John Mackey I’d say something I admired about him and what he did. I like that whatever city there is a Whole Foods, he uses the sources of small farmers, and people who are starting out in small businesses. He gives people opportunities. For the art collector I’d like to know when his passion was created, where did it come from? For the museum director I’d like to know about his day and what it’s like.

Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply?

Carrie Katz: Out on a Limb by Shirley MacLaine. It was about taking a group of women to China, and all the various things that happened to them when they were there, and how their lives were transformed by being there and with each other. This was in the seventies when no one went to China.

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.

Carrie Katz:

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying: The Spiritual Classic & International Bestseller, Sogyal Rinpoche

The Help, Kathryn Stockett

The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin Hamid

Zorro: A Novel, Isabel Allende

The Bastard of Istanbul, Elif Shafak

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

Carrie Katz:  Beethoven Seventh Symphony and I’d like to watch the movie Here Am I by my son Douglas Naimer, a writer and film director.

What excites you about life?

Carrie Katz:  People and relationships are the most important things.

How do you nurture your soul?

Carrie Katz:  Giving and caring about others.

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?

Carrie Katz:  I wish we could have about 32 hours in a day.

What are your thoughts on this interview? What was expected and what was unexpected? What are 10 takeaways? How can you apply this information? Let's keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.