How Books On Maritime Entrepreneurs Distracted Me From Netflix
Mark Leger is the editor of Huddle. This is a new weekly column that will feature opinion, analysis and reflections on Huddle content and business news in the region.
I consider myself an avid reader, tracing my love of books back to a university course on European literature that kept me curled up in a comfy chair for hours on end reading the novels of Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy and Simone de Beauvoir.
Truthfully, though, the 900-page novel has now been replaced by a two-pound tablet on which I binge-watch shows like Ozark, The Queen’s Gambit and The Mandalorian. Barack Obama’s 750-page presidential memoir sits on the coffee table beside the couch; I’ll read some of it before I go to bed, I think, and then wake up on the couch late at night, the tablet in my lap, the book unopened.
I’m happy to report that I’ve interrupted that routine thanks to the Huddle “Home Office” podcast and recent books about Maritime entrepreneurs.
Near the end of September, I chatted with Donald Savoie about his latest book, Thanks for the Business: K.C. Irving, Arthur Irving and the Story of Irving Oil (Nimbus Publishing). In the midst of the pandemic, it was especially instructive, and inspiring to read about K.C.’s entrepreneurial drive, expanding Irving Oil’s services and market reach in the midst of the depression and establishing a refinery in a small city like Saint John against the viewpoint of a global oil giant.
A week later, I spoke with Gordon Pitts about Unicorn in the Woods (Goose Lane Editions), his book about the launch and eventual sale of two New Brunswick tech titans, cybersecurity firm Q1 Labs and social media monitoring company Radian6. A friend of mine rightly called the book “a page-turner,” a high compliment for a regional business book. I recognized the characteristics company founders like Brian Flood and Chris Newton shared with K.C., all of them with the innovative minds, drive and confidence to build companies with global reach from this province.
Tareq Hadhad and his father Isam of Peace by Chocolate belong in the same category as these “cod-fathers” and “code-fathers,” nicknames for the generations of Maritime business leaders that built traditional companies in resource sectors and the more recent ones that have built globally-competitive tech businesses.
The Hadhads lost the family business, a chocolate factory bombed during the war in Syria, but have since rebuilt it in Nova Scotia. Their perseverance and optimism in the face of great challenges are chronicled in a new book by Halifax journalist Jon Tattrie, Peace By Chocolate: The Hadhad Family’s Remarkable Journey from Syria to Canada (Goose Lane Editions).
I chatted with Tareq on the January 8th episode of “Home Office” and he speaks about the fierce resilience of their entrepreneurial spirit, something he says is true of many immigrants to this country.
“When immigrants come to Canada, they don’t come empty. Everyone has their own skills, their own talent and their own passion, their own stories and experiences,” Tareq tells me. “Even though we lost everything in Syria we didn’t lose any of that. This was our intellectual property, so we lost everything in the war but they did not kill that spirit in us. They did not kill that knowledge, that skill, that talent. This is not something you lose in a war. This is something that goes with you forever until you die.”
Sounds like a cod-father or code-father to me.
This weekend, start on one of these books if you haven’t already, and listen to the podcast interviews. But first, put your tablet or phone down on the coffee table and pick up a book (unless of course, the book is on your device).
The Huddle “Home Office” podcast – available on platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts – features conversations with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia community leaders and entrepreneurs. Search for “Huddle Home Office” and subscribe.