"Do as I did when I was your age. Sleep in the
car; buy a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter and make
sandwiches out of that. In life one must make sacrifices in order
to attain one’s goals."
Jean-Guy Furois, mentor for the Canadian Youth
Business Foundation
Canadian mentor Jean-Guy Furois supports his
entrepreneurs' business goals
Occupation: Former Founder and President of
Graphicor Ltd, and now retired.
Mentor for: The Canadian Youth
Business Foundation
The quotation on the right is the advice he gave to two Canadian
entrepreneurs Yan and Sébastien Gagnon, who had been supported by
the Canadian Youth Business Foundation. It proved to be good
advice, seeing as their company, G.G. Telecom, has grown
successfully and has products available in stores nationally.
G.G Telecom designs and manufactures motion sensitive
digital cameras and pocket sized wireless motion detectors and
receivers, and Yan and Sébastien can certainly praise their mentor
for contributing greatly to their business achievements.
Mr Furois was inspired by a friend to become a mentor six years
after selling his business Graphicor Ltd. He says the key things he
does in mentoring are: "I help by being a good listener and
eagle-eyed. I inspire trust and give advice to my mentees without
dictating actions. I also offer constructive criticism and
compliment and praise them for good work." He adds: "I embed in
their mind the notion of excellence in everything they must
do."
One of the most important things Mr Furois helped his young
entrepreneurs in was encouraging them to go for things they
believed were out of reach.
When they wanted to participate in a trade show in Montreal but
didn’t have the money, Mr Furois encouraged them to find it because
the returns would be fantastic. So, with Mr Furois belief in them,
they managed to source the money and subsequently connected with
many potential retailers and distributors. Then to push them
further, Mr Furois suggested calling and visiting all the important
retailers they had met. Again, without the financial means they
didn’t think it could happen, but with Mr Furois help, they got in
their car and succeeded. The young entrepreneurs signed up
retailers and orders, more than enough to cover their expenses.
Because of Mr Furois' constant support, he was recognised
as the Canadian Youth Business Foundation’s 2008
Outstanding Mentor Award winner. "Moments like these are a mentor’s
pay cheque," he said.