Becoming a Somebody by Steven Nyczyk

Author:Steven Nyczyk [Nyczyk, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: 2019-09-21T00:00:00+00:00

MR. ELIA

Other than the referrals I had received from Grenville Davis, the luckiest break of my early years in Canada was meeting Mariano Elia. Like my father and Bai Kolyo before him, Mr. Elia became a tremendous source of guidance, encouragement, and wisdom upon which I could draw. He was a true mentor to me, a father figure in a foreign land.

Mariano Elia and I first crossed paths on the day I went to buy two lots from my realtor friend, Earl Clare. Mr. Clare was a real estate agent, but Mariano Elia owned all the lots, and he had the final say regarding who could or could not purchase them. Builders often buy property from land developers who specialize in rezoning undeveloped land for houses, factories, or any other use. Some builders integrate this important function into their business, but at the time I didn’t have the capacity to develop the land as well as build on it. (Over time, I did incorporate this function into our business model.) So, before I could buy, I had to go speak to Mr. Elia in his office. Mr. Clare prepared me by telling me everything he knew about this man. He considered Mr. Elia to be an intimidating figure and urged me to approach him carefully.

At the time of our introduction in 1955, Mr. Elia was in his early fifties. He was a few inches shy of six feet tall but still intimidating with his gruff features and disapproving expression, not to mention his status as a man who could make or break any hopeful builder in the area. Mr. Elia was an immigrant who had come to Canada as an eighteen-year-old boy to avoid being sent to the army in his native Italy. Like me, he had found success in Canada as a young immigrant.

Earl Clare introduced me to Mariano Elia, we shook hands, and then we quickly hit it off, much to even my own surprise. For some reason, Mr. Elia, one of the most prominent land developers in the area, took an immediate liking to me. Mr. Clare had described him as a hard man who was often known to be difficult with builders. When it came to his dealings with me, however, Mr. Elia was incredibly kind and generous from the very beginning.

As best as I could figure at the time, Mr. Elia probably thought I was a nice, harmless young man. However, as the years passed and I came to know him better as a man and a close friend, I realized I probably reminded Mariano of himself as a younger man — a go-getter with endless ambition for work.

Long after the fact, I was told that Mr. Elia already knew who I was, what I was doing, and why I had come to his office. I was still a small-time player among builders in the area, but he was the sort of man who knew about all the players in his circle of influence, big or small.

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