Turn Can't Into Next: Leadership by Cadorath Gerry

Author:Cadorath, Gerry [Cadorath, Gerry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gerry O. Cadorath
Published: 2020-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

Nine

A SIMPLE ACT OF DEFIANCE

Lesson #9:

Trust in your intuition.

C adorath is a complicated beast, but it wasn’t always that way. This book wouldn’t be complete without telling the story of how our first Aerospace (MRO) company started. In order to do that, and tell the story from my perspective, I’ll have to take you back a long way.

Mom was born in 1925 and Dad in 1926 and they grew up, for the most part, in Winnipeg during the Great Depression. When Mom was born, her mother threw her at the foot of the bed and refused to even give her a name. She didn’t want another daughter because daughters were a burden, whereas sons could earn money for the family. Mom spent the first days of her life known simply as female baby Hebert.

At age five, Mom was sent to live in a convent, and she was not allowed home, even for holidays. I guess Mother Superior was fond of slapping the girls, and at age fifteen Mom had finally had enough. The last time Mother Superior slapped her in the face, she slapped her right back, twice as hard. Her mother begrudgingly allowed her back in the house. Because of this, and other bullying tactics of hers, I never had any use for my grandmother. I’m pretty sure Mom’s lonely childhood had a lifelong effect on her. It did, however, illustrate to me that people could have absolute crap laid on their plate and overcome it. I loved Mom very much. I believe she gave me the attitude and willingness to challenge people, challenge assumptions, and overcome roadblocks in life.

In 1979 when I first went to work for Dad, another company had been added to the group that manufactured helicoid auger flighting for several industries, including agriculture. Of course, the company was much smaller than it is today. Currently, we have seven operating companies in our group.

Fast forward several years into my career when I was selling products for our agricultural company. I’ll never forget what Dad told me all those years ago: “Don’t bother trying to sell electroplating beyond a 500-mile radius, it can’t be done.” At the time our plating company was performing electroplating for an aircraft engine overhaul shop in Winnipeg. I kept thinking to myself, “Well, their products travel the world. Why can’t ours?” My vision back then was quite simple: if we could perform plating-based repairs for the aircraft industry, we could sell our electroplating services beyond 500 miles.

On one sales trip, I was in the Vancouver area and I knew that there were at least four companies there that were involved in one way or another with the Rolls-Royce M250 helicopter engine, which was a product line we were already doing plating for at the local shop. In fact, there were certain repairs that I suspected other companies needed help with. Before I left Winnipeg, I contacted these companies and was able to arrange meetings with two of them. If you recall from

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