My 25 year old son got an injury, and spent a week in hospital, had a setback today so I brought him back there. His size 13 feet are hanging off the bed because he is so tall, and it reminded me of back to a day when his feet were in tiny 4 inch long Michael Jordan sneakers and he was 3 months old in the company of greats.
Mompreneurs are next level beings.
I was on maternity leave from my position at Vancouver City Hall, and was a partner in a golf business on the side, when an exclusive invite came in that I couldn’t pass up. Caleb Chan, who owned Mayfair Lakes Golf Course in Richmond, BC was flying Jack Nicklaus in to design a course for him in Whistler BC and wanted us to come to Whistler and meet Jack and spend the day with him.
I had no daycare, and an 18 month old son and a 3 month old son who I was nursing exclusively, so we packed them in the van and brought them along.
After watching Jack, the golden bear, golf on the TV for decades it was an honor to meet him. He had the high pitched, soft voice as always, and was a master at public relations, communicating well, and to my surprise, took a special interest in my sons. He taught my oldest boy how to do a “high five” like his grandson. He said my son was doing it too softly, and he had to do it with more force, and he taught him how to do it. We got photos, but sometimes when business partnerships break up, you don’t get the photos, they do!
Jack was also a master golf course designer. He took us out onto the dirt patch which would eventually be the first hole at Nicklaus North Golf Course, and waved his wand and said “I’m gonna put a bunker over there, and a mound over here, etc, and helped us envision the whole course which was laid out on blueprints inside the trailer where we would later eat our sandwiches together for lunch.
I missed out on touring the entire course with Jack, Caleb, a greens superintendent at Nicklaus North and a golf pro, because my son with the big feet was breastfeeding every few hours and I had to sit in the van and feed him for 20 minute intervals.
I always think that moms can be entrepreneurs, and it is so much easier now that we have the internet, which was in its’ infancy in 1994 when the meeting took place, but they can’t have their feet fully in both worlds at the same time. The needs of their kids are going to win out, and if I didn’t have a partner in the business at the time, I would have been missed when I was caring for the baby.
It was fun when I played golf a few years later at Nicklaus North when all the grass was planted and everything was in place, having seen the mess that it began with. It was fun being in the room with Jack Nicklaus, and seeing how someone with his amount of fame and success was really simply a great down to earth people person. And as a mom, it was fun watching those tiny feet grow.
And as a writer and observer, it was great seeing how Caleb Chan shunned the spotlight, was reserved, and almost shy. (I don’t think he would want the picture I took of him to be posted), but what he did was LISTEN. He listened to Jack, the golf pro, and the groundskeeper with ears wide open to learn everything he could and form working relationships with them. He went on to buy up golf courses in BC and Hawaii, as he continued to learn, and make money, and become a philanthropist in the community. Here’s a link about Caleb:
