In 2010, Dutch-born Colin Mansell decided to take a big step with his life and career: he moved to Vancouver from London. After receiving his permanent residency three years later, Mansell started his own web design company in partnership with Vancouver-based firm 6S Marketing.
Those are probably not changes he would have made without a couple of formative life experiences.
Watching a former girlfriend go through a serious health crisis in her 20s, with a brain tumour that put her in a coma at one point, put life and career decisions in sharp focus.
“The experience helped me to realize that today is the only day you have,” Mansell said.
A few years later he embarked on an ambitious sailing trip up B.C.’s rugged Inside Passage. The experience led him to move permanently to this province, and also taught him a philosophy he uses to this day in business.
“We’d come across people in a harbour somewhere and they’d say, ‘You guys are crazy for trying to sail to Alaska in this small sailing boat; it’s too late in the season,’” Mansell said.
“We’d say, ‘We’ll just go to the next harbour and then we’ll decide what the next step is.’ That’s a motto I carry around – the hardest thing is to leave the harbour. It’s not like you’re going to sail to Alaska in one day.”
Mansell’s firm has now grown to employ 30 people. He finds that using the lessons of preparation and teamwork he’s learned from sailing come in handy for managing people and a business.
“It’s about heartbeat; it’s about regular systems: standup meetings every day, [ensuring] that you have regular cash flow, that it’s following a rhythm. … Every day you’re checking in and reassessing where you’re at,” he said.
“You’ve checked into the next anchorage and then you look at the charts and see what’s what, and then you make a decision about what you need to do the next day.”
On what makes a good partnership | “The No. 1 thing is integrity. I would completely trust [my partners at 6S]. We have our head and our heart, and it’s asking my heart, ‘Do I 100% know that these guys have my back, if it ever came to it?’ I’m a huge believer in partnership and I also believe in the 50-50 partnership – you’ve got to be full partners. … It is like marriage; it’s a lifelong thing. Businesses don’t grow and disappear overnight; it’s a really long-term investment.”
Has a work or life challenge taught you a key career lesson? Contact Jen St. Denis at [email protected]
