Mark Smith shares the dream In Career Day keynote speech

What goes around comes around; and absolutely nobody succeeds in business without working hard.

There were many strong messages in the Career Day keynote address given by Selwyn House parent Mark Smith on April 21, but these were driven home most dramatically.

In high school Mark helped save a schoolmate from being bullied. The victim’s father later gave Mark his first solid job. About the same time, Mark hired a friend who was in trouble to help out with a weekend ski job, and later the friend’s father—the chairman of Deloitte of and Touche—gave Mark his first big break in the finance industry.

His message: it’s important how you treat people. Not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it will come back to you later, for good or for ill.

In Mark’s case, the mentors he met through such fortunate coincidences helped him to advance quickly through the family investment business. By age 26 he was an executive in Claridge, the Bronfman family investment company. By age 30 he was spending his days with captains of industry, advising the Bronfman family on multi-billion-dollar investments all over the world.

To make the point that “failure is only a mental state,” Mark led the students through high points and low points in his career. In 1995 he had one of the best weeks in his life. As president of Stephen Bronfman’s investment company, Claridge SRB Investments, Mark found himself sitting at a table with Stephen Bronfman and Michael Cohl, the world’s most successful and powerful concert promoter—with clients like The Rolling Stones and U2—successfully negotiating a very complex deal to finance both those bands’ upcoming world tours. On the same day, as a member of the Board of Directors of TSN, Mark was involved in the discussions and board approval surrounding TSN’S detailed strategy for its bid for the NHL hockey rights television deal that resulted in TSN owning, to this day, the most important elements of the NHL television contract. And the Canadiens were in the playoffs.

Sometime later, he had the week from hell: the Bronfman family, along with most investors, lost millions when the stock market tanked, he had his new car stolen and was diagnosed with early-stage thyroid cancer. And the Habs were eliminated from the playoffs.

“What makes the good times good, are the bad times,” Mark told the students. “How you deal with adversity will define who you are.”

Mark made a good case for his profession as a career choice. A chartered accountant’s degree is a flexible and marketable skill. The family office investment business—advising wealthy families on managing their money—is a rapidly growing and interesting arm of the finance and investment industry.

With a positive attitude, a concern for family and community, and a willingness to work hard, he said, “You can all live your dream.”