July 2014 BCBusiness 117 bcbusiness.ca
agent freaks out on me, right in front of
everybody: "Do you know what you're
doing? Your dad wants this! He's going
to be mad at you." He thought he could
intimidate me into making a commis-
sion for him, so I ditched him. Took the
bus back from Kelowna by myself. You
have to learn to be your own person, to
set your boundaries. If you don't, peo-
ple push you around.
They say failure is a better teacher than suc-
cess. Have you found that?
Lots of times. I remember in the '90s
when CN Rail was going public and look-
ing for ways to save money, they were
spending a fortune putting up their
engineers in hotels while they waited
for the next assignment. We came up
with a modular building system, a cross
between an apartment and a hotel, that
would save them $40 million a year.
They really liked it and pressed us for all
the details about exactly how it would
work. We did the deal and agreed to split
the savings. We were going ahead when
we got a letter saying it was off. We said,
"Wait a minute, we have a memorandum
MAN ABOUT TOWN
Francesco having a drink
at Blue Water Cafe, one of
the five restaurants that
comprise the Toptable
Group, which the Aquilinis
acquired in the spring.
p112-121_Aquilini_july.indd 117 2014-05-29 11:31 AM
