David is president of Deville Technologies, a family business that was founded by his father. As a young adult, David had no interest in surfing on his father success and was ready to follow his own path. After a start-up experience in the US and a year in law school, David was making his way in the workforce when his father asked him to take over the company. David accepted under the one condition that his father should truly believe he had the abilities to grow the business. And indeed, he did, as Deville Technologies has been seeing 40% growth on average these past years. David shares with the listeners the challenges that come with supporting that amount of growth, as well as the steps that allowed him to get there.

David’s Growth Story Book Title: 

“Fantastic”

What you’ll learn:

• Entrepreneurship runs in the family: David’s grandfather had is own restaurant, his father started the business. David’s older brother is also in his business.
• David wasn’t planning on taking on the family business. He didn’t like working for his father so much and decided to go back to school to become a lawyer. After a year in law school, he realized he didn’t want to be a lawyer.

Notable quotes:

• “I always had an urge for business.” – David about wanting to have a paper route so early he had to lie about his age to the manager.
• “If you are asking me to come work for the family business, then it’s because you really truly believe that I have the competencies and the abilities to bring it to a successful level.” – David told his father he would only come in the family business under this condition, as he didn’t want to just ride on his success, he wanted to earn his own.

Show notes:

02:10 – David mentions meeting in EO, Entrepreneurs Organization, an organization to help entrepreneurs connect and grow.

03:40 – Deville Technologies is a family owned business that specializes in manufacturing and distributing food cutting equipment.

06:30 – David grew up in Montreal’s West Island, first in Pierrefonds and then in Kirkland.

07:00 – The company was founded in 1974.

13:05 – David went to study political sciences at Concordia University and then went to Université de Montréal for law school.

16:20 – David lived in the US for a year and even launched a start-up advertising business there.

21:45 – David took over the business from his father in 2007.

35:00 – David mentions the book Traction by Gino Wickman for helping his executive team get on track.

37:10 – David mentions the book The leader who had no title by Robin Sharma. He also went to one of his talks.

37:50 – David mentions a former EOer, Tatiana Dudyez, as the one who introduced him to EO after they met at Robin Sharma’s talk.

38:40 – David mentions meeting Jack Daly at an EO event where he introduced him to his business coach Sheldon Harris from CEO Coaching International, a coaching company founded by Mark Moses.