Jim Treliving Quotes

101 Jim Treliving Quotes

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We think good outcomes equal good decisions, bad outcomes, bad decisions. But it doesn’t work like that in business or in life… many of the ‘worst’ decisions I’ve ever made brought me the best outcomes possible, personally, professionally and financially.
Jim Treliving

A decision is just a decision. It’s neutral. It outlines an action you’re going to take. It’s only because of the outcome that you look back on a decision and call it good or bad.
Jim Treliving

Eating pizza for dinner changed the course of my life and no one would have called that a big decision.
Jim Treliving

There is such a thing as easy decisions and difficult ones.
Jim Treliving

Usually, the higher the stakes, the more people who are involved and the harder it is to make a decision – because you know you’re setting in motion a chain of events that you may not be able to stop, events that will affect everyone and everything in their path.
Jim Treliving

I’m continually amazed at how Dragons’ Den has enlivened the spirit of entrepreneurship in this country.
Jim Treliving

I especially get a kick out of kids, some as young as eight years old, who can debate the merits of a business’s valuation with me. I love that.
Jim Treliving

And to think… I almost passed on the opportunity to be a Dragon.
Jim Treliving

Not everyone can get rich, but everyone can be satisfied with what they’ve built, with what they have, with who they are.
Jim Treliving

At the end of the day, despite the detours my decisions have taken me on, I am, I believe, exactly where I’m supposed to be, with exactly who I’m supposed to be with, doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing. And that, to me, is the true definition of success.
Jim Treliving



When you’re a child, your parents make decisions for you – hopefully good ones. As you reach adulthood, you start making your own decisions. But there’s that tricky place between childhood and adulthood where your decisions can sometimes take you 10 steps forward and a few back. You’re new at making them, which is why no one turns 18 without at least a few scars, inside and out.
Jim Treliving

I suppose a lot of people feel the place they grew up was the most beautiful place in the world.
Jim Treliving

I never doubted that my teachers and coaches had my best interests in mind.
Jim Treliving

[On the commonality of all the Canadian Dragons Den panellists (Canadian Dragons’)] We all have in common is the adaptability that most immigrants pass down to their kids, and a profound passion for this country.
Jim Treliving

[On his Grandpa Gardner who worked until the day he passed away at age the of 93.] He was a born entrepreneur, a guy who worked for himself and made money until the day he died. He did intend to retire… But his retirement lasted two weeks. He then bought a corner store with his son, and few years later got involved in a gold mine.
Jim Treliving

[On his Grandpa Gardner passing away at age 93.] He probably would have stuck around another decade had it not been for a tragic fall from a ladder while climbing after some peaches. His broken hip got infected and he died at the age of 93. He was a great man…
Jim Treliving

I like to think I got my entrepreneurial spirit from Grandpa Gardner.
Jim Treliving

[On his parents getting married] My dad was 37 years old; my mother had just finished high school. I was born a year later. It was considered a pretty big age difference between my folks – then and now. But my father had deliberately waited that long to marry. He didn’t want to get married until he had saved enough money to actually afford a family. And by ‘afford’ I mean he waited until he had enough money to pay for a house – cash, no mortgage – to ensure that his wife would never have to work outside the home. On a barber’s income, that took a while.
Jim Treliving

My dad felt that a solid financial foundation was as important as love when it came to marriage… He was of the mind that a man provided and until he could provide he was not a man.
Jim Treliving

When I told my father that I was leaving the RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] to get into the pizza business, he told me I needed to see a psychiatrist.
Jim Treliving



[On his bank manager granting a loan to help him start his first restaurant. But warning him to never miss a payment.] It was years later that I learned there had never been a bank loan at all. My father had gone to the bank earlier that day and deposited the money I needed in an account. He asked the manager to pretend it was a bank loan, to teach me the value of repaying debts.
Jim Treliving

The greatest guy I ever met was Warren Buffett: he made a fortune and has given it all away.
Jim Treliving

I’m a firm believer in giving back to society and my wife and I have just donated $1 million towards schizophrenia research.
Jim Treliving

Not in my wildest dreams did I dream I would be where I am today.
Jim Treliving

My mother used to say, ‘Be nice to people on the way up, because you will see the same people again on the way back down.’ I have always tried to stay true to that.
Jim Treliving

I think… you have to be tough. Compassion is a thing that I grew up with, my parents taught me.
Jim Treliving

You have to be moving fast, quickly every day.
Jim Treliving

[On running his first Boston Pizza store] The first couple of years I was broke and didn’t know it… I just stuck it out.
Jim Treliving

It was tough…
Jim Treliving

You’re constantly changing in our business.
Jim Treliving



[After a year or two of running his first Boston Pizza store after having originally been a policeman.] Finally a friend of mine came in and said ‘Jim, you’ve got to start smiling. They’re customers not suspects.’
Jim Treliving

[On having to have a 40% housing deposit] When I bought my first house it was 40% down.
Jim Treliving

I’ve been married three times, my wife is watching and I can’t afford to be going fourth.
Jim Treliving

[As a child] I was twelve years old when we got our first car.
Jim Treliving

My dad… said you have to go because your mother said you have to go.
Jim Treliving

To the day he died my father was a cash only kind of guy. As a child of the depression he never shook off his mortal fear of debt.
Jim Treliving

In business and life I’ve always tried to find a balance between risk and growth.
Jim Treliving

My dad always had a lot of cash in the back pocket, but it was hard to get it out of the back pocket.
Jim Treliving

[On eating his first pizza in his life at Boston Pizza] I’m waiting there for the knife and fork.
Jim Treliving

[When he was a policeman] Gus said ‘You should get into business…’
Jim Treliving



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