In October of 2007, I did a profile of Ron Joyce (Have You Found Your Calling?), one of the richest Canadians entrepreneurs and the founder of Tim Hortons. I wanted to continue to shed some light on the secrets to his success today by expanding on one of his tried and true strategies for success:“When you find the niche you love, that becomes your passion,” says Joyce. “For me it was Tim Hortons. It was my world.”
The story of Tim Hortons is one of death and tragedy, one of heartbreak and loss, but above all else, it is a story of unbridled passion and success. There is no question that Joyce was one of the most devoted businessmen of his time. An admitted workaholic, Joyce’s personal life often bore the brunt of that hard work. Indeed, his two marriages might have resulted in seven children, but they both also ended in divorce.
After Horton’s death, Joyce’s second wife, Teri, took their three children together and left with no further contact information. Of her, Joyce says, “She wanted the benefits that came with a strong work ethic, but I always felt she wasn’t willing to put up with the sacrifices I needed to make to obtain them.”
Joyce admittedly had little time for a personal life. “I think people who excel in anything are often totally dedicated to it, but are only really good at one thing,” he says. For Joyce, that one thing was business. He loved it more than anything else he knew and dedicated all of his time and energy to seeing Tim Hortons grow.
“I look at the great athletes of all time, like Michael Jordan, who went from basketball to baseball and it didn’t work,” he says. “Or Wayne Gretzky, who probably wouldn’t have been great at anything but hockey.” Joyce knew that his business was to him what hockey and basketball were to Wayne Gretzky and Michael Jordan. And, it was in having that passion for what he did that he was able to take Tim Hortons to the top.
Aside from business, only one thing could ever get Joyce as excited and that was golf. As passionate as he was about it, though, he knew it was never one of his natural talents, not like business. But Joyce never seemed to care. It did not matter to Joyce that he would never be the next Jack Nichols, but he kept playing the game with the same attitude he used in his business. “If you love the game, it doesn’t matter if you play badly,” he says. “It is still a wonderful way to spend a day. There are days when I get so damned mad at myself when playing, but then I can hardly wait to get back on the course.”
Joyce loved his business, but that did not mean he was perfect at running it. He made mistakes like everyone else. Tim Hortons pies are just one example of one of Joyce’s experiments gone wrong. But, mistake or not, Joyce never gave up because there was nothing else he would rather have been doing. Even after he left his position at the top, he would continue to spend his spare hours sitting quietly in the corner of a Tim Hortons, watching patrons place their orders and down their Timbits. His business was his second home.
When Joyce was once downhill skiing near Calgary, he ran into a professional skier friend of his. She was complaining about people who wanted to get up to the top of the hill and down again as fast as they could. “They didn’t care about the in-between, which was the fun part,” says Joyce. He took that same attitude with both business and golf.
“I look at a player…who shoots three or four over par, and I think that must be nice,” he says. “But it is also quite nice just to go out there and play.”
