Dr Michael R MacDonald

“I just kept showing up.”

Really!

Such a humble statement for an incredibly accomplished man, David Patchell-Evans, or as friends and family call him, Patch.

I think by just showing up he meant just showing up to do what others were unwilling to do.

But that is not the whole story, not even close.

A Very Early Start

Here is an example of how Patchell-Evans has showed up. And he was only 10 at the time.

In a recent interview with Jared Lindzon, Patchell-Evans tells us about his entrepreneurial beginnings.

What was your first foray into entrepreneurship?

“It’s textbook; I had a paper route. Only I had five. I recognized, at 10 years old, that most kids didn’t want to collect money or ask for new business, so I did the door-knocking and paid my buddies to deliver the paper. It turns out a lot of entrepreneurship is knocking on doors, doing the work that other people don’t want to do, and getting used to hearing “no.” “

This story can tell us a lot about Patchell-Evans energy and ambition. Even more, it showed a real understanding about business and about how to get ahead in this world. A world that was made very difficult by losing his father at an early age, and by being raised poor, by a single mother.

Unstoppable

Even at age 10, Patchell-Evans knew how to get shit done. Very GSD!

And he didn’t stop there.

For his Toronto Star article, Lindzon got further evidence of Patchell-Evans’ drive.

“I traded my motorcycle at the end of first year (of university) for a 20-year-old Jeep with an old snowplow, and I got 20 contracts that year. The next, I got 100. Then I bought another Jeep. By the next year, I had five trucks, and I was making about $60,000, $70,000 a year, while going to school.”

“My snowplowing company guaranteed your lot would be done by seven in the morning. Not everyone would do that. So that winter I didn’t sleep for four or five days straight.”

Here again, he showed he was willing to show up and do what his competitors were unwilling to do.

Success from his snowplowing business allowed Patchell-Evans to buy his first gym. Now, he was out of the gate, off running and still hasn’t stopped.

A Roaring Success

Here are a few highlights.

• He founded GoodLife Fitness in April 1979, which grew to be Canada’s largest fitness club chain and the fourth largest in the world by 2023.

• Over the next four decades, he grew the company to include more than 400 clubs across Canada under the GoodLife Fitness, Fit4Less, and ÉconoFitness brands.

• During his time at Western University, he also discovered his passion for rowing, which led to a competitive career that saw him win five Canadian Rowing Championships.

• Patchell-Evans’ impact extends beyond his business success. He has been a vocal advocate for fitness and has held leadership positions in industry organizations.

• As a philanthropist, Patchell-Evans has made significant contributions to various causes. He has donated over $40 million to non-profits across Canada. In 1998, he founded the GoodLife Kids Foundation to provide physical activity opportunities for children with special needs. His commitment to autism research, inspired by his daughter Kilee’s diagnosis, led to the establishment of the Kilee Patchell-Evans Autism Research Group and a $5 million pledge to help build the GoodLife Fitness Autism Hub in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada.

Just Show Up

Just showing up is not a new idea, but it is not that common either.

Garfene Grandison, a corporate communications manager, wrote an interesting piece on LinkedIn,

The importance of showing up! The BEST thing anyone can do in their daily life! 

He cites Woody Allen who said, “80 percent of success in life is just showing up.” He thinks there’s a lot of truth in that. And then offers a clear explanation.

“When I say “show up,” I don’t mean just to come to a physical location. But it means going some place each day and being willing to work. Showing up means coming in with the right attitude; having the dedication, the drive, the passion and that consistent effort that will over time turn into expertise which will eventually yield results.”

“Showing up means being prepared to put in the work, regardless of outside factors or obstacles, including our own negative self-talk.”

“Showing up isn’t about being selfish! It’s also about supporting others.”

Here is a little shout out to the nurses and doctors that really know how to show up.

A Personal Example

Early in our psychology careers, my wife and I set up a private practice group. Our first task was to find clients to treat.

Potential referral sources were family doctors and medical specialists. But these busy people are hard to connect with. We needed to find a way to appeal to them. And since we did not have an established track record or reputation at that time, we needed a unique appeal.

We decided to offer these overworked professionals some help with their busy lives. In regular mailings, we offered to help their most challenging (and time consuming) patients and to do the paperwork and reports they had no time to do.

This involved helping to treat patients with painful stress-related medical problems (which was an interest of mine anyway). Such problems are difficult for physicians, since effective treatment necessitates attending to the physical and medical parts of each problem as well as the psychological and social components. Physicians rarely have time to provide this kind of comprehensive care. So we offered to help.

Secondly, we offered to treat people injured in car or work accidents and to do the paperwork and reports required. With our help, there was less pressure on them to deal with the complicated (and hard to understand) insurance, legal and workers’ compensation systems involved. We also offered to advise and help them to understand how these systems actually worked.

Essentially, we tried to show up for our patients, by doing the advocacy and reports they needed to fight their denied insurance claims. And to show up for the professionals willing to refer to us. We showed that we were willing to do what many other psychologists were unwilling to do. And it worked. Our practice kept growing and growing, even in a small community like London, Ontario.

And Now, A Little More

In an older post, I described how to show up in a variety of ways. It was called,

How to Feel Younger at Any Age (3/5)

In this post, I give several examples of people showing up and making a difference. One of these included a description of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s role as cheerleader, when he was the governor of California.

Also included was a video, called The Simple Power of Showing Up It is one of many illustrated videos on this YouTube channel. I tried to find out who created these helpful videos. All I came up with was Adam (The Art of Improvement). Maybe, this adds an air of mystery to his work. A little intrigue, why not?

“I just kept showing up”, said Patch. Yes you did. And thank you from your GSD fans. You keep showing us how.

Until next time, let our warm hearts soar!

Michael

michael@aWarmHeart.ca

And thank you for caring that little bit extra – it really makes a big difference.