One of the defining moments of Farell Duclair's life came during a football game in Montreal when he was 13. His team was playing for a championship, a point down, and it had a chance to win on a field goal. The kick sailed wide of the goalposts.
“I was crying my eyes out in the locker room. We worked so hard all season and we lost,” Mr. Duclair recalls. “But I picked myself up, dusted off and tried again. And the next year, we won.”
The lesson he learned from that game would stick with him throughout his career in football, one that took him to varsity teams at the University of Illinois and Concordia and ultimately landed him a spot in the Canadian Football League, where he won the Grey Cup with the Calgary Stampeders in 1998. And that same perseverance, hard work and addiction to the thrill of victory – and the ability to come back after defeat – is coming in handy with this week’s launch of Everest Academy, a private school that trains athletes in Vaughan, Ont.
Mr. Duclair follows in the tradition of many athletes-turned-entrepreneurs who have chased the same competitiveness and desire for success they found in the world of sports. He has also paired his vision with the more pragmatic sensibilities of a business-minded partner, a successful strategy pursued by many business owners before him.
In 2008, he approached Adrian Herschell, a business consultant and former executive at Eatons and other retail companies. Mr. Herschell instructed Mr. Duclair to rewrite his business plan. He pushed him to do demographic research to determine the market demand for the school. He convened focus groups to determine what student athletes would want to see in a school. And he helped him pitch his idea to investors and earn their trust.
The pair still consult weekly and Mr. Duclair credits Mr. Herschell with keeping him on track. Forty students currently attend classes in the morning and spend the afternoon getting intensive training in sports of their choice.
When they considered broadening the school’s mandate to offer arts programs, for instance, the consultant steered them away from that idea.
“It was easy to get deflected by trying to cater to artistic students, too, and trying to reach that market,” Mr. Herschell said. “It was keeping him focused that was part of the challenge.”
James Gurunlian, Everest Academy teacher, Farell Duclair, Everest Academy founder, Adrian Herschell, senior business advisor and students Christian Drigo, 17, and Carlie McNamara, 16, begin their first day at Everest Academy.
Becky Reuber, a professor at the Rotman School of Business and an expert in entrepreneurship, said most start-ups begin life as a partnership.
Ms. Reuber also pointed out several areas where athletic training prepares for life as an entrepreneur.
“If you’re an elite athlete, one thing everyone knows about you is that you’re willing to work really, really hard and you’re willing to listen to advice,” she said. “Both entertainers and athletes tend to be very achievement-oriented; they also tend to be self-motivated.”
An athlete’s psychological makeup may also have something to do with it. “An athlete is a competitive person and business is a competitive atmosphere,” said Don Horwood, a sports psychology expert and retired professor from the University of Alberta. “Plus there’s the adrenalin rush. Every game night there’s an adrenalin rush. It gives you that opportunity to be on, to be battling every single day.”
As he walks the hallways of Everest Academy, tucked into the second floor of a sprawling sports complex, the fit, broad-shouldered Mr. Duclair still looks the part of a running back.
