Shane Parrish

Reputation is a form of capital.

It just compounds more slowly than money.

Then Harrison pursued government grants with a tenacity that bordered on artistry.

A federal cold storage subsidy turned him down because McCain Foods was a private company and the program didn't allow personal gain.

But he wasn't one to take no for an answer, so he organized a farmer's co-op on the spot, applied through that, and got the grant.

He noticed that the province was seeking job creation projects.

He also noticed it was an election year.

So he walked away with a $470,000 bond guarantee.

Then he went to the local county council and secured a near total tax exemption for the first two years, telling them the federal and provincial governments were already backing him.

Five different sources of capital, and he didn't give up any equity.

His defense of taking government money was always practical and pragmatic.

The grants didn't make his business.

They made his business in Florenceville possible.

Without the grants, he'd probably still have a frozen food company because that was the kind of person he was.

But he'd have built it somewhere with easier access to capital markets like Toronto, Montreal, or Idaho.

The grants didn't create the entrepreneur, but they did let him do it in his small town.

And because he stayed home, Florenceville got a plant, local farmers got year-round buyer,

and thousands of people in a town the rest of Canada had forgotten about got steady jobs.

Now that they had the money, they had to build the thing.

They started by admitting plainly and without embarrassment that they didn't know how.