Savvy marketer credits success to team spirit

They said that David Nichols was too small to play competitive water polo. It’s a big man’s sport, they said, at five feet nine you won’t make it; find something else to do.

But David, a young teenager at the time, liked water polo and didn’t like being told what he could or couldn’t do. He also had a coach who believed in him and provided a foundation of self-confidence that David built on to help establish one of Canada’s leading experiential marketing agencies long before he was 40.

The coach was Michel Roy, who now lives in Hawaii and is head coach of the women’s water polo team at the University of Hawaii and also coach of the Canadian junior women’s national team. But it was Mr. Roy’s nine years in Vancouver coaching players at Pacific Storm Water Polo that had a profound effect on David Nichols and his twin brother, Brent.

“Michel really believed in us,” says David. “He saw that we had passion and enough raw toughness to go up against the big guys. He convinced us that we could do well – and then pushed us hard to make sure that we did.”

Mr. Roy’s confidence was well placed. David went on to play for his university and for British Columbia. Then he and Brent went into business together with partner Geoff Cribbs, to start Inventa, a different type of marketing agency that took brand experience to a whole new level.

With offices in Vancouver and Toronto – and a client list that includes Coca Cola, Nintendo, Nestle, Kellogg’s, Johnson & Johnson and Bell – Inventa has been responsible for programs such as the marketing push around the Coke-sponsored Olympic torch relay across Canada and Nintendo’s high-visibility guerrilla marketing campaign to promote Wii Music.

While the determination to succeed may have been instilled by Michel Roy, the motivation to do something different came from David’s parents, Dave Nichols Sr. and Joan Nichols.

“Our parents were always very supportive without being prescriptive. My father is an architect, but also an entrepreneur, and he encouraged us to do whatever would make us happy in life – although he cautioned us against becoming architects.”

Equally important in helping David achieve success has been his wife, Pia.

“I know it’s a cliché, but wives of entrepreneurs are the unsung heroes. Pia has not only supported me every step of the way, but has tolerated all the travel, late nights and weekend work that goes into building a business. She is a real star,” says David.

Although he has been alongside the Nichols brothers in their journey towards the top, David credits business partner Geoff Cribbs for the vision of what the three of them could achieve.

“When we teamed up in up 1996, Brent and I were 25 and Geoff was 15 years our senior. We had the passion and he had the experience and, like Michel, he believed in us. It was a great combination,” says David.

Claus Rerup, an associate professor of Organizational Behavior at the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario in London, says while mentoring is important at any age, it is particularly important at an early age.

“However, there is a tension because to be successful at an early age, it is often necessary to both heed and ignore advice from mentors. The trick to being successful is being able to heed the ‘right’ lessons and ignore the ‘wrong’ lessons,” says Dr. Rerup.

While mentors matter, the ability of the person being mentored to both heed and ignore the advice given is often under-appreciated, he adds.

“Excellence is often a result of mundane activities: the attitude, technique and discipline we daily bring to work. However, there seems to be a tendency in the media when ‘winners’ or ‘successful people’ tell their story to focus on a few big events or decisions rather than the mundane day-to-day activities that made them successful,” says Dr. Rerup.

Or as America author Henry David Thoreau stated many years ago, “Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.”