Embrace change and listen to your heart and gut.
Thomas Haughton is the Vice President of Winnipeg-based My Place Realty, also known as MPR, and has helped lead the company since 2012. At My Place Realty, he oversees all aspects of business, everything from construction management to finance to property management. He works hand in hand with his senior management team to help ensure the company perform optimally.
Before leading My Place Realty, Tom served as the Regional Support and Training Manager at TD Canada Trust. He also served as President and CEO of Global Drug Supply Group of Companies where he was charged with overseeing the operation. He worked closely with his management team to handle operations in warehouse, purchasing, and finance for several years.
Tom earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Manitoba, concentrating his studies on human resources and marketing and graduating with Honors.
Where did the idea for your company come from?
Our vision is to provide quality multi-family homes that people are proud to call home. With this, we came up with the name My Place Realty to instil a sense of ownership in the name.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
My typical day includes attending meetings with my team, meeting with suppliers, business planning and analyzing the business performance. Occasionally, I inspect our apartment buildings to provide feedback to our property management team.
How do you bring ideas to life?
I enjoy brainstorming with my senior management team, doing research online and thinking out of the box.
What’s one trend that excites you?
I am excited with building intelligence technologies. I believe this will make our lives more enjoyable, efficient and better informed.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
I believe open communication with my team and business relationships is critical to our success. Active listening is one of the most critical components of open communication.
What advice would you give your younger self?
I would say to embrace change and listen to your heart and gut.
Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.
Putting yourself in an uncomfortable situation will make you more comfortable in the future.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
I always trust in myself and never accept failure. Success is always just around the corner.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?
Building a strong business and social network to share creative ideas, valuable resources and to support one another.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
I offered a job to a Manager for a critical role even though my gut was telling me different. When interviewing for the new replacement, I made sure it felt right before offering the new person the role.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Everyone’s lives continue to get busier and busier, so home convenience services are my business idea. Creating a company that caters to helping people feel there’s more time in the day will be a gold mine.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
I recently purchased a new Fitbit to better track activities in my life. This will help me improve my health and well-being.
What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
I know Excel has been around for ever, but I love how you can easily bring data together, organize it, look for trends and do forecasting.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
I love “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari” by Robin Sharma. It contains understandable wisdom, reminds you money can’t buy you happiness and healthy is wealth!
What is your favorite quote?
My favourite quote is “Life is 10 percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.” By Lou Holtz. With a positive attitude, anything is possible!
Key learnings:
- To be successful, you need to take risks and trust in yourself.
- Networking is fun and can be beneficial to your career.
- Take time in life to travel, expand your horizons and make time to rejuvenate yourself.
- Without health and happiness, wealth is worthless.
Connect:
Tom Haughton on About.me:
Tom Haughton on Weebly:
Tom Haughton on Crunchbase:
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.