Life is like a game of marbles, says first-time author Hal Couillard, but collecting those marbles, much like a lifetime spent acquiring wealth and material possessions, doesn’t guarantee fulfillment.
“I was trying to come up with a life analogy about people’s wealth,” said Couillard, an Okotoks resident and Calgary-based financial advisor. “I remembered that when we were children we used to play marble games with the intention of winning the marbles.”
From that childhood memory, and the life lessons Couillard drew from it, came the creation of “Lifeworth: Finding Fulfillment Beyond Networth”. The book, released in December, was self-published and co-written by Couillard and his brother Dana Couillard, Lethbridge resident and educator.
“I made the transition to thinking that after we grew up life became a bag of marbles,” said Couillard, who currently sits on the board of the Foothills Country Hospice. “We spend our lives trying to accumulate things and create this comfort zone. A comfort zone can be a great thing, but on the flip side, a comfort zone can be a trap.”
Over the course of his 37-year career as a financial services advisor, Couillard discovered discussions with his clients were evolving beyond accumulating net worth, towards questions around life purpose and legacy. He said people are often reluctant to push themselves out of their comfort zones, which he described as a place of safety and security, where life is moving along smoothly with few “peaks and valleys.”
However, according to the author what lies beyond is worth the risk.
“Beyond fear is freedom,” he explained. “When you break out of your comfort zone and face a fear head on or a physical challenge, you’re truly living life to its fullest. And if you can do it while helping other people at the same time then that’s ‘lifeworth’.”
This conviction took Couillard and his brother Dana on a journey into the fascinating lives of 10 Canadians who have stepped out of their comfort zones. They’ve faced their fears, surmounted obstacles and overcome tragedies. Their stories are uplifting and inspirational, but Couillard said they could also be emotional and heartbreaking.
“We wanted to profile people from across Canada who have done something unique with their lives,” he said, “People who could inspire others to do more with their lives and break out of their comfort zones.”
World championship barrel racer Lindsay Sears, from Nanton, is profiled, as is Spitz Sunflower Seeds founder and DeWinton resident Tom Droog.
Droog said he hopes his contribution to the book can inspire others to realize they can make a difference, even if they start out with nothing like he did. He immigrated to Canada from Holland in 1972 when he was in his early 20s.
“We came here with nothing,” Droog explained. “All I had was my name. The opportunities we got in Alberta, Canada and the freedom we have is absolutely awesome.”
He sold his highly successful sunflower seed business to PepsiCo and turned his attention to helping build orphanages in Latin America with an organization called Friends of the Orphans Canada. He said he’s always believed in giving back.
“I love the west, I love Alberta and I’ve done very well,” he said. “We’ve had an awesome ride and we were blessed beyond measure and that’s why we share some of our blessings.
“I always say, ‘If you share your blessings, you multiply them and if you share your sorrows, you divide them’.”
In addition to the personal stories, the book provides alternating chapters of information and insight, tools and strategies that can help people live their most fulfilling lives. Each chapter ends with questions designed to help readers apply the information to their own lives. Couillard credited the expertise of his big brother Dana, an executive coach with years of experience in leadership development, for much of this part of the book.
“Dana is the backbone of the book,” he explained. “A lot of the meat and the substance of the book came from Dana’s background. There’s really no way I would have written this book without him.
“He’s always been my big brother and he still is,” he added with a laugh.
To date, about 2,500 copies of the book have been sold. It’s being distributed primarily in Canada, but Couillard said copies have also made their way to Bermuda, New Zealand, Serbia, the Netherlands and the United States. A portion of proceeds from the book will support various charities, currently the Ronald McDonald House, the Children’s Wish Foundation and www.jessesjourney.com.
Couillard said working on the book with his brother gave him a great deal of enjoyment, but it also had an effect on his own life along the way.
“It changed my life in terms of how I view my clients, my family and friends, how I view wealth and it’s not in a negative way, just a different way,” he said. “It’s helped me examine what’s important in my life. We all only have a certain amount of time on this planet, how do you want to spend it?”
To purchase copies of “Lifeworth: Finding Fulfillment Beyond Networth” visit www.lifeworth.ca.
