My Bio – BLOG TOPICS – RICK CRAN

This is my story. 

If I’ve learned anything, it is to value experiences. Having grown up in a town of 80 people, Bladworth, Saskatchewan, Canada was where a small town kid, grew up and learned enough to travel the world. For all those kids who live in “that” town where your hopes of living an extraordinary life, it’s my hope to inspire you to go beyond what you know to be safe, take calculated risks and at times risk it all to gain it all. But above all – LIVE YOUR DREAM.

Like a sponge, we become a carbon-copy of those around us, a byproduct of our environment. We are inculcated with the values, decisions and mental stretch that surrounds us. But, every once in a while you have this voice inside telling you that you don’t agree with something someone said or did. You begin to see that your view of things is not the same as others. The day you decide the one to pursue their dreams and not the that of others, does life truly begin.

For over decade Rick Cran has been working with entrepreneurs and business owners assisting tAnyone can dream. More importantly, everyone SHOULD dream! However, the gap between the visions of luxury, wealth and a lifestyle is ACHIEVING your dream. Only when one understands you must have an unwavering commitment to a series of expected challenges which must be accomplished because you desire your dream to be become a reality. No dream is achieved without acting and achieving all of the parts that make up the whole.

Very few understand the true meaning of “full-throttle”. When you hit the ground running as hard as the day will hit you, show no sign of slowing down. With any success my story just might inspire and even provoke someone into action, when taking control of their own life. There is nothing more self-fulfilling than when one embraces, pursues and begins living out their dream. Change makes good people, into great people. 

Some say fate, karma, destiny – whatever you want to call it, you get what you put into it. 

For years people around me have encouraged me to tell my story, mentor more formally and to develop practical training modules that can assist Entrepreneurs to Small/Medium Business owners. This is not a get-rich quick scheme, this is 2.5 decades of experience compressed, palatable and applicable business subjects  for those who want to change their lives, grow their businesses and live their dreams with a little help along the way.

Referring to it as the “H.E.E.T. (Habits, Experiences, Environments and Traits)  of a person”, Mr. Cran has for over three decades studied who he refers to as those that have “NOS personalities”.  Mr. Cran states, “Not everyone has the extra burn at the top of their performance, at that defining moment when you win or lose success and if they do, experience (or lack of) will conclude if they know when to hit the trigger, because it will take them over the finish line or having starring at the back of their competitor.”

With a very unique and diverse life full experience it was Mr. Cran’s objective to provide those interested in his experiences, some insight, as in his case, if those who inspired him did not share their “intimate” stories, the lesson’s in their live’s may or may not have been the difference when inspiring his life. 

​In your search of discover, there is a very real desire to excel or accept the conditions that you have been given. We are a by-product of our environment, conditioned to think, believe and succumb to those ideals in order to “fit in”.  

Then, there are those of us who understand the mould must be broken. We have an obligation to those before us to pursue a passion in life and go beyond what they were able to during their lifetime … or settle for the life that is in front of you. 

“Me … there was no other choice but to become a mould breaker. This is my story. I do what I do because it’s my life. Will I earn your trust, inspire you to pursuit your goals and perhaps even assist you in your efforts to make your company? I hope so.

FOR A KID GROWING UP IN A TOWN OF 80 PEOPLE, there were about two dozen kids, but only two I really hung out with (Kent and Monty) only  we relied, generally speaking, on the neighboring towns for school, work and socializing. The people that made up Bladworth will always have a special place in my life, regardless where I go, what I do or what I become. As the saying goes, you have to know where you come from in order to know where your going. At a young age you learn to find ways to keep yourself busy. One might say we were reckless when reviewing from today’s safety and parenting standards, but the truth was we were passionate and that tipped the scale on recklessness at times.

• We jumped our peddle bikes on make shift ramps, without helmets and pads
• We made firecrackers out of shotgun shell black powder
• We shot off bullets, using BB guns
• We rode horses
• We didn’t just ride peddle bikes, we MADE bikes out of bike parts as kids.
• We collected frogs in a frog farm.

and added O-Pee-Chee hockey cards to the frame making them sound like Barclay’s infamous Blue Charger.   

How I made money Between the ages of 10 – 15 year of age:

• Spring: Bottle picking (walking along the highway, Beer Bottle was $0.05 and a Pop Bottle was $0.10 each, me and friend would do it until two potato (gunny-sack) bags were full) Best day was the first time I had $7.00 and change given to me for a full day of picking-bottles.
• Summer: Pushing a lawn-mower cutting grass ($20.00 for a full 10 hour day) 
• Fall: Focus was on school, during the muddy season. Not many opportunities, so it was not my favorite time of year; ususally remember my pockets a little light during the fall.
• Winter: Shoveling snow ( When there was a supply, I created the demand. Usually worth $0.50 – $1.00 for a driveway/walkway to be shoveled and swept with a corn broom.
• All year: Baby-sitting kids – $2.00 per hour (Ave. night 6Hours (8pm-2pm) = $12,00. 

Attending school was mentally tough for me and I only focused on getting out as fast as I could. My English teacher even went so far as to say that I would not amount to nothing more than those working for municipal garbage collection. The Principle was equally as inspiring when threatening me that he should just throw me out of school, two months before graduation. Motivational, right?

When an athlete is training you spend a tremendous amount of time selecting and learning about dietary elements, foods and supplements. When you stop competing in you sport of discipline, you go into a state of shock. Uncertain as to how much and what to eat because you are eating for an average person, not fueling an invincible machine. I remember the day when I had a cheeseburger, french fries and a cola soda. Before the meal was half done, I became physically sick. Needless to say, my body rejected fast food.

In my opinion, there is way to much emphasis put on food. Food is a means to an end; it fulfills a basic need. Why live among basic choices when they can be settled and closed so one’s time can be used for making more valuable choices in life. There is no purpose in wasting time revisiting menus, acting like scavengers seeking their next meal. Do it once a month, every six months or annually – and have meals settled. 

From 2005 – 2015 (TEN YEARS), my Breakfast: (consisted of) two pieces of toast and 2 cups of coffee. Lunch: Two peanut-butter sandwiches/ white bread, three icing cookies (strawberry), an apple and a glass of orange juice. Dinner is whatever is on a plate (meat, veggie, bread or a pasta dish make up 95% of what I eat. At a restaurant, in most cases with dishes of food being ordered, it’s easy to let others engage.

In 2016, Breakfast: (consists of) one hard boiled egg, small bowl of oatmeal, a toasted melted cheese sandwich, a glass of orange juice and coffee. Lunch: A bowl of chicken hakka noodles or chicken fried rice and a glass of orange juice. Dinner hasn’t changed. As before, it is whatever is on a plate (meat, veggie, bread or a pasta dish make up 95% of what I eat.) Again, at a restaurant, in most cases with dishes of food being ordered, it’s easy to let others engage.

Do what makes you happy, but the math never lies. If you spend an hour preparing and eating breakfast, lunch and two hours for dinner that’s four hours a day! That’s 28 hours a week. My advice, make meals a week at a time, ONE TIME. Considering breakfast and lunch become 30 minutes and dinner one hour – you just regained 14 hours a week (728 hours a year) to work on your business! In one day, I spend less than 1 hour eating, three hours sleeping and that gives me twenty hours a day to build; but that’s another story.

To those not overly athletic, this could look worse than it is. In most cases, most of this happened between the ages of 5 – 15 years of age. 
Broken bones: 

• Cracked face (once) – Gymnastics
• Sprained/ Broken fingers (numerous)
• Broken hands (Right x many times, Left x a few times)
• Broken leg (Right)
• Broken Feet (Left x4, Right x3)
• Concussions (countless)

Free advice, never let anyone who’s holding hedge clippers to cut the base of a bundle of wild flowers. Needless to say, it didn’t work out to well. At the age of seven, what started out being a beautiful sunny morning, I was picking wild flowers in the yard for my mother, like kids usually do. It was suggested to me to trim the bottom even. Once the cut was made by my eldest brother,  within a split second I was screaming, the flowers were falling to the ground and my hand was covered in blood. I instantly being pulled towards the house. Most of it is a blur, really. I remember my father wrapping my hand in a towel and driving exceptionally fast to the hospital. He kept me talking and would not let me sleep. Reflecting on that, it was one of the few times I saw my father show fear. I stayed awake. Once at the hospital, the doctor said no stitches could be done, as the whole tip of my finger was removed, with just a 3 cm piece of skin holding it on. The doctor cleaned it, capped the tip of my finger with the piece semi-removed and put a white gauge tub over my finger to “merge the two together. I remember him saying, the bleeding will stop, there is a chance the piece might die and have to be removed and it was very likely, if the blood vessels did grow back together again it was unlikely I would have any feeling in my finger.
YEARS LATER: My finger looks physically normal, less the perfectly clean cut and I do have feeling in the tip of my finger. The body is an incredible thing and we simply take the inside for granted too much.

RIB REMOVAL
​
A tale worth sharing and a very fortunate outcome. Yes, fortunate.
​
For a few years (1990 -1992) I was striving to become a professional bodybuilder, but as it turns out my body was not designed to strain that much. While at work at the bus depot, my arm began feeling heavy, it began to swell and it began turning a deep purple. My fingers within a few hours began to lose feeling and for the first time medically, I was nervous. The night before I was at the gym, but my arm was weak, really weak. Having informed my boss at the time, he said I should go to the hospital and took me there. When a doctor, yells “NURSE!” it’s not the comfort your seeking when your already know you have a problem. Within a couple of hours, I was checked in, an IV started with a bag of Heparin (AKA liquefied rat poison (blood thinner)) and there were specialists in my room discussing my case. When your an athlete and you ask that one question, “Doc, when can I get back to the gym?” and he replies,” Son, we have to get you ready for surgery. We have to amputate your arm.” Time stops, your life flashes. All your dreams, your time spent training, sacrifices that  you made, relationships strained and you’re going to lose an arm? That was when my strength and condition was at it’s peak. I told him he’s “F%*king CRAZY and that is not going to happen! GET OUT!” He told me I could not dismiss him and I made it perfectly clear, that I had. A second doctor, third and fourth all came in to give their wisdom and diagnostic support. Years later, this is the very reason why I do not believe AGE constitutes wisdom and if you KNOW more believe in yourself and stand your ground. I might add at this time my mother is strongly urging me to listen to them, further stating that she was going to sign the consent forms to get me “help”. It was at that moment when I clearly reminded her I was legally of age to sign on my own behalf, she had no rights to do so and was not authorized to do so. During this uncomfortable argument, she left stating she would not wait around watching me suffer.

For what seemed like days of arguing with people, this young doctor comes in to talk to me. He says he’s worked with athletes before. I felt like I was a fighting cat in a corner and this doctor just cleared out the wolves. Dr. Schillington, explained at length what the process would be, what would have to be done, and even then, there was no certainty as it was totally dependent on how fast my body recovered.With a 2.5 inch blood clot having formed in my left arm (later identified as the result of an old volleyball injury), my artery from my heart into my arm was additionally “pinched” between the collarbone and a cartilage rib (aka “Extra Rib”).   Against all odds, Doc took my case a completely different direction. The risk was clear the clot could surge towards the heart or worse, the brain. For the next 45 days, I had to remain calm, keep my heart relaxed and I was in the hospital on Heparin. His hypothesis was to thin out my blood to see if an opening would occur to allow blood through the artery to my arm. From going into epileptic shock due when identifying the “right dosage” of Heparin, to experiencing venograms, it was long days and even longer nights of waiting, but in a week my arm began to show signs of color (purple) and no longer grey and the swelling was subsiding. With the positive, later I realized his concern. The venogram showed a web of veins from one part of the artery collectively joining and merging over the collarbone. The choice, remove the extra rib behind the collar bone. After weeks of stabilizing, the concern was the Heparin was going to weaken and free the blood clot. It was decided to get me onto Warfarin (solid form of rat poison (blood thinner)). After a crazy 45 days of absorbing, testing and more testing, I was weak, exhausted and ready to go home. The day had come I was going home. After three months of weekly check-ups with Dr. Schillington, I was booked for surgery. Airplane ticket booked, I was off for surgery and I was alone. I really wasn’t mentally prepared for how chaotic is was going to be. Once I checked in at the Grey Nun Hospital, a nurse grabbed me ushered me through the hospital, put me in a changing stall, grabbed a gown and told me to change quickly as they need to get me to prep. A student doctor did a quick summary of my vitals and I was released for surgery.  Put in a wheelchair I was taken to an observatory surgery room. The room was blitz white and stainless steel. I was requested to lay on the table and immediately felt like a specimen on the cold steel table. For the first time in my life, I was prepared for death. The emptiness you feel is unforgettable. No one to console you, no one to comfort you, just you completely exposed. A woman put a gas mask over my face and the room faded. At one point, I could register seeing the right side of the room and people in surgical gowns and equipment, then as quick as my eyes opened, they closed again. A few hours later I woke up, absolutely inebriated and the Olympic ceremonies going on in my head. A nurse requested I get dressed as I needed to make my flight because they were short of beds. Within a few minutes, I was wheeled out to a cab as the nurse told the driver to take me to the airport. As the car pulled away, I passed out. Waking up to the cab driver shaking me, I stumbled into the airport, went straight for a coffee shop – I needed water! After checking in explaining I just had surgery, the check-in agent said she would get me on the flight personally. She arranged for a wheelchair and I passed out waking up when the airplane touched down. Offloaded from the aircraft, a gate agent must have been informed because she came to collect me, while two cargo handlers helped me down the stairs. Once in the wheelchair, she asked who was coming to get me. She took me out to a cab. Once home, I slept for almost 30 hours straight. Four days later, I went to see Dr. Schillington. He was obviously concerned and had in his efforts attempted to reach me to see of my condition and well being. I was simply to weak and my body  was an internal rodeo; everything coming up and everything else going down. After the gauge came off, there was seven staples and an incision over 5 inches under my armpit. 

FIVE YEARS LATER: I request the doctor to check it. He described it like this. The artery “cocooned” the clot and then worked the clot to the outside of the artery completely and then the body absorbed the clot. Today, zero chance of a blood clot slipping into my heart or brain. When one man takes an interest in your well being, there is no greater gratitude and respect. I will forever be humbled by Dr. Schillington’s belief, he could save my arm. That was all we had.

There is nothing that can prepare you for when your appendix is 

• I got to steer a tractor with my father at 7;
• Drove a snowmobile alone at 9;
• Rode a horse by 10;
• Drove an ATV (All Terrain Vehicle at 10;
• Motorcycle at 12 (125cc), 20 (750cc) and  31 (1000cc);
• A car at 14;
• A truck at 15;
• A 18 Wheeler Semi at 15;
• A highway coach, school bus, city bus and CAT Loader by 19;
• A CAT forklift and warehouse forklifts by 20; and 
• A motorized rickshaw at 29.

If I offer one piece of advice, don’t be afraid of driving anything.From being eye witness to watching guys go through walls in forklifts, to being involved in head-on collisions in my car to doing 360 degree donuts out on ice lakes in a bus, every vehicle (except the horse of course) is the same; it’s a weight to momentum ratio and BEFORE you hit the throttle – find out where the brake is.

​TECHNOLOGY

​Commador VIC-20, Foose Ball, Parties and 

My first “away from home” job

​I bought my first car at 15 years of age, was working full-time (4-11pm and every weekend) at 16 years of age, while attending High School full-time. ​

Ghetto Blaster, The Police Synchronicity, TDK Cassette Tapes, Live Concerts

First concert, Promoting Music

My plans post High School were anything but vague and uncertain. What I did know was that I had to make a living and I just didn’t see that happening in Saskatchewan. It was time to move. 

Upon arrival, I had a broken leg from playing football in the park. The arctic was tough then and you got to meet people quick. Being of legal age, a wiseguy down the road from the bus depot who use to pick-up freight regularly, asked if I wanted to see the night life. I thought he was crazy as clearly I had a cast on. But, in his wisdom, he said no one will notice. Really, I had plaster from my toes to my kneecap! I knew the place was going to be an experience and it didn’t disappoint. I soon became a familiar face on the weekends at places like the Polaris, Right-Spot, Gallery, Rec Hall and Strange Range. My circle of friends was growing and opportunities began to happen.

A company at the time responsible for city busing, highway coach passenger, cargo scheduled transport and group charters, school busing, local courier pick-up and delivery services, as I had experience with STC bus lines while working at the Petro Station I was hired to 

Getting a job with an airline

Sports car crash.

Companies are no different than communities, some people fit in and others, well just don’t. As one of the toughest industries to enter, airlines obviously come with a fair amount of politics and a little drama. Personalities are strong because the industry is designed to ensure check after check weaknesses are sought out and rectified – that includes its systems, processes and even, it’s people. With the ever lingering veil of Regulatory adherence and the potential penalties ensuring the safety of the public and staff are on the forefront of every employees focus, attention and diligence, the ever challenging environment is pushed to surpass it’s completion, gain market share and turn a profit.  In short, this is an extremely intense work environment requiring those who are fueled on passion and commitment because the financial compensation just isn’t there over the long-term.  

Working my way from the ground up, I started in cargo unloading semi-trailer trucks 

Night Auditing 

Government, Industry, the company you represent and your customer’s requirements.

The glitter of working for an airline has all freshers full of excitement.  My previous mentor’s words motivated me daily to keep going. He told me years before,“Let your work speak for you”.

Previous branding by the organization reflected large single images capturing the spirit of the communications. It was evident, the external support that was required needed to spin projects faster and more creatively. Once the agency was approved by management, we were in full swing. The first thing to go was briefs and mock-ups.  Secondly, with the immediate production costs dropping, we could increase our market awareness by dropping more ads in new areas, not viable prior. The new look received extremely positive reviews.

STUNG BY A SCORPION – PHOENIX
EATING RATTLESNAKE- ARIZONA
BIT BY A SNAKE – MUMBAI

Building Music From India and In India … that’s a whole other story. Follow me there.