Image: Contributed
Name: Davis Yates.
What business or organization are you involved with? Remarked.ca.
What is your role with that organization? Co-Founder.
What’s your favourite thing about living in the Okanagan? Having been born and raised here, this is a tough question because there are so many things to decide between, like:
1) The incredible selection of affordable golf courses;
2) The Bohemian cafe;
3) Our incredibly good looking (almost distractingly so) mayor.
If I had to decide it would be (4) the robust and enduring network of relationships I’ve built up here over the past 23 years.
If you could have lunch with anyone in the world, who would you choose and why? Dead: Steve Jobs hands down. He single-handedly (over-exaggeration) built the biggest (and arguably most influential) company in the world (as measured by market cap).
Alive: Mark Cuban. If reincarnation is a thing and people had the chance to live multiple lives with the same personality I’d put my money on him to be extraordinarily successful year over year.
What’s your go-to happy place? Well, when getting my picture taken I firmly believe the best photos are taken when you genuinely feel happiness and joy inside of you. So to evoke that feeling I usually close my eyes and imagine a small litter of puppies crawling all over me.
In real life probably the patio at my parents house.
What are you most proud of? The family I come from:
a) My mother (Jackie) is a literal saint (not actually but seems like it);
b) My brother is the funniest person I know and is currently playing semi-pro baseball in Germany and will be playing in Australia shortly;
c) My dad is the guy who got sh*t done and gave me almost every opportunity I have today.
Proud may not be the right word, grateful might work better.
What are the top three things on your bucket list?
1. Teach in a University (preferably UBCO);
2. Coach a baseball team with my family;
3. Build an organization that changes the world.
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten? Oh gosh, I ate a scorpion on Khao San road in Bangkok and a lot of weird stuff in China. Parts of the animal you didn’t know were edible were edible.
Latest movie or book: Book: The hard thing about hard thing by Ben Horowitz. In my opinion books about management and leadership suck and are super airy (ex. invest in your people) but this book was different. Ben talks in such detail about certain difficult management situations (ex. your friend is under performing) but also talks about the psychology of a founder and the mental states you will experience (spoiler alert: they’re usually not good).
What’s the best gift you’ve ever received? Most are from ex girlfriends so I won’t go there but one of my best friends, Douglas Canning, made me a video for my 22nd birthday by compiling a bunch of 10-15 second clips from all (most) of the people that are important to me in life. That was pretty special.
If today were your last day, how would you spend it? First I’d purchase one-way tickets for all the people I care about in life and fly them to Kelowna. Second, I’d schedule 30 minute intervals with each one of them. Third, I’d throw a massive party at my house until my eventual demise at a second pass midnight.
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