The Visionary starts with a clean sheet of paper, and re-imagines the world – Malcolm Gladwell
I will tell you the story of our Founding company ‘Kaleidoscope Mart’. However, if we get to the end of the story and all you see is a blank sheet of paper with a letter head at the top, then truly I have missed an opportunity to do justice to the term ‘Visionary’.
We named Kaleidoscope after our founder’s late father, Marvin Lau. Marvin came to Canada from Hong Kong at the end of October, 1977 with his two small children. He was mobility impaired, with no job prospects, no income, and spoke English fluently but with a thick accent. He faced an avalanche of racism, and he had nowhere to stay except with a sister and her young family. His wife was not by his side but would follow months later. He brought with him enough money to put a downpayment to purchase a modest home in a sleepy hamlet in the Ottawa area. Although a university graduate in Hong Kong, he struggled to find work in his new country, taking jobs where he could, mostly short term contract work.
He left his home in Hong Kong and everything he knew for the prospect of a better life with almost nothing in his pocket but a vision of what could be for his family. He started what would later become – in today’s terms – a ‘home-based business’ called ‘AmSell’, operating as a wholesaler for Hong Kong merchants. Continuing his entrepreneurial stride, he created, from NOTHING, a picture framing business called ‘Kaleidoscope Mart’. Marvin knew nothing about the picture framing business. When later asked why he choose this business, he remarked that it was something he could do by himself as a sole proprietor; it had the ability to channel all his creativity. Of course, one would assume that he had worked in this business before, right? Not this visionary! He went to manufacturers, retailers, and shops and worked for FREE so that they would teach him the skills he needed to make wooden and metal frames, cut picture mats, and frame different types of art. In 1989, he again sourced enough money to buy a small industrial shop in Ottawa where he bought equipment (which he didn’t know how to use) to make products (which he didn’t know how to make) to sell to the public (God knows where).
These were the days of no digital platform, no websites, no apps, and no Google. He hit the pavement, going door to door, and was simultaneously manufacturer, craftsman, marketer, wholesaler, salesman, purchaser, and distributor. And Innovator. Doing his home-based businesses, expanding to a warehouse shop, developing diversification channels, and creating new markets. He was truly a one-man show. Marvin was asked why he chose the name Kaleidoscope. In typical entrepreneurial fashion, he said because the business was going to be multi-faceted – he would go where the business would take him. He saw things differently.
He would go onto bring more family over, brothers and sisters and other extended family. They came, they worked extremely hard, and they shared his vision of a better life. The seeds he planted back in ’77 have grown strong and successful, and oh, how they have prospered! I think he would be very proud today of (t)his Kaleidoscope.
Being a Visionary is not synonymous with being a Dreamer. Martin Luther King Jr said, “The difference between a dreamer and a visionary is a dreamer has his eyes closed and a visionary has his eyes open.” When Marvin decided to immigrate to Canada, he had no delusions about the mountain he had to climb and the seemingly insurmountable task before him to establish his young family on a different continent. On the contrary, he knew exactly what was at stake. But he re-imagined his world and saw more than a clean sheet of paper. What an extraordinary man.
But if all you see….
