On the last page of every issue of Industry West, we find a Saskatchewan business person or leader to answer our version of the Proust Questionnaire. Marcel Proust made the questionnaire famous, believing that 35 specific questions could reveal a person’s true nature. We grabbed this idea—you’ve probably seen it in Vanity Fair—and made our own version. The first five questions are ours, and then we ask our subject to pick their favourite Proust questions to answer.
Meet Collin Pullar, President of the Saskatchewan Construction Safety Association. Here’s what he had to say.
- Where are you from? I was born in Toronto (don’t hold that against me) but my family moved to Regina before I was in kindergarten and have lived here ever since.
- Where did you attend school and what did you study? I attended Thom Collegiate for my high school career and later attended the University of Regina where I eventually completed a Master’s Degree in Business Administration and Master’s Certificate in Public Management. I found I really enjoyed learning and really appreciate the relationships that have come out of my learning experiences.
- What is your career history? Well, I worked for a few years in the IT sector as a business analyst and then worked in labour market development and economic development related roles at the Federal and Provincial levels. This work experience gave me an opportunity to develop relationships with business and industry groups in the province. Those early relationships eventually led me to the position I am in today.
- What’s the best piece of business or career advice you have or have been given? Don’t get too concerned with how long it’s going to take to achieve a worthwhile goal. When I decided to go back to school, with a young family, I was lamenting about how long it would take for me to finish the program. A friend told me that time was going to go by regardless of whether I worked on my degree or not. So if it was something I felt was important, then who cares how long it takes.
- What’s your favourite thing about Saskatchewan? We really have a beautiful and pretty safe place to live here, in this province and we have, and are gaining, so many people with the potential to do some really great stuff.
- Which living person do you most admire? That’s a tough one. One person that I have really admired is retired General Colin Powell. He obviously had some pretty big roles as a General and later Secretary of State but what really impressed me was his humility and thoughts on leadership.
- If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? Maybe be a little taller and I would have good hair!!
- What is your favorite occupation? Well, I think I really like seeing teams and people develop. So head coaching, I guess.
- What do you most value in your friends? I really value being able to open up with each other on things that we struggle with. Life can be a pretty tough journey at times. You can’t successfully get through it by yourself and having someone to talk to makes all the difference.
- What is your greatest regret? Not taking enough time to smell the roses and just celebrate stuff. Much of my life I have been maybe a bit too preoccupied with trying to prove something or accomplish the next thing and typically not taking a moment to enjoy and fully appreciate what’s already been accomplished. It might be a factor of societal pressure but I’m realizing more and more that I need to resist that a little bit.
