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March 17, 2015
I’d been planning to interview Marshall – and given his team(Haney, Proud, Allen, Kemmler)’s recent migration from CBRE to join Jones Lang LaSalle (he is Exec. VP, Managing Director, Industrial – Canada).
It was time to get out my note pad over lunch last Saturday …
So, who is Marshall Toner, how did he get here and where is he going?
“My mother was way ahead of her time in terms of health, diet and supplements. We had the best of both worlds – the work ethic of farm life, and living in the city. I was an over-achiever as a player. I was not mega-talented. I worked hard.”
Born in Saskatoon, mom was a homemaker, dad was a grain farmer. First born of three brothers. He has an B.Sc. in Engineering. He wasn’t drafted. He sent out letters to all the CFL teams. Hamilton and Calgary responded. He came to Calgary in 1986 to try out for the Stampeders along with hopes of a post-football career in the oil & gas business. Someone suggested he meet Jim Duggan and Russ Kindred at Duggan & Kindred Realty … and he’s not left the commercial real estate brokerage industry since …
He was a high school athlete (played all the sports at Evan Hardy Collegiate), Huskies star, university athlete (football, track, hockey, male athlete of the year – all Canadian in football and track – at University of Saskatchewan), pro athlete – Calgary Stampeders. Saskatoon Sports Hall of Famer. Commercial real estate veteran.
He tells me the second marriage is going well, his two children (his son lives with him, his daughter with her mother) are doing well.
I asked Marshall if he’d had concussions, if had any thoughts on what pro-football is doing in terms of head injuries. He gave me a politically correct answer that ‘the right kind of things are now being done’, and finished with this gem: “your head isn’t made to run into things”.
Some people face a few challenges. Some face many – and it strikes me that qualities found in high achievers, particularly high performance athletes, seem to equip them to deal with extraordinary demands. Maybe it is being in the public eye. Maybe it is the training. Case in point: Marshall Toner. Retired professional athlete, success in business. Divorce survivor. Thyroid cancer survivor. Heart attack survivor. Marshall adds, “I’m grateful to be alive.”
What has contributed most to your success? “Hard work. IQ won’t do you much good without work-Q. Willingness to adapt and learn about myself and others. Market knowledge + relationships = ability to do deals.”
What has held you back? “My limiting beliefs. Scarcity, hungry (past tense), feeling I wasn’t deserving”.
His final comments: “I try to be on the path to leave it better than I found it. I live by the 5-F’s: family, friends, faith, finances and fitness.”
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