Retirement with Pierre Lamarche (#71) — Transcript
Updated: Oct 26
THE PICTURE OF WEALTH · EPISODE 71
Dustin Serviss speaks with tennis player and coach Pierre Lamarche about retirement, determination and living life fully. Pierre reflects on the rewards, costs and lessons of taking an unconventional path.
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This transcript was generated from the episode audio and lightly edited for readability. It may contain transcription or speaker-attribution errors. Refer to the recording for exact wording.
Chapters
[00:00:01] Introducing the Picture of Wealth
[00:04:58] Freedom, responsibility and living now
[00:10:46] Did retirement match the expectation?
[00:16:59] Developing coaches and supporting players
[00:22:27] Team strategy and knowing your strengths
[00:27:12] Building a Davis Cup doubles strategy
[00:31:45] A player’s assets and constraints
[00:36:48] Perseverance and handling lost points
[00:42:31] The cost of giving everything to a role
[00:47:35] Financial lessons for the next generation
Guest & resources
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Transcript
[00:00:01] Show announcer: Welcome to the Picture of Wealth, a podcast all about living more of your life now yet being responsible for your future. Lifestyle experimenter, wealth scientist, and financial coach, Dustin Service, shares life hacks, wealth tips, and interviews successful entrepreneurs on how they're thriving in happiness, purpose, and prosperity.
[00:00:24] Dustin Serviss: I'm not sure what words describe my next guest, but I would say tennis stud, bigger than life, Pierre LaMarche. Now don't be fooled by my nonchalant first comments. And Pierre's rap sheet looks a little bit like former national head coach of team Canada and Tunisia, former Davis Cup player, former Davis Cup Fed Cup captain, Atlantic Olympic tennis Canadian team leader, former Canadian junior and men's national champion, Tennis Canada Hall of Fame, Rogers Hall of Fame, and City of Burlington Hall of Fame inductee. So no shortage of tennis accolades. And now... Or for a number of years, Pierre has been a great coach and mentor
[00:01:07] Dustin Serviss: to many of Canada's top tennis stars. And this discussion is around doing things a little different from a retirement standing point in, you know, Pierre lived life to the max. He swung for the fences, and it it worked out. You know, Pierre is now seventy five. He lives half time in Dominican Republic and half time in Toronto. But I'll let you be the judge for yourself if you think you could have taken this approach because all... You know, behind all the live life now, you know, rah rah rah stuff that you hear me promote, Pierre gets real in the podcast on the price, one's body and mind can take and what
[00:01:44] Dustin Serviss: he learned and what he would have potentially done different. I'm excited to share this podcast with you. I introduce Pierre LaMarche. So, the one thing that I did find, you have a Twitter account, and you've got, surfing picture. Is that is that current, or is that, like, a couple years ago?
[00:02:04] Pierre Lamarche: In nineteen sixty five. No. When I was sixty five, I came back from Taiwan, and, I got a tattoo put on my arm that I saw. I was teaching at the university there, and it was written in Chinese letters that that the key to success is determination and perseverance. So I had that done, and I decided I wanted to have one of those experiences, you know, that always in your life you wanted to have. So, I thought about rock climbing, mountain climbing, but shit, you can get cold and, you know, fall down and, oh my god. Then I thought about surfing and, god, you go to the beach and the waves don't seem that bad, and all the girls are there.
[00:03:00] Pierre Lamarche: I mean, I'm like, wow. This is it. So somehow I got this fella from Germany who's, remained a good friend and who was instrumental in me meeting Osiris because it's his wife that introduced me. I was in the water and I was, you know, drowning. I got... I was just, like, out of shape, everything's sixty five, and he came by on his paddle board. And he said, you know, can I help you? I said, if you're Marcus, you can help me. And he was. So we went back to the beach, and we struck up a friendship, which was very, very interesting. He's German. He had been living here for thirty years. He had worked for Red Bull.
[00:03:48] Pierre Lamarche: He had, was a professional kite surfer and so forth. And, his way of living was whatever money he had in his pocket was gone by that night. Never had a bank bank account. He was one of the happiest guys. And it just reminded me of when I was in my twenties and I was free and everything else and how much of life I had lost by having to worry so much about money, having to worry so much about responsibilities, and it gave me a second life. So, I came and... Here for ten weeks. And about after week six, I finally got up on the board, and everybody on the beach just went, yeah. You know what? I mean, you know how surfers are. You know?
[00:04:43] Pierre Lamarche: So everything was great. I became a Coke hero because at sixty five, I learned how to surf. And I took that picture, and I put it everywhere just to piss off all the people that thought I was gonna die. Yeah.
[00:04:58] Dustin Serviss: Well, you definitely bring up a... It'd be interesting to have that that coach on the on the podcast of, you know, that just that freedom to live and not worry about RSPs, not worry about, you know, money and being so responsible. And and that's... You know, I... I've always respect that about you and sort of the the outlook and, you know, we've crossed paths over decades of, you know, just what are we doing today? What's going on today? You know, and and how you you just bring that presentness, if that's even a word, to to life. Because we get... It's all consuming. And now, you know, it's...
[00:05:37] Dustin Serviss: Even the way the media delivers up information, we're all consuming of things that don't really apply to us, yet we make it about us. So
[00:05:45] Pierre Lamarche: It's, you know, it's funny because all my life, I was not a good father. When I say I was not a good father, financially, I was in trouble all the time because being French Canadian, you know, I thought Cadillacs were RSPs. You know? Like
[00:06:05] Dustin Serviss: It was good value there. It's good. You know?
[00:06:09] Pierre Lamarche: So, you know, like, I... And I I was married three times before. So when you split everything by fifty three times, you're not left with lots. And you have three kids that go on to college. And, you know, I had to refinance my house to pay my staff, and it took... You know, I went... I had to work. And, I was very selfish because if I was not selfish, I would not have made it. And, you know, I went through depressions because the the biggest fear is that my children would have to take care of me in my old age, and that's something certainly they're not on. And, that my kids would not have an education, would
[00:06:56] Pierre Lamarche: not have the opportunity to, you know, to be. And, you know, I knew that I was lucky because, you know, I was... I became a pretty good tennis player, and, you know, I had a business degree, so I could translate that into money. But the road, you know, from being fired when I was in Quebec City to not being able to work in Quebec anymore, to coming to work for the mafia in Ontario. I mean, it's been a long having been let go by Tennis Canada, having to go to Tunisia to work for two years, you know, them not paying me the thirty thousand dollars at the end and having to... You know, like, all of those things, I I really struggle with making...
[00:07:50] Pierre Lamarche: Keeping sanity, and a a lot of it was with abuse, you know, abuse of whether it was drugs, whether it was alcohol, whether it was relationships, because the only thing I had to do was I worked all day, and I had to do a quick turnaround to do it again the next day. And I just could not stay in that. So it took me, you know, I was really... My battery, I was exhausted and everything else. And when I met this guy, I started going back to see, you know, what was important and things have worked out great. My kids are great. You know? I met Cyrus who lives for today, doesn't worry about money. Now she says to me, Pierre, don't worry.
[00:08:37] Pierre Lamarche: If we don't have any money, I'll just go and work. You know? And I... Oh, okay. You know? And I think... Yeah. That's good. You know? So we're... Right now, we're buying a house in, Tabarete and, you know, this... So, like, I'm very, very thankful, but I think I'm very lucky. A lot of people don't have the chances, don't have, whether it's my personality, you know, pain in the ass or my perseverance or things that come. And that's where, you know, somebody like your father and, you know, we're so different, him and I. But, you know, like, I have, you know, he he makes me laugh, you know, like, he just...
[00:09:16] Pierre Lamarche: I mean, the way he is, you know, that's wow, and he's right there, and I'm like, god almighty. Look at that. But, you know, I... It's the heart that you look at, you know, and you look you look at my kids, they have great hearts, and I've got great friends, and, you know, Tommy is just, you know, like, he's one of those guys. He'll give you whatever, you know, he has to help you, you know, but, you know, you have to make sure, you know, you you rinse your beer bottle after you finish. You know?
[00:09:47] Dustin Serviss: Well, we get, yeah, I would say that we get more odd the older we get. You know? There's sort of a peak of coolness, and then, you sort of, you know you know, it... You get more set in your ways as you get older. And, you know, I know you got lots of stories that we probably can't talk about on the podcast, but, thank you for that sort of interlude of, you know, live life for the the the today. But, you know, you... You know, I've got a a a thing up on my screen from, you know, it's August thirteenth nineteen seventy nine, a doubles match that you were playing. It looks like Yuri Herbeck and Pavel Slozel. Do you remember this,
[00:10:26] Pierre Lamarche: I think at York University, if I'm not mistaken.
[00:10:29] Dustin Serviss: Okay. Is that where it, it is? So, you know, going back, so nineteen seventy nine, you would have been how old?
[00:10:36] Pierre Lamarche: Nineteen seventy nine. That's forty forty two years ago, and I'm seventy five. So thirty something. You know?
[00:10:46] Dustin Serviss: You know, so so thirty year ago, Pierre, you know, would you have thought... You know, when when you're back then and retirement was probably a word that was used, is... Was... Are you living what you thought it would be, or did you think, you know, retire... Were you working hard, you know, playing tennis, doing all the stuff that, you know, you're doing all of that back then for this life in the future? Or did you even kind of put those two things together, or were you really so present back then that it just wasn't a thought?
[00:11:19] Pierre Lamarche: You know, I did not have the convenience or the ability to think long term so much. I was more caught in the survival mode of a day to day. I had ended up in Ontario because of a lawsuit that I had in Quebec against, the indoor club, that I was working with where your father used to play with me. And, I could not... When I did that lawsuit, said to me that I could not get a job in another club in Quebec. So I ended up coming to work in, Toronto and, starting all over again. I remember clearly, I was interviewed by three gentlemen who a year later I saw on the, sorry, that I saw in the white paper on CBC as being major
[00:12:23] Pierre Lamarche: players in Hamilton family. These guys were great to me. They interviewed me and finally, I took over the position with, the caveat that I had complete control. And, the first thing I did was, I fired the general manager and the head coach, took three quarters of the salary, and they thought I was brilliant because I saved them twenty five thousand dollars right from the start. So that's how that worked. And, for me, I always... I was a spender. I always lived the right way. I always wanted today to have the things. I never really thought about saving money, which, I regret, but, I I don't regret the enjoyment that I had in my life.
[00:13:16] Pierre Lamarche: But it did create, issues. And I was able to manage my knowledge of the tennis business, which was quite simple. I looked at wherever there's a tennis court, you know, I can make money from a tennis court. So in other words, it's, you know, you teach your... And I say that to my staff all the time. It's, you know, teaching how to fish rather than the fish. So, you know, you see a tennis court, you go, okay. What can I do here? And it's not just about making money, but, you know, you look across our country and you look at the number of public courts that are empty. Why? Because people don't have anybody to play with, because they
[00:14:03] Pierre Lamarche: don't have somebody to teach them how to play. They play with one person, that person goes away, they don't have somebody else. So the servicing of public facilities was... Is horrible. And, of course, the the problem that you have is municipalities don't wanna do business with the private sector because they're afraid the private sector is gonna make money. You know, it just does not make sense. It's one of those things that drives me crazy in business in Canada because we have millions of dollars in Toronto, for example, in tennis courts. There's not enough tennis clubs for people, but nobody goes to the
[00:14:41] Pierre Lamarche: tennis courts and then the municipalities says, oh, you know, nobody plays on them, but they don't play because they're not service. So we have all these resources in this great country that are not being utilized. You know, I always look at maximizing resources. So when I started in the indoor business, I started with clubs that were in difficulty. The interest rates went up to eighteen percent. A lot of them, got in trouble, and the mortgage insurance company of Canada who insured the majority of these, mortgages were left with a bunch of clubs. So they hired me. And, basically, I use my knowledge and my name as a tennis coach to,
[00:15:27] Pierre Lamarche: be able to use courts that were not being used. So in indoor facilities at six in the morning, you know, like, if figure skaters can go two a day, if swimmers could do two a days. And in those days, our figure skaters and the swimmers were very successful. So, you know, why not do the same thing with tennis? So I started tennis schools that would go then in the morning and then in the afternoon from two to five. So, you know, even if a tennis court, you know, was selling for twenty dollars, if, the owner could make ten dollars, you know, we'd be very happy from those times. And then I took the other part, which was weekends, and ran
[00:16:14] Pierre Lamarche: tournaments. So I just used always a formula that added... Because you can't really reduce in any business. You can take over. You can't reduce expenses by more than ten percent. So how do you do it? You know, recruiting kids, you recruit families, and it was a concept that worked. So, that's how I got started in the business. And the more money I made, the more I had to pay back from before. And knowing that, the way to succeed was always having good human resources. And good human resources, you have to pay them. And some of them I could pay and I... But if you look across the country, I probably have twenty coaches
[00:16:59] Pierre Lamarche: that are in head positions like the Shaughnessy Tennis Club, Winston Payne, who developed the, tennis facility in, up near Kelowna. Yes. You know, right across Canada. So a lot of these people that were very, very good became too big for our company. So, you know, it was... It's always been... It's not like a huge moneymaker. Plus, for years, we used to provide about two hundred thousand dollars in scholarships for players that would come in because those players would come in, make the program better, and would bring other people. Mhmm. So... But, you know, it ended up all okay. And, you know, now, we find ourselves,
[00:17:49] Pierre Lamarche: unfortunately, our best, producing club, Toronto Tennis City is right in the middle of, downtown Toronto or midtown Toronto. And, the land for five tennis courts was just sold for fifty two million dollars. So, of course We
[00:18:09] Dustin Serviss: own the web?
[00:18:10] Pierre Lamarche: The person who had given me, the lease told me ten years ago that at any time it could happen. So we had ten years of great performance, except the last two years, of course, because COVID really hurt us, and we were lucky to break even. We kept all of our management team on. And, you know, it's it's like a family. I've got over thirty coaches, and those people are very committed. So I feel... What does
[00:18:37] Dustin Serviss: it what does a a good... Only because I'm a a a business student, and and I'll find all different businesses very interesting. What does a good, well run club... Like, what are the financials look like? Is it as simple as, like, a gym membership? You got members, you got dues, and you got staff. Is that kinda it?
[00:18:57] Pierre Lamarche: It depends it depends on the type of club. You have community clubs, which, of course, are subsidized and so forth, don't have to pay any taxes. Then you have, private for profit clubs, which are the ones that I'm involved with, and those are being hard hit because the land that they're on is much more valuable. So you've seen the closure of clubs across the country. And then you have the ridiculous clubs like the Toronto Lawn and I... I'm sure Shaughnessy and all of these clubs that you have across the country where the members, Vancouver Lawn and so forth, Jericho, where the members have put in so much money and... You know?
[00:19:46] Pierre Lamarche: So those clubs run on... It's a different, operation altogether.
[00:19:52] Dustin Serviss: Is it like a a high net worth kinda... Or a... You know, you're... Not a high net worth, but it's just private... It's for profit
[00:20:01] Pierre Lamarche: Yeah.
[00:20:01] Dustin Serviss: For the membership and for a certain type of person that wants to pay and contribute?
[00:20:06] Pierre Lamarche: They they keep the money in and improve the facility, you know, so it makes the initiation fee. The ones I've worked with have been private clubs. I've got more of a personality that, you know, fits in with a, a corporate club so that, you know, it's people... It's like a gym place. You know? So Yeah. You don't have to be so nice and diplomatic, which I I haven't been known to be.
[00:20:35] Dustin Serviss: Well, just kinda on that vein of, you know, keeping the peace. One of my observations was you play doubles. You coach people to play doubles in tennis, and I draw parallels between, you know, two tennis players that are playing on the same team or like two spouses with wealth. So, you know, if if partners are working together, then you're gonna get the results that you want. So can you you give me a... You know, for all my tennis listeners, you know, when you're playing doubles, is there any sort of, you know, top three secrets you you could share of, like, you know, what what are the the fundamentals? You know, a fundamental secret?
[00:21:15] Dustin Serviss: And then, you know, for playing top level doubles tennis, what what things should people be doing to to get, you know, the win?
[00:21:25] Pierre Lamarche: Well, it's funny that you asked because I was fortunate to have as my head coach in Davis Cup, Louis Callier, who's world renowned, as a doubles expert. In fact, he left Canada and went to work for the English Tennis Association and became very close friends with Andy Murray's mother mother, Judy Murray. And Judy Murray's son, the other one, became number one in doubles. And in fact, now England went from having zero players to, seven in the top one hundred in doubles. And, the one thing that I know about Louie is contrary to me where for me would be emotions, it would be an integration of the personality. For him, it's all very intellectual.
[00:22:27] Pierre Lamarche: It's analytics. This is what you're doing. This is what you do. You know? So in other words, there's a certain, tactical way of playing that, you know, you should know, and it depends, of course, on the type of players that you are on your team. So doing an inventory of what your skills are and what are the best ways to cover your weaknesses and use your strengths is the best way to play. The second, of course, it's like, you know, a marriage. You know? You must take responsibility for anything that happens. If you try to ship the responsibility to the other person, you might be right, but you lost because it's over.
[00:23:12] Pierre Lamarche: So, you know, I've even had, a team that's won a grand slam, which was, they eventually, broke up because one one of the players was a perfectionist, and he could hit eight great shots in a row and then miss one, and he'd suddenly go into a funk. And Right. His partner, could not have handled that. And I remember him coming in a Davis Cup match, and they'd started the match standing side by side because they didn't want me to intimidate the one that was weaker and the way he's not. But halfway through the match, the guy would put me in the middle and say to me, jeez, I'm never gonna play doubles with this guy again.
[00:24:01] Pierre Lamarche: So, you know, like, oh, goodness. So I I I think that, you know, understanding the game of doubles, understanding your partner and, you know, how to work with each other and supporting. I mean, you know, the synergy you get from a team that is on the same wavelength It's completely... You can you can have two guys that are bad, but if they're on the same wavelength, they can overcome. I mean, these are the old principles of war, you know, from Sun's suit.
[00:24:33] Dustin Serviss: So... Do do you have any stories that you remember of, like, really seeing a great doubles match in action at at a big win, at a big tournament where they, you know, rose to the occasion at the time they needed to, and just sort of what energy they had, or that even you had, and you guys all shared that moment together.
[00:24:58] Pierre Lamarche: Well, you know, I think that, the first time we qualified for the World Group, and we hadn't qualified, I think, in seventy years for the World Group. This was in nineteen ninety one. And I remember being named Davis Cup captain by Robert Bettower who runs, Pisa the, and is involved with Bear Mountain, in, outside of Victoria. Victoria. Yeah. I went out and ran around York University, the center court, and I said, one day I'm gonna win a big match here. And, the, we played Holland, who at the time was very good. And, as Davis Cup captain, I had, the clause, which nobody has anymore, being able to select
[00:25:52] Pierre Lamarche: the location and the players and keep my earring in the time, which was... They asked me to take note. As soon as they as soon as they asked me to take... Robert asked me to take it out after he gave me the job, I said I was gonna do it. But now that you've asked me, I've got to keep it for a year. You know? Like, it's got to be on my terms. So We played Holland.
[00:26:15] Dustin Serviss: Are are not as cool today as they were before, but maybe in the younger generation. I haven't seen... I haven't found that picture yet. I... I'm gonna go look for that.
[00:26:25] Pierre Lamarche: We played Holland. We had a very good team, and, my friend Harry Fauquier, who was kind of my mentor and has always been and was kind of my coach when I played, he was, quite a great player like Ken Rosewall at center court Wimbledon. He used to do the courts, and we had a center court. So I... It was September, and everybody wanted to play indoors, and I said no no no. I've got the vision. We're playing here at York University, and it was freezing cold. And the coach from, Holland was, from one of the Dutch colony. I always remember he was sitting in his chair with a fur coat, you know, like... So But,
[00:27:12] Pierre Lamarche: Mitch, Nevada and Connell, who were our top doubles team, played, the two Dutch players. Harhus is now the captain of the Dutch team, which is playing against Canada, I think, this weekend or something like that. And, they were a very, very good team. And, as we had decided initially that when the ties won all, the team that wins the doubles wins eighty percent of the tie. So we built our whole, strategy baseline to excellence on, being able to win the doubles, hoping that we'd win one of the two first match, and then that eighty percent was on our side. And that's how we became a tennis power way way back then.
[00:28:04] Pierre Lamarche: It was, Louis KU designed, you know, our doubles team. And so we beat them in that doubles, and I'll always remember, I knew that this was it, you know, that we would get, we... Not that we were sure, but we had a great chance of winning if we could win that doubles. And, we ended up, winning that doubles, and it was a great feeling. And when we won the tie, it was one of the greatest feeling. Grant Connell won an unbelievable match. I don't know if you know of Grant. He's lived in West Van, and, he had a serious injury, had a stroke about, eighteen months ago or two years ago. And, it was a very, very good player. And I remember him playing.
[00:28:55] Pierre Lamarche: It was so cold. And in the middle of the fifth set against Huberman's, he looks at me. He says, look at my dad. He's cold up there. Can you take my jacket? You know, like, here we are in the middle of the most important thing ever, and, you know, that's the type of guy he was. So you have all these memories. I just finished talking to him this past weekend, and we were laughing so much because we had... He has five kids and, got himself in trouble with COVID because, he had more than ten kids in the backyard for a party during COVID. The police came, and they went and saw the judge, and he says, I've already got five kids, two cars.
[00:29:37] Pierre Lamarche: We have five cars, my wife and I. You know, like, that's a lot of people to start off with. But, no. That was doubles as, you know, a team... A teamwork, and, that's what it's all about. If you don't have... If you're not in sync with your partner and you can have... There was some... There was a team of Hewitt McMillan who was from South Africa, played for South Africa. One of them was Australian. They were day and night, but they complimented each other on the court, and there was a certain respect about how one is and the other.
[00:30:14] Dustin Serviss: So... As a as a person who enjoys random tennis but doesn't really understand that the deep intricacies... When when you say polar opposites, what what does that mean, like, in a game setting the two players?
[00:30:26] Pierre Lamarche: Oh, you have one you have one that's a straightforward, tough knot, Australian redneck. And then...
[00:30:35] Dustin Serviss: Does that mean he just... He hits hard and everywhere? Or is
[00:30:39] Pierre Lamarche: he like... He hits everything. He fights. He just argues. He argues with the referees. I mean, like, you know, he's like, in the peanut commercial, the guy or the peanut comic strip, you know, the guy that's, always got the wind around him, you know.
[00:30:55] Dustin Serviss: Yeah.
[00:30:55] Pierre Lamarche: And he's never used the name.... Guy that... Macmillan was, like, kind of the violinist, you know. He just patch and everything else. You know? But, they were like, you know, fire and ice, and, that's what I mean, like, overall.
[00:31:10] Dustin Serviss: Does... In in tennis, like, is it, is it like any sport where you have some players that are gifted with the hands and placement and can, you know, tire their opponents by moving them back and forth, and then there's other people that can just hit really hard and fast? Or is today's, you know, top notch player, they do it all? They know when to slow it down, when to speed it up, or is it... Is there still kinda like in hockey, it was the goons and then, you know, the the the the snipers. So is it that divided anymore, or is it hard to tell those two players apart?
[00:31:45] Pierre Lamarche: Well, you know, you you always have the players that are talented, that have coordination skills, that are exceptional. Either they move fast, they have unbelievable hands. But in this day and age, you always have to look at the assets and the constraints in a player. So, you know, if you have great hands or like in my case when I played, you know, I was big and, you know, I was not a, twinkle toes on the court. So I played north south, you know, like, there was only one thing I I always remember my coach Harry Folke, who I talked to you about. I phoned him from Mexico, and I said, you know, my back end passing shot's not working.
[00:32:32] Pierre Lamarche: And he said, Pierre, he says, when the ball comes to your back end, you should catch it and put it in your pocket and tell your opponent, I'm sorry. I was at the wrong place on the court. He says, because that's not where you're supposed to be. Yeah. So, you know, like... So I always remember. I mean, that stayed with me forever, you know, and, you know, just getting there at the net, you know, and I was a goalie. So, you know, I played the net like a goalie, and I could anticipate. I was very good anticipation. I moved not fast, but I moved very well because I always could anticipate where...
[00:33:12] Pierre Lamarche: From what I did, what was gonna happen the next time. So there's so many there's so many components, to that, what happens now is really nobody has major weaknesses because the... You know, you cannot... If you get to a certain level and you have a major weakness, you can't make it because people will prey on it and that's it. So what you have is you have people that are strong everywhere, but you have some people that are, you know, they have game style that match what they have. For example, Nadal was just unbelievable. You look at Nadal and, you know, when he started, he didn't volley and he didn't hit any slices.
[00:33:59] Pierre Lamarche: And, you know, Federer, you know, decided, okay. I'm gonna chip short to Nadal's forehand so that Nadal has to come to the net. Well, Nadal went back and learned how to volley. So now, you know, now he volleys. He... You know? So Medvedev, when he played Nadal recently, Medvedev likes to stand way, way back. So suddenly you saw Nadal becoming a drop shot artist. You know? And, like... So, you know, but he's... It's... He doesn't have the hands. He's just done so many, you know, that... So, like, you look at Jokovich, he's like, whoop. I mean, the guy is so strong, so tough. But what they have in common is the mental. I mean, you have...
[00:34:46] Pierre Lamarche: You know, it's like, you're there for four and a half hours and you just you know yeah you can have a little dip, but you don't stay in that dip for long or else they just come through the door and smack you.
[00:34:57] Dustin Serviss: Right.
[00:34:57] Pierre Lamarche: So you know and then and that's where the matches ebb and flow because, you know, your energy level goes up and down, and it's very hard to maintain and physically. So, you know, these guys... I mean, tennis has really, really, become a sophisticated sport. When I used to play, you know, people used to go out and party and everything else, you know, and you still... You can't do that now. You know? Can you imagine having to play two weeks in a row, you know, of... To win a grand slam? It's, you know, it's it's a task that's almost impossible to do and to maintain. So that's why the sport is, you know, so interesting and is growing so much.
[00:35:43] Dustin Serviss: Well, I I just had, on the podcast, Wade Redden, who's, you know, retired Ottawa senator and, ranger and NHL player. And he said, you know, back in the day when we used to, you know, do training camp or, you know, summer training was basically switched to Bud Light. So, one one thing that, I think about in, in in the in the training of the people and you've you've seen the students, You you got a couple successful traits that these people have, you know, the the students that have kind of got the quickest adoption, or or you you know, you're... This is their most improved player in in your camps, or, you
[00:36:27] Dustin Serviss: know, people that you've coached, that that have excelled the fastest. So what what is it that they do? Is it, is it specifically tennis? Is it energy management? You know, what what would give someone who's learned how to play better tennis some key things to to focus on to excel the fastest?
[00:36:48] Pierre Lamarche: Well, let's say we take somebody that has qualities to become a tennis player. I think that's the most important. So let's start with that. So I think that first one is perseverance, you know, is knowing... I mean, if you play tennis, you lose forty eight, forty nine percent of the points. So, like, if you don't know how to handle getting, you know, knocked in the head, you're in trouble. Right. So you've got to have the ability to evaluate what just happened and move on from it. You linger in the past, you know. That's why I have very little patience even in my work with people that, you know, are not in the right place.
[00:37:29] Pierre Lamarche: Whatever the situation is, okay, let's fix it. You know, like, what are the solutions? Don't tell me why we're there. Don't... We're there. What can we do now? You know? And, you know, and let's put all of our energies, you know, how we can't do this, we can't do that. What do you mean we can't do? Let's just think and brainstorm and see. You know? If we brainstorm enough, we'll find a solution somehow that makes sense. So it's having, I think, perseverance, having somebody that's willing to, keep on day after day. I I always remember, you know, one of my best friends, Carlos Kirchmeyer, who used to coach Saba...
[00:38:13] Pierre Lamarche: Gabriela Sabatini, who won the US Open. And, you know, it was always... You know, the sun always rises the next day, so, you know, you just get on. And in fact, one of the things when I used to play, as soon as I had a loss, I did everything I could to forget about the loss, get out of town, hope the whole tournament would get bombed, and, you know, my boss would not count. You know? But, you know, I just get on to the next city. So, like, why linger and worry? I mean, nobody's ever made it through, you know, through that part. So perseverance is one. Two is, you know, you want somebody that's stubborn
[00:38:53] Pierre Lamarche: to be persevere, so that has an ability, but you want somebody that intellectually, is capable of working with somebody that can guide them. And, I think of tennis players... Of the good tennis players that I coach as wild stallions. And, you know, the wild stallions, you see that they have the skills and everything else, but till you break them and you work together, you're not much of a team. And it doesn't matter how stubborn or how, dedicated the player is. If he's not going down the right, direction, you know, then, he's wasting his energy, and he's not maximizing the time that he's putting into his, you know, his skills development.
[00:39:45] Pierre Lamarche: And, you know, I I think, the the most important thing at the end of the day is taking responsibility to, you know, to understand that whatever happens, at the end of the day, you're responsible for. And, whether you didn't plan for it, whether you didn't take enough precaution, and, and responsibility. And now in the sport of tennis, one of the biggest issues is the length of the season and injuries because the demands are just such, you know, that there's ongoing injuries all the time. So the management of those injuries, you know, which, like, in my case, I never had any injuries when I played.
[00:40:24] Pierre Lamarche: And when I stopped playing training, I started getting all kinds of injuries. And then because of the demand of my work, I didn't take care of my body because I had to work and then, you know, I had to reset for the next day, and I never took the time, you know, of going back and doing my workout, keeping... So, you know, I paid the price. So, you know, after two new knees, one new hip, a back fusion, and, you know, I... I'm now... I'm spending here in the Dominican. I'm learning how to walk again, and I spend an hour every day, you know, in the pool in the morning doing all my exercise. I'm doing...
[00:41:04] Pierre Lamarche: And, you know, it feels great, but I I finally schedule myself, and I finally got to a place where I can have the time to do that. So, you know, it's, it's very, very difficult, especially when you see so many athletes that make it. And, you know, fame is so fleeting. You know? I I remember, you know, four years after Grant Connell had won a major championship, I introduced him, you know, to to my tennis academy, and half of the kids said, who's he? You know? Like, you know, they don't know. And that was... So it's the same thing in hockey. You know? Like, you can have all those rings and everything else. You know? So it's adapting.
[00:41:49] Pierre Lamarche: And in sport, when you finish, there is a lot of, you know, transition into a different way of life where you're not so special anymore, where, you know, life is back to normal, and if you're not ready mentally to deal with that. You You know, I've seen a lot of athletes and, you know, I try to help as many as I can, and that's what I tell my coaches. You know? What happens if suddenly you get fired? You know? Not because you're bad, but because the new person that comes in doesn't like you. You know, or the star of the team requires that you're fired. I mean, it happened to my partner who is, Doug Burke from Jamaica.
[00:42:31] Pierre Lamarche: He's the national coach for seventeen years. He had kids living in his house, everything. He did everything possible for that country. Some guy came in. They wanted to have him on the David Scott team. They had to take David... You know, Doug's salary and so forth, so that was good for me. I got him to come back and work with me. But, you know, after putting all those years there, there was no... So you have to really be ready for life after sport. And, you know, it's not always, Rome and Paris and London. You know? Suddenly, you're in Grimsby, Sudbury, Petford Mine. You
[00:43:11] Dustin Serviss: know? Wow.
[00:43:12] Pierre Lamarche: This is different. You know?
[00:43:14] Dustin Serviss: Well, you you draw, probably a good spot to pivot to a, you know, conclusion of a couple things. You know, a lot of clients we help, sell their business and transition to retirement, where all of a sudden you don't have an office to go to. You don't have a shop or a manufacturing facility that your key works in. You just literally wake up, and you got this new life where it's... You're not you're not on the spotlight. So transitioning through that, I I see lots of parallels there. You know, I didn't think of tennis, but you are you are losing a lot of points throughout the match to make up a win.
[00:43:52] Dustin Serviss: And so you said, you know, you're losing forty eight percent of the time. It's getting over that. And that, you know, comes to, you know, some people make, interesting investment decisions and maybe a loss or it's real estate or a penny stock or whatever it is, a business venture that get... You've gotta get all of it. We've gotta address it. It's it's now reality. We can't dwell on it. We gotta move forward. And, and then the value of a coach, do you think any of the the top ranked players today could get to where they are today without a coach? I think we know the answer to that, and it kind of dovetails on,
[00:44:31] Dustin Serviss: you know, when you are managing your wealth and your finances that, you know, having a coach has been proven to improve the odds of either, you know, steering you away from danger or helping you maybe look at things, blind spots that you might have or exposing an opportunity that you may not have have realized. So, Pierre, I I really appreciate, the conversation. I feel like there's a lot of... I got a lot of notes on stories and and different things that that could be a whole another separate podcast on on the old days. Yeah.
[00:45:03] Pierre Lamarche: I'd like I'd like to add two things based on what you just said, your conclusion. Last summer, I decided to retire from Ace Tennis, which is our brand that is best known. And, because I was turning seventy five in January second, so I told everybody I was leaving December thirty first. I restructured my my whole business, my management team, and so forth. And, I went with my wife and my sister north of Montreal and Mont Tremblant, and I spent a week. And I was gonna spend that week, with my dog alone on the lake trying to see what the rest of my life was gonna be. And as I said to you, I was fortunate.
[00:45:51] Pierre Lamarche: I was fortunate and I don't get back to that as far as a coach to have a situation where I could see that I could reach the end of the line without having to worry about anything. But I went, okay. What am I gonna do for the rest of my life? And after three days of hugging trees and everything else, I went, oh my god. I'm gonna kill myself because I love... To me, it's not work. You know? Net... I've never worked in my life. You know? It's been in a sport, so I'm very, very fortunate. And that's why I've revived, you know, we've got seven other... I'm sorry, five other brands, which, you know, I'm developing
[00:46:35] Pierre Lamarche: and and, you know, I'm enjoying it because I can do it from everywhere. And so that's what I'm gonna do the rest of my life. But when you talk about a coach, you're absolutely right. I... I'm fortunate because I have had a great account for thirty five years, and he kinda lives vicariously through my insane life. So he's, you know, a very straightforward, no nonsense guy. You know? And he's guiding me out of trouble. And he always says, well, you should get a finance guy to help you with your finance. And I always resisted. You wanna know why? Why? Because because I knew the guy was gonna change my way of living.
[00:47:26] Pierre Lamarche: You have to put that in the bank. What do you mean? What am I gonna do? You know, like, what do you mean I can't buy everybody in the bar a beer? Come on.
[00:47:35] Dustin Serviss: Yeah.
[00:47:35] Pierre Lamarche: Like, you know, I had to live big. So... You know? But in retrospect, if I would have done it, wow. Wow. Wow. What a difference. And, you know, I, I certainly, completely... I've told my son, you know, who has some of me in it, in him, and I say, you know, please get the accountant, then start putting away, get somebody that can, you know, invest and so forth. You know, my great investment was, you know, I believed in marijuana stocks.
[00:48:10] Dustin Serviss: Yeah.
[00:48:11] Pierre Lamarche: And, god, I got so rich, and then I got so poor. And recently, I got rich again. I had Shopify. Now I got poor again. Yeah. Well,
[00:48:25] Dustin Serviss: that's... You're definitely, if you if you overweight in the... In those sectors, then, you you can feel that. So I I I appreciate those comments, Pierre. I think it's it's hugely important. You know, the mantra that we say on every podcast is, you know, we help people live more of their life now yet be responsible for the future. And I think where... You know, it it isn't about having a budget. You know, no woman or man wants a budget if you're, you know, trying to live more of your life. But it's about, am I dropping a little bit of money in a few different buckets? And if there's money left over at the end of the month, we purposely
[00:49:01] Dustin Serviss: spend it. Whereas the old mantra, you know, I see it in my older clients where it's save, save, save. Then when you're sixty five, you'll, you know, magically change your mindset, open the floodgates. You'll have saved more money than the average person, and then that means you're gonna be more happy than the average person. But that that isn't what we believe, and, you know, so it... I think it's... You hit the nail on the head, you know, trying to just lean on your team, lean on your team in a in a way of, understanding your values. Because people spend their money on certain things, but the the spending usually
[00:49:39] Dustin Serviss: is tied back if you're asked the right questions to values and what you value in life. So, again, that's for a whole another podcast. But if you can have a good coach, someone you trust, you'll get a lot more out of life. So thank you, for coming on today.
[00:49:54] Pierre Lamarche: No. I said during the podcast that I'm lucky. I don't want anybody to try to copy the way I did it, and because my son says, well, look at you. And I said, yeah. Do you know how much I've suffered and everything else? You know? And not only that, I was French. I was English. I had an MBA. I was national champion. You know? Like, doors were open for me. Not everybody gets that opportunity. So, you know, like, unless you're really, really lucky, which I was, I would take a more, how would I say? Not... Yes. Conservative approach, but a more thoughtful approach to, you know, finding a way of doing it the right way.
[00:50:39] Pierre Lamarche: And, Dusty, if I was younger, you'd be my guy.
[00:50:44] Dustin Serviss: Thanks, Pierre. I really appreciate that. That does mean a lot. So thanks.
[00:50:49] Pierre Lamarche: Okay.
[00:50:49] Dustin Serviss: And I look forward to our next podcast. Talk soon.
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