Larry Clay taught high school for seventeen years — PE, mechanics, math, English and built houses on the side to feed a family of eight. In 2004 he had eight houses to build and a teaching job, and he made a choice. He told me he didn’t want to be seventy, on a porch, wondering if he could have made it.
He also had a deathly fear of public speaking. Bad enough that he once stood at the back of a church and watched a high school girl read the announcements because he couldn’t do it. He made himself a vow that day, joined Toastmasters, and eventually became national president of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association.
We talked about the three levels of becoming a builder and why level three breaks so many companies. His framework for where any builder sits: McDonald’s, White Spot, Keg, or Michelin. What integrated design actually means when the architect, the engineers and the trades are all at the table before anything is drawn. Why affordability looks completely different in Newfoundland at $220,000 a house than it does in Vancouver. And the clients fifteen years ago who turned down the efficiency upgrades because they were only staying five years and what Larry wishes he had done anyway.
The last part is about legacy. Larry watched a six-time national champion stand unrecognized in a room full of wrestlers, and worked out what that meant for him. His answer is worth sitting with, and it starts earlier than most people think.
Larry Clay runs Clay Construction in the Greater Vancouver area and is past national president of the CHBA.
