Cole Akerstream: Inside the North West Company

<p>Early in his career, Cole Akerstream was working in commercial real estate on 100% commission, waiting months for deals to close.</p><p>Today, Cole is Vice President of Facilities and Store Development at The North West Company, a 360+ year old Canadian company with roughly 230 stores across northern Canada, Alaska, the Caribbean and the South Pacific.</p><p>In this episode of Careers Under Construction, Cole shares:</p><ul><li><p>What playing junior hockey, going to university and selling TVs at Future Shop taught him about closing and relationships</p></li><li><p>What the financial uncertainty of his early commission years really looked like</p></li><li><p>Why he walked away from commission sales and took a pay cut</p></li><li><p>How a failed Giant Tiger deal ended up changing the course of his career</p></li><li><p>How he built the kind of trust that opens doors in remote communities</p></li><li><p>Why chiefs and community leaders sometimes skip the chain and call him directly</p></li><li><p>The night he had nowhere to sleep in Old Crow and an elder took him in</p></li><li><p>The young boy in Alaska who had never seen an orange before</p></li><li><p>Why he believes you should write your goals down and keep them to yourself</p></li></ul>