While there was no doubt the buzz centred on The Apprentice star Bill Rancic, it was a couple of local boys who stole the show.

Calgary magnate Murray Edwards joined long-time friend and sometime business associate Brett Wilson, co-founder and chairman of FirstEnergy Capital Corp., to impart sage business and leadership acumen last week to an eager throng of young impresarios at the Young Professionals and Entrepreneurs Conference.

In a talk-show format, hosted by A-Channel's Dave Kelly, the two men discussed their beginnings in the business world, their successes and failures, and gave advice to aspiring young businesspeople in the crowd.

For Edwards, success in business can be boiled down to three Ps: Process, planning and passion.

Larry MacDougal, Business Edge
Host Dave Kelly, right, and Brett Wilson, left, listen to entrepreneur Murray Edwards at YPEC.

"Any time you are going to go into a venture or are involved in some activity, take time to build a process and take time to build a plan of where you're going and how you're going to get there, because your chances of success will be much higher," Edwards said.

"The other thing is the importance of passion in whatever you do. Your chances of success will also be better if you're passionate about what you are doing."

Wilson added another P - people, adding you have to know the people you're working with.

"If we go into a business venture we're backing people; we're not backing the idea, we're not backing the assets, we're backing people ... because at the end of the day that's all you've got," Wilson said.

The two men know a thing or two about success: Edwards - a Calgary Flames co-owner, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. vice-chairman, president and owner of Edco Financial Holdings Ltd., among other titles - managed to parley $100,000 into $500 million in his relatively short career as a businessman, while Wilson has helped to grow FirstEnergy into the top investment dealer focused on Canada's energy sector and is known as one of the country's brightest dealmakers.

The pair first met in student politics in the late 1970s at the University of Saskatchewan. Both men agreed that experience was a first lesson in the importance of leadership.

"I saw then the importance of building a team and reaching consensus," Edwards said. "One of the things I really believe in is the necessity of getting consensus if you want to achieve success."

For Wilson, then an engineering student, serving on a student council allowed him to establish contacts that proved invaluable as he launched his career in business. "These are relationships I still maintain today."

After getting his law degree in 1983 from the University of Toronto, Edwards moved to Calgary where he saw more opportunities because of the city's favourable entrepreneurial climate. He had been practising law for five years when his best friend was diagnosed with, and later died of, a brain tumour. It was then that he encountered his destiny.

"I told him he should slow down and take time to smell the roses, because we all knew his time was finite," Edwards said. "He would tell me, 'Murray, I'm a stockbroker, I love what I do,' and even though he was sick, he did something he loved. So I said to myself: 'I like practising law, I don't love it, I love business,' so I decided to leave the law and become a businessman."

But the high seas of business haven't always been calm. Asked about failure - Edwards said he didn't like the word, preferring the term "challenge" - he acknowledged that he'd had his fair share of challenges early on.

Back in the late 1980s, when Canadian Natural Resources was barely producing 400 barrels a day of oil, an opportunity arose to drill a high-risk, high-reward well that would "make the company.”

With $1 million in the bank, the decision was made to sink half of it in the ground. Two weeks later he got the word: The well had been a technical success but an economic failure.

And the lesson he took away from the experience? "Sometimes in life we all drill dry holes," he said. "The good news was we still had $500,000 in the bank.”

Canadian Natural is now the fifth-largest energy company in Canada.

And what do the pair look for in budding young businesspeople?

"Something I look for (when hiring) is street smarts," Wilson said. "The best resume and the best transcript is of little interest to me."

"I happen to be a big fan of people who have taken a little bit of time either in charity, or in sports or in student politics; people who have accomplished something and proven that they're not just there to take up a place," Wilson added.

Other participants at the conference - held at Calgary's Epcor Centre - included The Apprentice's Rancic, who besides talking about his experiences on the hit reality show spoke about entrepreneurship; Premier Ralph Klein, who discussed the importance of youth in Alberta's economy; and former NHLer Kelly Hrudy, who spoke about pursuing goals and dreams.

(John Ludwick can be reached at ludwick@businessedge.ca)