As an entrepreneur, Sam Kolias has reaped a bumper crop, leading his 17-year-old company to $218 million in revenue last year.

But the chief executive of Calgary’s biggest landlord, Boardwalk Equities, isn’t one to rest on his sheaves.

Well, let him tell it.

“I always look at what I can provide, not what I can take, what I can sow, not what I can reap,” says the philosophical 39-year-old son of a Greek immigrant.

David Lazarowych, Business Edge
Sam Kolias took his company name from the Monopoly Boardwalk property.

“That’s what I was raised to believe in. When you sow and you plant and provide, you harvest.”

1. You’ve said you don’t like to be photographed alone. Does that reflect on your belief in team values?

“This company is not about one person. It’s all about a team. It’s about ordinary people doing extraordinary things. What makes a team is strong values — being fair, honest and respectful. If we share the same values, then we share a common thread.”

2. Did you play team sports in your boyhood years in Calgary?

“I played hockey. I was a lousy hockey player and I quit playing when I was very young. I just got tired of sitting on the bench . . .”

3. How did that sit with you?

“It affected me. Big time. When I coached my son in hockey (for two years), everybody played.”

4. How did working for your father Gust’s rental-property business in your youth prepare you for Boardwalk?

“You learned about hard work but it was OK because my father worked as hard as anyone. I did a lot of cleaning. I guess the most disheartening thing is seeing how abusive and filthy a human can be. It’s quite startling. It was fun when I got to use the power tools and finally got to touch the saw.”

5. How did you and brother Van start Boardwalk?

“Our equity investment was $50,000. We bought our first apartment for $280,000, spent $30,000 on it and sold it six months later for $440,000.”

6. Did you ever envision Boardwalk’s phenomenal growth?

“We’re all surprised at the magnitude of it. We always remind ourselves that it’s not about how big we are but it’s about how good we are and how good we have to be to our customers.”

7. Describe your business philosophy?

“It comes from my father which comes from our Father, our heavenly Father. The No. 1 rule is to always think of your customer and try to understand what he or she may want or need and address that better than anybody else. And the rest will take care of itself. Whatever you give is what you receive — in multiple proportions.”

8. So it’s all about customer service?

“It’s powerful. It’s amazing what happens when you treat people well. Our industry is an industry where for the last thousand years there’s been a typical adversarial relationship between the tenant and the landlord. That’s why we call our tenants customers. When there is a landlord that thinks about his customers and puts them first, then you do exceptionally.”

9. With your stock now on the New York Stock Exchange as well as the TSE, do you have U.S. expansion plans?

“The American economy has been in the harvest mode for the last nine or 10 years and now looks to be going into the winter season. There are times when you should plant and times you should grow and times when you should harvest. And there are times when you wait until winter is over . . . We don’t want to catch the falling sword. We would like to watch the sword fall, be flat on the ground and pick it up on the handle as it’s going back up.”

10. Has success changed you?

“I think I’m much the same. We have a nice home. It’s not a huge home, but it’s not a small home. It’s above average. I still try to save. I shut off lights and I’m always chasing my kids to shut off lights.”

11. Do you try and instill the same values in your children that your parents gave you?

“I guess we all get spoiled when we get things that are beyond what we’ve actually worked for. I’ve always disclosed that I want to give away most, if not everything, I have to charity. When I was growing up, my father showed me the tax liabilities of his private company. Essentially, the equity upon a tax event like a death would have disappeared.”

12. So did that motivate you?

“It was a big motivator, knowing I wasn’t going to have a pot of gold upon the death of my parents. I think education and signature guarantees are important. But to inherit a great deal of money can be as much a curse and usually it is more of a curse than a blessing.”

13. Can you talk about your family’s involvement in Mexican ghettos?

“Our family serves in missionary work, building garage-like homes (14 by 18 feet) for the homeless in Tijuana. We spend half a week doing that every year . . . The kids love it. They learn that people, regardless of their financial wherewithal and the way they clothe themselves, are people like you and I. The kids and I also work at soup kitchens every week when I’m in town.”

14. So is it good to be humbled?

“I’m an egotistical being. That’s one of my weaknesses — my pride and ego. I try to work on subduing it and believe it’s very important to try hard to be humble.”

15. What have you learned from your involvement with the homeless issue in Calgary?

“About two-thirds of the people who are homeless need health care, medication, counselling and are either substance-abusers or mentally ill or a combination of the above. We can provide people with four walls and a roof, but if they don’t have the right services and care, they end up in the same place. If we can find more partners, this would be great for everybody. We focus on housing, but not on health care or counselling. I want to get more involved in this in the future. That is more rewarding than buying another building. We absolutely can solve the problem with everybody involved — all government levels, corporate, private and public.”

16. How has your perspective changed as CEO of Boardwalk?

“I don’t take myself as seriously as I used to. There’s a great realization that the company will not only survive, but will thrive without me, with the existing people in place. And that’s a great thing to be able to say and to believe and to know.”

17. What accomplishment are you most proud of?

“I don’t think I’ve personally really accomplished a whole lot that I can be personally proud of. The most important thing in my life is my faith and my family and friends. It’s the five F’s — faith, family, friends, fitness and the last one is finance.”

18. Is that the way it always was?

“The best thing I’ve ever done is reverse those five priorities when they were in the wrong order. When I was younger, for a time, finance was No. 1. Those were the darkest, most stressful and worst times of my life that I can recall.” 19. When you take a day to kick back, what do you do?

“I snowboard. Oh, I love snowboarding. It’s unbelievable!”

20. Do you see yourself in the CEO’s chair a decade from now?

“Wherever I am, I just want to be serving people, period. If I’m serving, I’m happy.”

IN PROFILE: Sam Kolias

* Born/Raised/Age: Calgary, 39.

* Title: CEO/president, Boardwalk Equities.

* Education: University of Calgary (engineering degree).

* Family: Wife Melissa, four children.

* Resume: Founded Boardwalk with brother Van in 1984.

* Mentor: Father Gust.

* Claim to fame: SamsCam on Boardwalk Web site (www.bwalk.com/sam) shows Kolias at work in his office.

* Passions: Building shelters for homeless with his family in Mexico, snowboarding, skateboarding.

THE COMPANY: Boardwalk Equities

* Brass: Sam Kolias, CEO/president; Roberto Geremia, chief financial officer/VP; Mark Kornak, chief technology officer/VP; Kevin Screpnechuk, VP, rental operations.