From high-school dropout to HGTV’s latest host, the long and winding road of Paul Lafrance

The long and winding road of Paul Lafrance, Canada’s handyman

It’s easy to make assumptions about Paul Lafrance, now known as Canada’s handyman.

For example, one might assume that the host of HGTV’s Disaster Decks, Decked Out and Custom Build has changed since attaining celebrity status.

One might assume that the success of his design company was dependent on the typical formula of business degree, networking skills and being in the right place at the right time.

One might also assume that the spiky-haired, grinning face staring back at you from his company’s website knows nothing of struggle and hardship.

But in reality, Paul Lafrance is a high-school dropout and a man who once found himself $365,000 in debt.

It may be surprising to some that the mind behind the amazing home transformations didn’t pick up a circular saw until he was 22. Before that, he was a bored high-school student with undiagnosed attention deficit disorder — his teachers’ worst nightmare.

“Guidance counsellors were like, ‘Look Paul, just conform. Everyone else knows what the system is. While you’re pimply-faced and full of hormones, you’re going to decide what you’re going to do for the rest of your life.… You’re going to meet the woman of your dreams, get married, buy the house of your dreams, have 1.5 children and live happily ever after,’” says Lafrance. “My response to that was: ‘Then why are all of you people so miserable?’”

Before Lafrance was kicked out, his English teacher left him with a powerful piece of advice: “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, but instead ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do that thing,” recalls Lafrance. 

Soon, he found himself working at a fence and deck company. 

“Three months later, I was stopping at the drugstore to get laxatives for everyone’s coffee because I was building 7,000 linear feet of the same fence, and I was bored out of my mind,” says Lafrance.

Seeing that Lafrance was getting a bit squirrelly, his boss showed him the deck of a backyard and asked for his thoughts.

“I began to tell my boss all of my ideas in this one continuous run-on sentence and then he said something to me that I’ve heard many times before and that was, ‘Paul, please for the love of God, stop talking,’” says Lafrance. “So I decided, at the age of 22, ‘Very well, I will go start my own company.’”

The 22-year-old Lafrance started knocking on doors.

“I would go into peoples’ houses, spend two, four, six, eight hours with people asking completely unprofessional questions like, ‘Who are you! Tell me about your life!’ and I would design projects in a very personal way,” he says. “They had never met somebody that was so passionate about creating something for them. And that’s how I got past those early years where people are going, you know, ‘Well what are your credentials?’ and I’m like, “Lego.’”

Lafrance soon determined that the backyard space could be something more than just a hangout spot. It could become a place where people could finally find peace and connection.

This unique approach to design could very well have been what inspired his entire team to stick by him when the “economic apocalypse” hit in 2008. With three competitors going out of business — and a debt of $1,000 for every day of the year — Lafrance told his team he was “releasing them from their loyalty.” Not a single person left, and Lafrance never gave up on his dream either.

“Most people walk around this planet and do not feel like they are ever really known or understood by people. They don’t feel like anyone knows their story, and even if their story was told, they feel like no one would really care,” said Lafrance.

“What makes me come alive is … seeing what it does to a person when they feel like somebody gets them and understands them. And that will make me a very unusual designer builder guy. That makes me an unusual contractor, let me tell you. But hey, it’s working well so far.”

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