78 - What Now? with Chris Dorland

Entrepreneur and Venture Capitalist Chris Dorland joins The Kondrat Podcast this week to share his philosophies on meditation and spirituality, and to explain why he calls himself “a grateful alcoholic."

Growing up in Red Deer, AB, Chris says he fit the archetype of Family Ties’ Alex P. Keaton. He didn’t much fit the usual stereotypes and made one for himself, putting on a show that he thought other people wanted to see. He was naturally a high achiever but when approaching the end of high school his grades were going to need a boost in order to get into the universities he’d planned on applying for. In what would later be advice he’d pass on to his younger brother, Chris approached his teachers saying “I want a 90+ in this class and I’d like your help showing me the path to that”

Heading into university Chris attended Western University in London, ON, and by his second year he had found community and belonging by joining a fraternity. With the community came the stereotypical fraternity party experience, along with the first clues that Chris would struggle with alcoholism. Like many he used it as a social lubricant, but soon also found himself using alcohol to recover from hangovers, which is a big sign that there may be a problem.

After leaving Western Chris came back to Alberta and was part of the early years of commodity trading in the province’s energy industry, which he explains as natural resource companies shifting to being essentially speculative hedge funds. This was extremely engaging and exciting work for him, something that he compared to being shot out of a cannon every morning, and for a time his work kept him busy enough that he wasn’t drinking quite as much, but whenever there was free time the alcohol was still a regular fixture in his life.

Chris could tell that something wasn’t right, and during a conversation with a guy he drank with every day he was told “there’s an AA meeting about 2 blocks away.” For the next three weeks Chris would drive past the door to the meeting, and eventually would work up the courage not to hang a left into the bar. On that day, May 1st 2006, Chris had his last drink. While the nature of AA is anonymous, Chris is open about his own story and about how the 12-step program changed his life and how he now finds meaning through meditation, spiritually, and a mantra of “progress, not perfection.” Today at 15 years sober he lives a life of gratefulness, bringing his best self to each moment.

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