Up close and personal with
Frank Candy

When is your birthday?
December 18th

What Year?
Every year. It never changes.

Where is your current home?
Winter Park, Florida, the office is in Orlando, it's a great place to live and work.

What's your occupation?
Author, publisher, business owner, Internet entrepreneur, professional speaker, many of my clients have called me 'The Innovation Expert' and often times 'The Business Maximize or The Motivator' I'm in the business of teaching people to optimize and maximize their businesses with effective innovation. I use many ways to accomplish this as an author, professional speaker, publisher and former association executive and business enterprise development expert.

Who are your favorite actors and performers?
Sean Connery, Jackie Gleason, John Candy, Tony Bennett, Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz, Billy Crystal, Kevin Costner, Eddie Murphy, Rene Russo, Michael Caine, Eric Clapton, Don Henley, Jimmy Buffet, Frank Sinatra, Clay Cotton, Gloria Estefan and Coco Ramos.

Is it true that you are a good cook?
Very true. I learned from my parents and grandparents, they were wonderful cooks and there are great chefs in our family too.

What else did your mother teach you?
Make sure you offer to do the dishes. She always said: "No man was ever shot while doing the dishes". (I have washed lots of dishes!)

What do you think your friends say about you behind your back?
"Haven't seen Frank in a while. I heard he's been very busy on assignment."

What's the name of your boat?
Assignment.

Who were your favorite mentors?
My grandfather Joseph, my brother Dennis, Dr. Johnny Miller, John Candy the actor, and Orville Hissom, one of the great renaissance men of the 20th Century.

What was the best time in your life?
There are several competing for the best time. I just love what I've been doing for over two decades. Looking back I would say it was when I gave away and sold almost everything I owned and traveled around the world… that was a great time.
I have traveled across country and the world on boats, on motorcycles, bicycles, campers and airplanes. The motorcycle and bicycles trips really teach you about being a minimalist.

Coaching Special Olympics is very high on the list. Getting involved in a foundation that distributes food to hungry people is a very rewarding experience. Volunteering often at the homeless shelters is a worthwhile moment. Visiting people in nursing homes, hospitals and Veterans Homes with my service dog Harley is very rewarding. Creating random acts of kindness and remaining anonymous is an ongoing favorite too.

Tell us about your dog.
Harley is a Golden Retriever, on April 16th, 2004 I had the opportunity to rescue from some friends who were about to send him to an animal shelter. He turned out to be a great dog, full of life, energy and love. He has taught me very valuable lessons.

What kind of lessons has he taught you?
There are so many, but the top three are. 1) Be in the moment and enjoy what you have. 2) Don't judge anyone, just be loving and kind to everyone. 3) Focus on the the most important thing. Countless times I have let him run loose in a park and he sees two squirrels at the same time and tries to run after both of them. So many people will chase after more than one thing at the same time and never catch anything.

Why did you name him Harley? It just fit him perfectly, he's bright, bold, fast, strong, handsome and fun.

So do you ride Harley Davidson Motorcycles? Yes, Our family has been riding forever. My brother and I are third generation Harley riders. In my lifetime I have ridden quite a few other kinds of motorcycles, from American, British, German, Italian, and Japanese manufactures. It's a great sport and we have a lot of friends who enjoy riding.

What is your all-time favorite book?
As A Man Thinketh, by James Allen

What are your all time favorite sports?
First let me say it's DOING It… NOT watching! I have for most of my life enjoyed golf, bicycling, swimming, skiing and river rafting. I started windsurfing back in the late '70's down in the Florida Keys, and then became competitive in cross-country skiing, kayaking, canoeing, and windsurfing for over a dozen years.

Is it true you are a scratch golfer?
Oh No. Who told you that? I'm an avid golfer, not a scratch player. It is a very humbling game. I have been playing since I was a teenager and still love it. I am a lifetime and founding member of the PGA Tour Partners.

Ever win a golf tournament?
Our team won first place in the Spring 2002 Orlando CVB tournament and third place in the Mayors annual golf tournament benefiting Junior Achievement. Someone famous said: "It's better to be lucky than good."

Do you remember your best score on a golf course?
Sure do! It was the fall of '94, it was a 68 at the PGA Resort in Palm Beach, but we were rained out after the 12th hole.

I asked some people who really know you well what they would say about you. They said you are a loyal friend, a generous person, different, memorable, driven to success and enjoys helping other people. What's your reaction?
I am very grateful for all the blessing in my life, and hope I can continue doing this for a long time.

You've had some interesting jobs, and hobbies, tell me about them?
As a kid I delivered papers, shined shoes, pumped gas and fixed cars. In the late 60's and through the 70's I worked for a railroad as an engineer and the labor unions. The economy was in a recession so I was laid off often. The future didn't look good there so I figured I better go to college.

To work my way through college I was a writer, a photographer for a newspaper, plus a cook, bartender, and a bouncer. I also made a few bucks shooting pool and playing cards. After completing my undergraduate work, I accepted a scholarship to engineering school and graduated at the top of my class.

In the '70's I bought some distressed businesses, turned them around, made them very profitable and sold them. Then I tried acting in Hollywood, and racing cars, (those were both very short lived). For two summers I had a job as a river guide for a rafting company on the Colorado River. I drove a tour bus in Yellowstone National Park, and for five years was an instructor for a couple wilderness experience schools. I have competed in, and won ski races, windsurfing, kayak and canoe races, and racquetball tournaments. I became a certified Red Cross first aid instructor, a certified down hill and cross country ski instructor and certified meditation instructor.

In my spare time I read lots of books, taught photography, and communications and photography at the college level and built computers from kits.

I worked at advertising agencies, I was a human resource liaison for the Department of Defense, a volunteer fireman, a radio DJ, a journalist, and produced programs for PBS and industrial applications from product demos to training videos.

Do you like what you are doing now?
Well yeah, delivering speeches is a great profession ... there's no heavy lifting!

What did you like doing the most?
Delivering keynote speeches and seminars about productivity and profitability, global business trends, successful innovation, marketing, sales, bridging the generation gap and change. It keeps constantly searching for betters ways to do things, faster, and with greater quality. I find it very rewarding to inspire people to succeed and assist them to make the unthinkable thinkable, and the impossible possible.

I really enjoy working on turning around businesses. It's usually a complicated operation that often times require complex solutions and tough choices. I love the challenge.

What would you do if you won a big lottery?
If I encountered a huge cash windfall I would keep doing what I'm doing, but on a larger scale. And I would probably sleep less. As one gets older he realizes there is less time and more and more to do.

Is it true you are a scratch golfer?
Oh No. Who told you that? I'm an avid golfer, not a scratch player. It is a very humbling game.

Ever win a golf tournament?
Our team won first place in the Spring 2002 Orlando CVB tournament and third place in the Mayors annual golf tournament benefiting Junior Achievement. Someone famous said: "It's better to be lucky than good."

Do you remember your best score on a golf course?
Sure do! It was the fall of '94, it was a 68 at the PGA Resort in Palm Beach, but we were rained out after the 12th hole.

If you could have dinner with one dead person, who would it be?  Albert Einstein, he was a brilliant character.

If you could live anywhere in the world for a year, where and why? I would go back to living on a sail boat. It would be like living a Jimmy Buffett song most of the time.

What are the two or three things that you believe count more than anything else for a person to be a success?
Laser like focus, constant search of excellence, ongoing preparation, fierce determination, and massive desire . . . plus, having the never give up attitude of a winner have been the keys to my success.