'It's not the getting, it's the giving'

Can a first-year class change your life? Eleftherios “Terry” Michalopoulos says yes.

The course he wanted was full, and so Mr. Michalopoulos ended up in Ed Leach’s Management 1000. He was a 67-year-old freshman. He’d never used a computer and hadn’t been in a classroom for more than 40 years. A former Greek army officer with a career in food services behind him, the last thing he wanted to do was prepare a business plan.

“At my age, I don’t have time to get rich,” says Mr. Michalopoulos, now a second-year arts student studying Spanish at Dalhousie. After graduating, he hopes to do volunteer work in South America. “I was chasing him (Dr. Leach) down in the hallways. What can I do? This just isn’t for me.”

SEE PHOTOS: One step at a time

But Dr. Leach convinced him real entrepreneurship isn’t just about suits and ties and making money. “With entrepreneurs, people talk about a fire in the belly,” says Dr. Leach. “Well, maybe what I’m talking about is a different kind of fire. I say to my students, let’s start with you. Let’s figure out what matters to you.”

What mattered to Mr. Michalopoulos were the promises he made to his beloved wife Anna on her death bed. He told her he’d look after the family, their five children, nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. He told her he’d go back to school. He told her he’d do some good in the world.

“With entrepreneurs, people talk about a fire in the belly ... Well, maybe what I’m talking about is a different kind of fire. I say to my students, let’s start with you. Let’s figure out what matters to you.” — Professor Ed Leach

And so he resolved to start his own foundation, raising money for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Nova Scotia. And he’d raise money by taking pledges for his walk along the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, a pilgrimage route through France and Spain that people have been traveling for one-thousand years.

To raise money, he set up a table in Founders Square in downtown Halifax where he was working as a cook and simply told people what he was up to. He collected $1,400 in three hours. Before leaving for France, he had raised more than $25,000.

He set out on the trail, at the base of the Pyrennes, in France, on May 29. He walked an average of 28 kilometres a day, staying in convents and monasteries and hostels along the way. By the time he arrived at the Cathedral de Santiago de Compostela less than a month later, he had traveled 820 kilometres and dropped 26 lbs. The cathedral is known for holding the remains of the apostle James, who was martyred in Jerusalem around 44 AD.

On the invitation of Dr. Leach, Mr. Michalopoulos recently returned to MGMT 1000 to tell students about his experience. He told them about some of the things he learned along the dusty path that cuts through northern Spain, sometimes traveling alone, sometimes with friends he met along the way.

“If I thought about the distance, it sounds like a lot. So I figured out I would take 1,000,800 footsteps, still a lot, but I just took it one footstep at a time. The idea is to break down things into little pieces, and then it becomes easier.”

He also told the students how his back ached with his heavy pack after he’d journeyed 150 kilometres. He compared the excess weight in his pack to the excess weight of his past—broken relationships, regrets, sadness. “But all that extra weight makes it hard to continue, so you have to let go.”

Mr. Michalopoulos returned from his camino invigorated. His friends say he looks years younger. He smiles all the time and if you hear his laugh, you can’t help but laugh along.

“I am content. I figured out some things, like (life’s) not about getting things, it’s about giving.”

He’s planning on doing the journey again in the summer, but this time he’ll take a longer route, the Camino del Norte; it starts and ends in the same places but hugs Spain’s northern coastline. And he’ll soon start fundraising for his foundation—just as soon as exams are over with.