Interview: Nick Tokman, 28, Fisherman. “Deadliest Catch.’ Motivational Speaker.
Nick Tokman hails from Massachusetts, a state whose shoreline once teemed with whaling barks — the homes of men who, seeking fortune in whale oil during the 19th century, ventured to sea for years at a time, each hoping to capture their “lay” or percentage of a catch, while risking their lives in the black squalls of the North Atlantic, the high seas of the Indian Ocean, and the farthest reaches of the remote Pacific and Arctic whaling grounds. But Tokman isn’t from New Bedford or even Nantucket, where as a teenager he caddied to help pay his way through the prestigious MacDuffie School. He is instead from Springfield, nicknamed “The City of Firsts” — an appropriate place for a man of many beginnings. After high school, the then-18-year-old headed to business school at Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business in Montreal, where he learned to speak French while earning his degree and working as a suit salesman, janitor, and pizza delivery driver. It was while visiting his grandfather one summer that Tokman first saw the Emmy Award-winning “Deadliest Catch.” Read the interesting interview here 16:22
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