SAM YEHIA has learned about the highly competitive entertainment world the hard wav. By STEPHEN BARRINGTON News Reporter “It’s not something you can learn in school,’ Yehia, 31, says of his successful career in the entertainment business. ‘‘But you have to make a lot of mistakes."’ And Yehia, who is now manager and a major partner of the popular Vancouver night-spot Viva, has certainly made his share of mistakes in learning the business first hand. One mistake cost him $50,000. A planned Canada-wide tour with performers Sly and the Family Stone never materialized. ‘‘That was a no-show,'’ remembers Yehia, who got his first job at age nine sweeping a Dairy Queen park- ing lot. Newly arrived from his native Brazil, the Portuguese-speaking Yehia used hand signals to parlay himself into his first job. The personable businessman says he was an average student at Sentine! Secondary School in West Vancouver; his energy was directed to areas other than his studies. “School didn’t interest me as much as business,’? the North Shore resident confesses. ‘‘When I was in Grade 9, I was running the concession stand, running the ven- ding machines and running the sports shop.”’ As a result of his business inter- ests, the former Plazzazz boss got an early introduction to what he jokingly refers to as the ‘‘il- legitimate’ industry — the business of entertainment. “Te’s not recognized in the cir- cles we’re used to,’’ he says. ‘‘Be- ing an entertainment promoter is different from a lawyer. You can work for 10 years in the business making $100,000 a year — but when you go to buy a car they ask what you do and don’t give the same consideration they give someone else.” As he points out, there is no school for the entertainment business, Finding a mentor — someone to teach the tools of the trade — is the only way to learn. At age 18, a freshly-graduated Bubbi Price ATT SER fe Needeice NORTH SHORE resident Sam Yehia looks over his new nightclub’s new European Cafe. Yehia foilowed a mentor who took advantass