Lately, I have been telling my entrepreneurship story quite a bit; in my 30’s I didn’t have a moment to stop but then again, those were the foundational years; the peak time of the story’s making.

I will never forget a conversation at the dinner table with the wider family one Christmas. One of the younger folks remarked how Uncle Jacob “gets the easy deals.” I winked across the table at Mona, my wife, and in that split second we shared that “you-do-not-know-what-you-are-talking-about” smile.

There is no such thing as easy deals in business. Unless of course you are part of a cartel, a smuggling racket, a patronage network, or have the increasingly rare privileged pole position of being a monopoly.

In reality, entrepreneurship isn’t a series of Hail Mary passes and long shots in the dark. If you cannot live with uncertainty, loss and depression (and look good while you are at it), entrepreneurship is not for you. You would be the wiser keeping your 9-5, sip your cup of tea in the demilitarized zone and let someone else take the bullets for you!

The truly called entrepreneurs are comfortable with discomfort. They know that failure is actually a good thing; that there are a lot more lessons to learn from failure than success. #Monday