I've spent 30 years building businesses.
I'm still picking up nickels.

My father ran a restaurant in Montreal. From the time I was eight years old I was peeling potatoes in the back and serving whoever walked through the door. Not thinking about business school. Not dreaming about becoming an entrepreneur. Just learning.

All kinds of people walked through that door. The homeless man who just needed a meal. The former Prime Minister of Canada who happened to be a regular. I learned early that hunger doesn't care about your title — and neither should you.

I didn't set out to become an entrepreneur. Back then you got a degree and got a job. Over 30 years and 14 businesses, I stopped keeping score the way most people do. What looks like a failure from the outside might be the experience that quietly rewired how you think. A business that never sold for a big number might have taught you something worth millions.

You can't deposit excitement.

Passion matters. But passion without execution is just noise. The entrepreneurs who make it aren't the most excited ones in the room — they're the ones who pick up the nickels every single day even when nobody's watching.

These days I find myself in my office with entrepreneurs — young ones, seasoned ones, stuck ones — who just need someone who's been there. Not a consultant with a framework. Not a coach with a course. Someone who can look at their situation and say: here's what I'd do differently, and here's how we get you there faster.

I'll be honest with you — some people find that directness uncomfortable. That's okay. The ones who are ready for it tend to move faster because of it.