A lack of sunshine and rainbows
A bit of a down week for me given the world events, and an interesting experience in synagogue this past weekend.
Happy Tuesday folks,
Another post 1 day later than usual, but for good reason (I think). It’s certainly been an interesting week on my end.
Let’s jump in:
Story: It ain’t all sunshines and rainbows
Continuing on with a bit of my spiel from last week because I had an interesting experience over the weekend.
More specifically, I was back home in Ottawa and to make a long story short, Jewish men are honoured at their synagogue leading up to their wedding in something called an Aufruf. Mine was last weekend (as my wedding is next month - woo!).
As you can imagine, with a terrorist attack in Israel the week prior and Hamas calling for a day of Jihad against Jews around the world on Friday, there was a small part of me that was very nervous heading into synagogue with all of my closest family on Saturday.
Don’t get me wrong - I’ve lived a very priviliged life so far here in Canada and until last week never had to think twice about my own safety.
But a lot of that changed last week.
Thankfully there was a lot of security, police and nothing bad happened. We were left to pray, mourn and celebrate in peace. And the Rabbi gave one of the more uplifting and emotional speeches I’ve heard at synagogue before.
Suffice to say, it’s been a more emotional week than usual. I’m not one to get too dramatic, and I normally use these weekly updates to focus on business, but once in a while we all have personal and/or world events that infringe on our business lives.
And instead of avoiding them or shying away it’s probably important to share them. Both for your own well being, and in my case, to also make sure there’s enough awareness of what’s going on.
10 days ago Hamas entered Israel and brutally murdered, raped, kidnapped and more (and not just Israelis/Jews - they also kidnapped US citizens, Thai citizens and many more). I’ve since talked to friends who have lost family members and friends. I’ve advised on how friends can help their own family/friends travel to Canada to escape the on-going war that’s just getting started.
And for the first time in my life, I’ve feared for my own safety.
So far Canada has remained relatively safe, thank God, and I can only hope it remains that way (here and hopefully around the world as well). While it was harder than normal last week, I’ll keep pushing forward.
Key takeaway: You don’t have to hide your struggles
Entrepreurship ain’t easy on its own, and that’s before we consider other things in life like family, friends, health, world events, politics and more.
Some is the daily grind, but sometimes you get hit with a tough week (or longer) that goes beyond just another day in business. I guess we can just call it “life”.
It has its ups, and it certainly has its down.
Make sure you can properly categorize them and act accordingly. Make sure you have the necessary support - whether it be family, friends, communities, whatever it may be. Like-minded people that you can share the ups and downs with, because it can be a lonely journey.
And having the right people for support can make a huge difference in getting through the hard times, because holding it all in for too long won’t do you much good.
As they say, you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with - so pick and communicate with them wisely.
Content for the week:
Due to my travel and, quite frankly, lack of emotional energy, I didn’t record a vlog for this week. But I’ll be back at it next week.
I’m almost done but haven’t yet finished No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Erin Meyer and Reed Hastings (the cofounder/CEO of Netflix). I partly lost some motivation over the weekend to finish it because my head wasn’t in it (although the first 75% was really good), and switched it up to start reading Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World about the bankers at large during the Great Depression.
I should have one of them done by next week for a more full review.
That’s it for this week. Hopefully you found it helpful and here’s to hoping for a slightly more positive one in the week ahead.
Thanks as always for following along on my journey and have a great week,
- Josh Schachnow
Canadian immigration lawyer, CEO at Visto.ai
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