It can be easy to fall for listening to familiar and self-affirming narratives, and avoid the more challenging ones. It’s only human nature. During Black History Month, for example, people love to tell the story of Martin Luther King, the pacifist, but often fail to recall that he was considered “the most dangerous Negro of the future in this Nation” because of his call to radically challenge the social and economic status quo [1]

While producing the newest season of the podcast Family IN Business, a noticeable pattern of entrepreneurial stories emerged. Oftentimes, family entrepreneurs had a tendency to latch on to the easiest story and avoid the more nuanced ones. However, as they embarked on their journeys, they realized that their experience didn’t fit into the easy, familiar and predictable narratives that they had heard over and over again.

You know the story of the text-book entrepreneur; it goes like this: An ingenuitive young man notices a problem and finds a way to solve it. On his journey, he is thwarted by multiple setbacks and also propelled forward by helpful mentors and lucky breaks. These entrepreneurs emerge triumphant, even if they’ve taken on a few battle scars. They are wiser for it and so are we.