Back when I was a working stiff, I would buy the occasional 6/49, slip it into my wallet and let it marinate, believing somehow that if it stewed for a couple of weeks I would open the lid and find a jackpot of $10 million, $15 Million, $20 MILLION!!!!!!!!

I’m sad to report that I never won.

Not that I ever had any expectation that I would. I was then, as now, aware of the probability: a better chance of getting hit three times by lightning. I don’t golf. And I don’t buy lottery tickets any more either.

But when I did it was usually on a day I was feeling a little blah. And this little piece of paper, ignorant though it was, would grant me a passport into a fantasyland that would somehow lift the veil of gray. A new car. A house near the beach. Money and gifts for all my friends. Momentarily.

Like opium, it had the seductive power to take the edge off a bad day. Innocent enough, unless you’re taking too many trips to the local dealer stuffing your pockets with Scratch-And-Wins.

For most entrepreneurs, lotteries are just plain dumb. But we worship an equally powerful opiate called The Exit Strategy. It’s where we start a business, grow it to $100 million, then cash out. And it has similar trappings to the Lottery Ticket: the daydreams, the toys, the hope.

Where The Exit Strategy differs, I suppose, is in the probability (better), and the fact that we have some measure of control over the outcome (also better). We in media create the dream by lauding Vancouver folk like Chip Wilson of Lululemon, Sandra Wilson of Robeez, Jack Gin of Extreme CCTV and of Flickr founders Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield as examples of those who have successfully taken a lot of cash off the table.

But as Jack Gin notes in this issue of the magazine, the goal of starting Extreme CCTV was never to make a big pile of moolah – it was to build a successful company. And by any measure, he has done that.

At the beginning of a business The Exit Strategy may figure more prominently, but I’m sure most entrepreneurs will agree that once you’re into the journey, the reward is the road itself.

The Exit Strategy is always a presence in any well-run business as it helps define the goals and objectives. But at a psychic level, the real reward is not the bucks, but the learning and growth one accumulates while facing the day-to-day challenge of keeping an enterprise moving forward.

If for whatever reason the magazine you hold in your hands should fail before we reach the holy grail of our exit strategy, I’ll have few regrets. By running this company, I have met wonderful people, learned how to sell, market, think strategically, manage, face my fears.

And that, I suppose, is the difference between blind hope and the hope you make for yourself. Enjoy the issue.