I’m going to focus on that last path in today’s post in commemoration that my seventh book comes out this very day, “Learning to Love Midlife: 12 Reasons Why Life Gets Better With Age.” Mind you, there are three other published books that I don’t even count in my seven books published: “The Complete Book of Drinking Games” (written under the pseudonym Chugger Downs), “Business Rules of Thumb” (written with Seth Godin, but it’s less a book and more a compilation), and “Flatline on the Faultline” (only available in the MEA libraries in Baja and Santa Fe).
When I was a kid, I wrote stories to my imaginary friends. They seemed to love them or, at least, they didn’t complain. I was a pretty awkward introvert (which is true of many writers) and, as I approached adolescence, I got the impression from my parents that I needed to become more social.
When I was in 8th grade and on the creative writing magazine staff, I told Dad that I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. He didn’t seem pleased by that and I surmised that it wasn’t a manly enough profession (of course, I’d forgotten that Ernest Hemingway existed) so I quit the magazine and kept my writing practice secret. In high school, I was embarrassed when I was celebrated on stage with four female classmates – not a boy in sight – for scoring a 4 or 5 on my English Advanced Placement test which meant I didn’t take one English class in college. No comp lit, no creative writing, nada. Yes, I wrote that drinking game book in college and the Seth Godin book in biz school, but neither felt like it exercised my literary muscles.
It wasn’t until I was giving an entrepreneurial speech at 37, more than a decade after I’d started my boutique hotel company that a literary agent asked me, after the speech, if I’d ever considered writing a book about being a rebel entrepreneur. I laughed and said that I’d run away from the dream of being a writer. The next thing I knew, I was birthing my first book, and people seemed to love it. And, beyond my books, I now love writing a daily blog which is both a commitment and a calling.
With more than 4,000 alums coming through MEA, I’ve seen litigation attorneys become pastry chefs, journalists turn into elementary school teachers, and software engineers transform into leadership coaches – all because they tapped into a passion from earlier in their lives. You can do the same.
What’s a passion from your childhood that might provide you the breadcrumbs to your purpose?
I hope you’ll purchase a copy of “Learning to Love Midlife” today if you haven’t already done so.
-Chip