The one thing writing teaches you about life.

I was rejected for the sixtieth time. Every literary agent that read The Yoga

of Max’s Discontent’s first three chapters had the same feedback:

“I couldn’t get into the story.” “I didn’t relate to Max.” “The premise is fascinating but the execution didn’t

grab me.”

Then, the 61st agent took the time to read the whole manuscript. Her rejection was more constructive:

“Once the protagonist gets to India, you lose yourself completely in the story but the first part in New York

falls flat.”

I read the book for the millionth time. This time, I saw the problem. In the

first 30 pages set in New York, Max was thinking. He was trying to make major life decisions by analyzing, reflecting,

and debating the pros and cons. It doesn’t work. The hero doesn’t debate.

The hero does.

A character reveals himself by action. S/he moves forward, falls, learns, picks up the pieces, acts,

stumbles again, and eventually he gets somewhere.

Most likely, he’ll end up in a completely different place than he intended to but

he’ll be deeper, wiser, more three-dimensional from having acted. Life is

movement, action, growth, transformation. I re-vamped the novel completely. Instead of thinking about his past, Max visits the violent Bronx

neighborhood he grew

up in in the dead of the night. Rather than planning his future, he plunges ahead. In every page, he learns what he should do by acting not reflecting. Within a week of making the fix, I had

multiple literary agent offers. In a month, I had a worldwide book deal

The hero does.

In stories and in life.A year ago, Kerry and I were

wondering whether it made sense to have a second kid in the midst of full-time start-up jobs and a book launch.

We went ahead anyway. Rumi came in the middle of everything—and it’s

busy and amazing. Six months ago, we launched an online business thinking we’d live in Costa Rica and manage it

remotely.

It failed. But I learnt more than I would have by not doing it. And that opened new doors. Life didn’t work out the way we intended. It seldom

does. But it expands.

Don’t be the rejected Max.

You know deep down what you have to do. Don’t think about your start-up idea. Start. Don’t debate whether you should take up that

job outside your city. Move.

Half the time you’ll make the wrong decision, the other half you’ll be lying on the floor wondering why you bit

off more than you can chew. But with each decision you’ll handle

complexity better,

you’ll discover deeper and deeper reservoirs of strengths within you

until one day there’ll be nothing in this world of men and hobbits that won’t

be within your reach. Decide don’t debate. Do it now not later.

Start living your story today.

Be it Moby Dick or The Alchemist, a great story has the hero leave his or

her known world, strive, face conflict, often be stretched to

breaking point,

and eventually deepen, grow, and transform herself and the world

around her from abandoning security. So leave the known world

behind. I don’t where it will lead. But life will expand. And that’s all there

is.

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