The First-time Author
For a long time, I had wanted to take a writing sabbatical. Then, in 2011, I took the plunge. While my book is still undergoing editing, the journey has already given me important insights into shaping new initiatives. Having worked all my professional life in start-up situations, I realise that every innovation is, quite simply, a story waiting to be told. To get that story right, entrepreneurs can take a page out of the writer’s playbook.
When I started writing my book, I would spend hours idly looking outside the window of my apartment towards the playground below. I didn’t know where to start. I had “writer’s block”.
As days piled up, the euphoria of my sabbatical was turning into anxiety.
Then, one night, unable to sleep, maybe because my mind was so full, I threw caution to the wind and just wrote whatever came to my mind. There was no stopping me. I realised, I must have breached a really big barrage because now the story just gushed out. I think that barrage was me. When I got out of the way, the story flowed unfettered.
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The more I wrote, the more it cleared the way and the more it cleared the way, the more I wanted to write. I would write until late at night and early in the morning. According to my wife, my bearded, haggard form revealed a feverish passion that she hadn’t seen since college.
As the book neared completion, however, the anxiety returned.
‘Is anything wrong?’ my wife asked after a few days had passed and the situation hadn’t improved.
‘I guess, I am just anxious for this book to be a bestseller,’ I said.
She smiled.
‘Can’t the book be the reward itself?’ she suggested.
‘It can, but…’
‘Tell me something. How many pages is your book?’ she asked, trying a different approach.
‘About 300 pages, why?’ I enquired.
‘…and how many pages to the end once the friends reach the destination?’
‘About 15.’
‘So, 285 pages for the road-trip and 15 for the destination.’
‘Yes. So?’
‘Can’t you see, it is the journey that really matters?’ she asked.
