The biggest plot twist in my life

Serendipity

And it was quite a coincidence that both book and I ended up in the same place.

On vacation, I visited my parents in Ireland. My sister was there visiting too. She works all over the world (literally: she is a dancer and during the last season she was a dancer on a cruise ship that visited at least 4 continents). It was her book. I don’t know why she was reading it. Probably someone recommended it to her. I was bored out of my mind. The book description captivated my attention.

I wolfed the book in one day.

Its message has been in my mind ever since.

A month later I wrote down a few goals, for the first time in 16 years.

Prior to reading The Slight Edge my life was drifting slowly in an unknown direction. I did just enough to get by. My health was OK, so was family, career and spiritual life, but I felt I could do better. However, I didn’t have faith that I could accomplish anything better.

This book convinced me to start looking for something “better”, not through any grand schemes or deeds, but in small daily disciplines.

Here comes the twist: after studying tons of personal development materials (a few dozen books and hours of audio programs) I discovered I wanted to be a writer.

Ridiculous!

The only things I’d published in my life were entries on a couple of game forums. I had zero experience in writing for a wider audience. I had no relevant training (other than obligatory courses in high school 14 years prior).

I also had a family to support and a solid IT career, so I couldn’t just quit everything and immerse in my newfound passion.

It took me more than a month to write my first blog post after that discovery. It took another few months before I started to write regularly.

Eight months after reading The Slight Edge and 6.5 months after discovering I wanted to write, I published my first non-fiction book on Amazon.

But it worked

I wrote and published it in English, which is not my native language. In fact, my English is mostly self-taught. I had no following and zero authority.

To my surprise, people were willing to pay money to read my book. Not much money — $0.99 — and not many people — about one a day — but I was stunned. And hooked.

I published another book. It was a flop that sold something like 16 copies in four months. My third book did a bit better: I sold over 100 copies in the first month. That was encouraging. I’d sold exactly 144 copies of my books up to that moment, earning about $35 in exchange for over five months of hustle.

Sort of…

Book #4 was another flop.

In January 2014, I sold 197 copies of my four books and earned the “stunning” 2% of my day job salary. It was 16 months after reading The Slight Edge and 8 months after publishing my first book.

My approach clearly didn’t pay big dividends. I was exhausted having to maintain my normal obligations and this “side hustle” — writing.