In yesterday’s Live, I read a few pages from my book, Dare To Create and talked about how this book came about, how I gradually adopted the philosophies in the book into my own life, and how deeply they transformed me. I wanted to share some of that journey with you.
The book is really the story of how I changed my thinking, my beliefs, and ultimately myself.
It begins with a scene from a winter morning before my transformation, when I lay in bed wondering how I had reached almost sixty years of age while still waking up for a life that no longer felt like mine.
The events of that day, along with a great deal of introspection, eventually led to the writing of Dare To Create.
The book not only encourages people to find purpose in their lives, but also offers them a way to begin discovering it for themselves.
The book didn’t come about in a single session or during one inspired writing spree. It emerged gradually over the three years that followed that winter morning.
It came through the many blog posts I wrote on my website, on Medium, in my newsletter, and across various platforms.
All the learning that was happening, all the changes I was making in my thinking and in my life, slowly started coming together.
Eventually, I wanted to put all of it into a book so it could become both a source of motivation for other people and a document of my own journey and transformation.
In the Live, I shared the idea of “bullshit jobs” from anthropologist David Graeber and how many people stay in jobs that slowly drain their spirit simply because of financial security.
Even though I had built a successful corporate career and genuinely enjoyed parts of my work for many years, there came a point where achievement no longer brought fulfillment.
I then talked about the shift from the Information Age to what futurists call the “Connection Age,” where opportunities are no longer reserved for a privileged few. Today, anyone with internet access can write, teach, create, publish, build a business, or share their ideas with the world.
That insight planted an important seed in me: perhaps I could build a life around creativity rather than competition.
I shared how the writings of Wallace D. Wattles deeply influenced my mindset, especially the idea that humans move forward not through endless competition, but through creation. That became my personal motto: “From competitive to creative.”
Towards the end of the Live, I spoke about how I eventually discovered my calling through the work of Paul Graham, who suggested three powerful questions to identify meaningful work:
Would you still do it if it brought no prestige?
Would you continue even if you weren’t paid?
Would you keep going even when things were not working in your favour?
Those questions helped me realise that my calling lies in turning my experiences, learnings, and insights into books that help other people.
In the end, I shared a quote from Sadhguru:
We are not here just to earn a living and raise children. Even animals with limited intelligence can gather food and raise their offspring. Nature has a higher purpose in bestowing us with all this intelligence. It wants us to find our calling and fulfil it."
And that is why I found my calling, and that is why you need to find your calling.
As always, thanks for reading.
Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.
