One Decision Can Change Your Life for Forever

From the moment I walked into the store, I had sensory overload that I didn’t know if I walked into a bookstore or a garage sale. The lights were bright and color was everywhere, and the piping hot chai latte I was holding in my right hand waiting for it to cool off so I could at least sip the taste of deliciousness wasn’t helping me calm down either. I felt lost, completely alone and overwhelmed with the direction my life was headed, and I thought coming here would at least be a good starting point on where to go next. Oops, guess I was wrong about that.

I made my way through the maze of stuff all over the store zigzagging until I found myself standing in front of the business section, and immediately a wave of nausea came over me. I dreaded being here, but since I lost my job last week and had this idea of starting a business, I thought maybe one of these books would help me. Or, at least point me in the right direction.

As I scanned the spines, I kept mumbling under my breath and mask hoping no one would hear me, “Time To Start Over,” “Build Your Business the Right Way,” “What’s Your Story and How to Make It Sell,” “Your Next Career Move Awaits You,” “Starting Your Career Over and What to Do Different the Second Time Around,” and the list went on and on.

I just stood staring at the shelf for about 10 minutes because I couldn’t make my mind up to what book was speaking to me. That’s one of the ways I choose a book. I first see if the title jumps out at me, then I look at the cover to see if it draws me in.

So far, nothing was working. I was stuck and my starting point was nowhere on the horizon.

When I saw that I was completely alone in the aisle, I slowly pulled my face mask down so I could finally take a sip of my latte that was starting to turn my hand on fire.

I breathed slowly hoping to cool it down just enough to be the perfect temp for sipping, and the first taste was creamy, sweet with a little spice and warmed my soul as it slid down my throat. I immediately felt at peace for a brief moment.

Then I made my way over slightly to the right looking at the books on the next shelf until one caught my eye! The title nearly jumped off the spine and slapped me in the face. It was titled, “Go Back to the Beginning of Your Career and Start There,” and something inside me said to pick up this book and look at the cover. When I did, a tear started to form in the corner of my left eye and slowly rolled down my cheek because I felt a sense of peace and I didn’t know why. I just felt a moment of contentment wash over me and I had to see if the inside was as powerful to me as the cover.

I gently set my latte down on the bench and sat next to it with the book in my lap. Then I slowly opened the cover and flipped a few papers to the Prologue and began reading, “If you are reading this book whether you purchased it for yourself or it was given to you as a gift, thank you for your support. Now, I want to be clear what I’m about to share with you in the pages of this book is very simple: Go back to the beginning of your career. You might be wondering, “why” and that’s okay because it’s a normal and very real reaction, but don’t question it. Instead, just follow my simple but practical advice. Now, for your first task before you even begin reading Chapter 1, I want you to find one thing that connects you with the beginning of your career and be in its presence. This is where you started your career, and this first item will help you find a new path.”

“Okay”, I said to myself. “Well for me that would be a sketchbook since I’m a designer and I don’t feel like driving to the art store to get one. Let me check the art section and see if there's one here I can buy.”

I got up, grabbed my latte and head in the direction of the art section across the store.

When I got there, I started scanning the shelves to see if I could find a sketchbook. I didn’t care what it looked like, I just needed to find a small notebook filled with blank pages inside. Size didn’t matter either, only blank pages because drawing on lined paper is for kindergartners.

As my eyes slowly scanned the top shelf top and methodically working my way across over the colorful spines that stared back at me. It wasn’t until I was almost done glazing over the bottom shelf when I noticed a plain black spine sitting sticking out like a sore thumb in a sea of vibrant colors.

I squat down in my knee high boots and slightly too tight jeans I made myself get into earlier that morning and reached out with my left hand to pull that book off the shelf.

When I looked at the cover, I noticed it was plain black with no title, author’s name or pictures, and so I assumed it was a sketchbook.

There was no bench in the aisle, so I set my cup on the shelf in front of me and slowly opened the book.

It didn’t look like a sketchbook because the cover was hard bound and shiny, and although the pages were blank, they were too bright of a white to be sketch paper. I flipped to the back cover to see the price and it read, “$1.99”.

I thought that for that price it would work because sketchbooks were pricey when they weren’t on sale and the book said to start at the beginning.

Then I started flipping through the pages to make sure nothing was wrong with it until I noticed black ink on one of the pages in the middle of the book. It looked like it had some writing in it, but I couldn’t tell what it had said.

I flipped through the pages like my fingers were on fire hoping to see what was on that page.

When I found the page, I almost lost my balance because of what I read, “Congratulations. You have just won $20,000!” I froze in fear someone was looking over my shoulder when nobody was in the aisle with me. I looked around to see if there was a hidden camera crew waiting to jump out and yell, “Gotcha!”, but nobody did.

I noticed an arrow pointing right as if directing me to turn the page, which I did.

Then I saw the words neatly written in black ink that would change my life forever.