Which is a slightly suspicious way to start a book in which I’m going to talk quite a lot about myself.
Bear with me.
Years ago, I wrote that I would most probably never be able to write a book. Apparently, I felt confident enough to put that in writing. There is something reassuring about declaring what you will never do. It makes the future look settled.
Then you live a little longer.
You change your mind. You make decisions you once thought impossible. You find yourself starting again in places where you thought you were comfortably established. And occasionally, you discover that the advice you gave other people so confidently is rather difficult to follow yourself.
For most of my life, I thought I was good at change.
Then life started changing me.
In business, I was often the one pushing things forward. Building, deciding, asking what came next. I liked movement. I could see possibilities in situations that other people found uncomfortable.
It is a different experience when you cannot set the pace. When other people have a say in what happens next. When you want the future to arrive quickly, but would also quite like certain parts of your life to stay exactly as they are.
That is where this book begins.
With ambition and attachment. With the things we build and the things we struggle to release. With leading people, loving people, getting older, and discovering how much there is still to learn.
I have stories to tell about all of that. Some make me proud. Some make me laugh. Some I am still trying to understand.
Your circumstances will be different. But perhaps you know the feeling of holding on to something because you remember what it used to be. Or wanting a new beginning without wanting to hurt anyone. Or reaching a place you worked hard to get to, then quietly wondering whether you still want to be there.
Those are the places where I hope we meet.
You do not have to make the choices I made. You may disagree with quite a few of them. I would simply like these pages to give you a reason to pause occasionally and consider your own.
What are you holding on to? What are you ready for? And how much of the life ahead of you is still being decided by the person you used to be?
I will bring my stories.
You will bring yours.
That is where change becomes personal.