Sometime around 2009 I came up with a slogan, “big dreams takes big sacrifices.” I made postcards and I liked this slogan so much that I told myself, what the heck, I should write a book by the same name. In the first quarter of 2010, I started writing my book. At the time I wrote half of the book, my family was struck with dumb luck which allowed me to take a three year writing sabbatical. I travelled, bought a house, met my beautiful wife and throughout my journey, I often thought about what the second leg of my career would look like.

One day in 2011 I started writing an article that turned into my autobiography and decided that I was going to publish that when I finished my sabbatical.

On November 10th of last year, my wife Leslie told me that she was pregnant with our first son, Andrew. I decided that my sabbatical had to come to an end. I wanted to show baby Andrew that his dad could do something extraordinary. I always saw my work as a vehicle for me to be a better person, a happier person, an artist and it’s a good vehicle for me and the people around me to travel.

I spent the first half of the year deciding who I wanted to work with, travelling to conferences, setting up phone meetings and of course, getting ready for my boy.

A couple of things bother me about my autobiography. First, the story is not going to be complete yet. After all, how could I publish an autobiography while my boy is an infant? Second, I wanted to break in to the self-help industry again and how could an autobiography accomplish that? One day, I was working out with my trainer Larry at the best gym, Stevenson Fitness, and suddenly, it hit me. I have to work on my big dreams. That weekend, I was planning to go to a conference in Dallas and I remember I was talking to the host and I told him that I was working on a book about dreams.

When I got back to Los Angeles, I started writing and re-writing until I had a draft, which I sent to my editor in Arizona a week ago.

An idiot was born.

One of the things I realized in the process of writing the book was that I was an idiot. The book on big dreams is not really a book about dreams. It’s a book about how to get what you want out of life and to be honest, I did not do any of the crap I talk about in the book. But, for the last three months, I have been drinking my own Kool-Aid and it’s yummy Kool-Aid!

I am getting done what needs to get done. I am focused, I am productive and every day, I look at that book and say to myself, “what an idiot I was!”