Page 87 - The 5 Second Rule: Transform Your Life, Work, and Confidence with Everyday Courage

career. Or sitting in college classes earning a degree to please your parents when
knowing in your heart that you want to be doing something else with your life.

There is no right time. There is only right now. You get one life. This is it. And
it’s not going to begin again. It’s up to you to push yourself to make the most of it
and the time to do it is right now.

You Validate Your Ideas By Pursuing Them

It’s heartbreaking to hear from so many of you with a creative idea or product
concept that are waiting for someone else to validate it. It’s so sad because waiting
for validation will be the death of your dreams. If you have an idea for a show or a
book, and you are waiting for an executive at a TV network or a publishing house
to pick you, you will lose. It’s like Tom in the bar hoping his soulmate will just walk
up to him and pick him. Or me waiting until I felt motivated to wake up and get out
of bed. Waiting until you are ready will not make it happen. The world doesn’t work
that way.

The world rewards those who are courageous enough to stop waiting and start.
If you dream of being on television, I can tell you from first-hand experience that
the TV executive you hope discovers you is actually on YouTube right now looking
for someone who didn’t wait. The person who has the courage to start, create, and
put themselves and their ideas out there is the one who will win.

The only difference between that idea for a novel you want to write and British
author E.L. James who wrote the blockbuster Fifty Shades of Gray trilogy (that was
devoured by nearly every woman on the planet Earth and sold a million copies in
four days) is the fact that she didn’t wait for permission, the right time, or to feel
ready. She didn’t wait until she had a book deal. In fact, she started writing erotica
on a Twilight-themed blog! She found the courage to start in small ways, and put
herself out there over and over until she built the confidence to write a book. And