Guy Cicero

I could have figured what I needed to do long ago. Back when I was young and just getting good at my first real job. Even before that, when I was in the Army, or even in college when I thought I wanted to make films. Or, when I realized I was really good at English and could write and fell in love with how E.B. White wrote essays. Long before the mustache. And marriage. And the lure of big bucks. And, and, and.

But I didn’t. I did many other things, but I did not connect with book publishing as I coulda, shoulda.

I had plenty of opportunity. But when the choicepoint arrived, I went for money, excitement, adventure, opportunity. It was the Gold Rush. 1982 in the South Bay, later Silicon Valley.

As it turned out, I didn’t have what it took. Too phlegmatic. Too cautious. Too comfortable. Not savvy enough. Too much like a publisher.

Today’s 20-somethings have the same impossible fortune-telling task that I had. And the apparent options are so much greater now than then. Listen. Listen to yourself. Your inner self. Visualize happiness. At work and play and home. What are you doing? Keep doing this until you get the signs, the messages, the clues you need to make a choice. Chart a course. Do a plan. Take a step. And another, and another into the future. Before it gets any harder. And what might have been gets fogged over by what is.