How a One-Star Review Transformed My Perspective on Success

“Boring after the first chapter.”

This is the title of my first, and so far only, one-star review on Amazon.

Needless to say, the rest of the review lives up to the title.

I almost pulled the plug on Blank Canvas the week before its publishing date in part out of what felt like the deathly terror of receiving bad reviews.

I almost let one of my biggest dreams die because of fear.

How many of us do that?

How many of us project ourselves into the future and “know” how we’ll experience what we’re terrified of and, in turn, remain where we are, missing all that could be?

We pretend to know who we’ll be and how we’ll experience it when the bad thing we fear happening happens.

But the fact is, we have no way of knowing that.

If we want to create extraordinary second halves, we need to stop projecting our present selves onto an unknown future.

PS: It stung when I first read that review, and then I felt pure and utter joy.

Because the fear that almost crushed my dream only stung, nothing more.

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