You Might Need to Wake Up

by James L. Rubart, @jameslrubart

After I won the Christy Award Book of the Year, a Carol Award for speculative fiction, and the ACFW Mentor of the Year last year, my son Taylor came to me and said, “Uh, Dad, do you think maybe it’s time you do more than teach workshops at conferences?”

“What do you mean?”

“You got published, hit the bestseller list, and started winning awards in four years. It takes most novelists ten on average, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So do you think anyone might want to know exactly how you did that? Show them how they can do it too?”

“Um, yeah, maybe.”

“No. Not maybe. Definitely.”

So Taylor and I created the RubartWriting Academy.

I was so close to it, I didn’t see the opportunity. Let this be a challenge to you, to look at where you might need to wake up in your life.

After I told Taylor he was right, I should start something to help frustrated writers, I thought about it and thought about it and thought about it, and did nothing. It wasn’t till Taylor said, “Let’s do it together. I’ll help you,” that it happened.

Now that it’s launched, I realize without Taylor, the Rubart Writing Academy would still be sitting in the “Someday” file in my brain. He has taken care of so many things I never would have gotten around to doing. He’s more organized than I am, more tech savvy, more than me in so many areas.

What I am giving up to have Taylor involved? Money. Fifty percent. Full control, because he gets a 50% vote. What am I gaining? A dream turning into reality that I couldn’t have done without him.

Your Turn

What are the things you’ve been meaning to do? Where do you need to wake up and say, “Yeah, I’m just not good at that, I need someone else to do it or it will never get done?”

It might cost you, yes. But what is the cost if you keep putting it off? I’m a firm believer that 50% of a $100 is worth way more than 100% of nothing.

Find your partner. Go after the dream. Make it happen.

TWEETABLES

You Might Need to Wake Up by James L. Rubart (Click to Tweet)

What are the things you’ve been meaning to do?~ James L. Rubart (Click to Tweet)

Find your partner. Go after the dream. Make it happen.~ James L. Rubart (Click to Tweet)

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The Long Journey to Jake Palmer

What if there was a place where everything wrong in your life could be fixed?

Corporate trainer Jake Palmer coaches people to see deeper into themselves—yet he barely knows himself anymore. Recently divorced and weary of the business life, Jake reluctantly agrees to a lake-house vacation with friends, hoping to escape for ten days.

When he arrives, Jake hears the legend of Willow Lake—about a lost corridor that leads to a place where one’s deepest longings will be fulfilled.

Jake scoffs at the idea, but can’t shake a sliver of hope that the corridor is real. And when he meets a man who mutters cryptic speculations about the corridor, Jake is determined to find the path, find himself, and fix his crumbling life.

But the journey will become more treacherous with each step Jake takes.

James L. Rubart is 28 years old, but lives trapped inside an older man's body. He thinks he's still young enough to water ski like a madman and dirt bike with his two grown sons, and loves to send readers on journeys they'll remember months after they finish one of his stories. He's the best-selling, Christy BOOK of the YEAR, INSPY, CAROL and RT Book Reviews award winning author of eight novels as well as a professional speaker, co-host of the Novel Marketing podcast, and co-founder of the Rubart Writing Academy. During the day he runs his branding and marketing company which helps businesses, authors, and publishers make more coin of the realm. He lives with his amazing wife on a small lake in eastern Washington. More at www.jameslrubart.com