I am putting the finishing touches on a chapter in Goal-Free Living entitled, “Use a Compass, Not a Map.” And yesterday I had the great pleasure of interviewing Preethi Nair whose story is a perfect example of this lesson.
Like many people, she was very goal oriented early in life. “Within my family, everything was measured in terms of how successful I was; academic qualifications, my job profession, my salary. However, I always had a strong desire to be a writer. Not a goal as such, but an intention. But I buried those dreams. After graduation, I went into management consulting for 4 years. I know that 4 years is not a very long time, but every single minute of those 4 years I was deeply unhappy. I knew clearly it was not what I wanted to do. And also knew equally clearly what I wanted to do. I wanted to earn my living from writing.” So one day she decided quit her job to pursue her passion.
The problem was, she was in the process of buying a condo, so she was living with her parents. “I couldn’t suddenly say to them that I had no job to go to and that I was going to be a writer. So I decided to continue the illusion of work, putting on my suit and pretend that I was going to my job. I created a double life.”
After rejection letters from nearly every publisher, she wondered if she could really make this work. Undeterred, she decided to try different paths. She created her own PR agency. She established her own publishing house to publish her books. She got a booth at the London Book Fair. She visited 250 book stores to sell her book. She stumbled her way through the entire process, making mistakes at every corner. But she followed her dreams without plans, and eventually landed a three book deal with Harper Collins. And the BBC just recently acquired the rights to turn one of her books into a 90 minute television adaptation.
Preethi concluded, “I could never ever have planned any of this. I never could have said, this is what I am going to do and this is how I am going to do it. I was bumbling in the dark. I had a sense of direction, but had no plans. Some people may hear my story and think, ok, she had a goal. But for me, I am clear it was not a goal in the traditional sense. It was truly an intention; a sense of direction.”
Her full story appears in the book.