A year ago I quit my job. Unlike many other decisions before, this time I knew that it was a life changing one. I quit my job to write a novel. A tale of two lives followed: The dramatic, fictional one that I bought to life on my laptop and the real one that was increasingly filled with anxiety and dread. Was it the right decision? Was I good enough? I was well prepared : a solid financial plan, a story I wanted to tell, inspiring surroundings – I had moved back to my small hometown in Southern Germany where the novel is set. In the previous year I had already written 140+ pages next to working as a Sales Manager at Google, a third of the book – or so I thought. I applied the methods I had learned at work to my writing: I set OKRs, milestones, deadlines etc. The most important goal I owe to Stephen King and his incredible book On Writing:Write every day and don’t stop before you have at least 1000 words. (He writes no less than 2000 words, but one has to start somewhere). The first draft took seven month. When I read it, I almost cried. It was bad. I was a terrible writer. Another four months, four drafts and ruthless revisions later, I sent the manuscript out into the world. (Only 20 of the 140 original pages had made it this far.) Encouraging feedback, even a scholarship followed, but not the thing I wanted most: a publishing contract. Wait. I had to check myself: Plans change, ambitions grow. What was it I had set out to do? I had wanted to write a novel.. and I had done exactly that… and I really liked the result. There is more: I reconnected with family and friends who had seen very little of me in recent years and I grew more resilient. Maybe my novel will never get published, maybe the next one also won’t, but maybe one day another one will. For all the uncertainty, all the self-doubt, I now know I can do it, I just needed to do it. And because I did it, I know I can do it again. So whatever it is you want to do: Do it! You have to start somewhere. What the future will bring? I will look for a new job, I will continue to write. I’ll be the hero of my own story.