by James L. Rubart, @jameslrubart
It’s Time to Jump
Almost three years ago my son Taylor was offered his dream job at a company in the Seattle area. He’d be scripting, editing, and shooting videos for a living.
The company was growing like mad with 30 employees and more being added every month. Taylor would get to lead the video division and make contacts in multiple countries.
It was an amazing opportunity. I encouraged him (strongly) to take the job. My wife Darci encouraged him to take it.
But he turned them down.
What! I didn’t understand. I felt taking the job was the clear choice.
Taylor didn’t. Neither did his wife.
Instead, he started his own media and video production company. (Flannel Media.)
He’s almost three years in and he loves it. Sets his own hours. Hand picks his clients. Gets to be highly creative. Has become an expert on Social Media, email marketing, websites, and sales funnels along with video. And has more freedom than ever before. (Which has allowed him to be my partner in The Rubart Writing Academy for the past two and a half years. Yeah, crazy cool to working with my son.)
And Flannel Media has experienced exponential growth.
But it wasn’t easy. There was (huge) risk.
He (to paraphrase my favorite Ray Bradbury quote ) “Jumped off the cliff and built his wings on the way down.”
And he went against the grain. He had to risk disappointing me. Had to risk giving up a sure thing. Had to believe in himself like he’d never believed before.
Your Turn
What’s your cliff? Where you do you need to jump even when everyone else is telling you to do something different or stay on the edge of the cliff. Or even to back away! Writing? A relationship? A job?
Even if you’re not ready to jump, I encourage you to shuffle up to the edge of the cliff. Don’t look down. Look out. Let your mind fill with what it would be like for you to soar through the air.
Because you can. Truly you can.
Ready? Then let’s fly.
(By the way, the company who offered Taylor the job fell on hard times and at this point is down to three employees. We never know, do we?)
How Do You Stand Up for Yourself When It Means Losing Everything?
Allison Moore is making it. Barely. The Seattle architecture firm she started with her best friend is struggling, but at least they’re free from the games played by the corporate world. She’s gotten over her divorce. And while her dad’s recent passing is tough, their relationship had never been easy.
Then the bomb drops. Her dad was living a secret life and left her mom in massive debt.
As Allison scrambles to help her mom find a way out, she’s given a journal, anonymously, during a visit to her favorite coffee shop. The pressure to rescue her mom mounts, and Allison pours her fears and heartache into the journal.
But then the unexplainable happens. The words in the journal, her words, begin to disappear. And new ones fill the empty spaces—words that force her to look at everything she knows about herself in a new light.
Ignoring those words could cost her everything . . . but so could embracing them.
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. He’s the best-selling, Christy BOOK of the YEAR, CAROL, INSPY, and RT Book Reviews award winning author of ten novels and loves to send readers on journeys they’ll remember months after they finish one of his stories. He’s also a branding expert, audiobook narrator, co-host of the Novel Marketing podcast, and co-founder with his son, Taylor, of the Rubart Writing Academy. He lives with his amazing wife on a small lake in Washington state.