Dave Robson

When I was a lad in school, my teachers asked me what I wanted to do with my life.

“I want to be a writer,” I replied.

“That’s too precarious,” came the reply. “Get a profession.”
Later, in my teens, my parents took me to vocational guidance testing (does that still exist?), where they asked me what I wanted to do with my life.
“I want to be a writer,” I replied.
“You’re not suited to being a writer,” they said. “Get a trade.”
Many years later, I told my psychotherapist I’d got a brilliant idea for the book I’d always wanted to write.
“You’ll never get a publisher,” she replied.
Gee, thanks for the encouragement guys!

That’s when I realised I was on my own, and only my sheer grit and determination, coupled with a workable strategy, would get me to where I wanted to be. If only I’d heard of life coaching back then I’d have gone and found a coach straight away! One thing was abundantly clear: where I wanted to be was as a writer.

Bernard Malamud famously said, “There comes a time in a man’s life when to get where he has to go — if there are no doors or windows — he walks through a wall.”  Somehow, I knew deep inside that my time had come to walk through that wall! Shortly afterwards, my first book, The Five Pillars of Happiness, was born.