The reward you get for looking silly.

My plan was to drive up to the Himalayas over four days.

I’d landed in Shimla, a mountain town in Northern India, a couple of days before. Now, I was ready to drive.

My car hire guy was 25 minutes late, and I was already frustrated.

The ‘automatic’ car I had booked finally arrived - only it turned out to be a manual.

I hadn’t driven a manual in years, and I now had to do a three-point turn on a steep slope in front of all the car hire people.

I stalled almost immediately with a juddering jerk of the car.

The guy who’s leasing me the car looks nervous.

Like the goats looking at me from the side of the road, I feel sheepish.

But twenty minutes into my drive, my shoulders drop. My muscle memory of manual driving has re-awakened.

I’m excited; my hair flows in the wind, and I can see distant mountains.

The lesson here?

Let’s turn to the great stoic sage, Epictetus, who said:

“If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.”

He was right. Good things rarely happen if you aren’t willing to go through a phase of looking like a goofball.

It’s practically an inevitability.

Expect this, be brave, and dive in.

The rewards will come.

If you’d like to dive into the world of writing online, you don’t need to look foolish for as long as I did.

My Online Writing Alchemy course shows you how to write words that people actually read all the way through.

You get to speed through all those years I spent feeling silly because I guide you through exactly how to write in a way that sets you apart.

Learn more here.

Alex