I’m on my couch, refreshing the UPS tracking page every hour on the hour. Somewhere in Charlotte, a cardboard box is inching toward my front door. Inside is the first printed copy of my book and workbook for me to approve.
My book is called Leaving the Casino: Stop Betting on Tactics and Start Building a Business That Works, a field guide for expert entrepreneurs (and you can read the first chapter today).
Until I open the box—and until I make the “pre-order” live on my site—two realities exist at once, like Schrödinger’s Cat for entrepreneurs. This book is either a breakout or a non-event, and both possibilities are true in this moment. The moment I start to sell it, I’ll start to know.
My dream is that it becomes a seminal text for service-based entrepreneurs. That it’s passed along by word of mouth, like I pass along the books that have shaped my life.
But the fears are real. Maybe no one notices and a handful of people from this list buy it and that’s it. Or people do notice and it sparks backlash.
I have some control over what happens next.
I can choose to make the book really visible or keep it quiet. I can choose to execute on an audacious marketing plan for the next 3-5 years, or just quietly distribute books to existing members and clients.
But I don’t have full control. I don’t control timing, sentiment, or algorithms. The book might resonate with the particular consumer mood in 2025. Or the content might simply not land. I can’t know, and as a lover of plans and order, that gap is unnerving.
It is safer here, in the liminal space. As long as I don’t turn on pre-orders, every future is still available. The dream can remain perfect and untested. But safety can also keep us stuck.
Once I announce it for sale, I can’t “un-launch.” I will be an author in public. My words will live in the world: quoted, critiqued, even scraped by AI. I can’t materially change much once it’s printed.
This isn’t just about a book. It’s the same precipice before any launch—a new brand, a new product, a new price, a new name. As long as we stay here, before the launch, every version of success and safety is still available.
But to be an entrepreneur is to leap into the unknown.
At some point you have to trade infinite possibility for real feedback. You choose to be observed. You accept that you’ll be different on the other side, no matter the result. Because it’s the leap that changes you.
So when the box arrives on Monday, I’m choosing to open it and hold my book. I’m turning on pre-orders. Not because I know what will happen, but because the only way to know is to launch.
What precipice are you standing on right now—a launch, a pivot, a leap? Hit reply and tell me.
P.S. Assuming the proof looks good, pre-orders will open sometime next week. You’ll be the first to know!