Misjudgement. Drift. Overconfidence.
This is not a series about spectacular collapse. It is about the quieter kind — small miscalculations, misplaced certainty, and optimistic assumptions that compound over time.
Most lives do not unravel dramatically. They simply move — steadily, convincingly — in directions that were never properly chosen.
Where It Began
The idea first surfaced in 2024 — somewhere between self-help paperbacks, early-morning car journeys, and a shower epiphany that I seemed to specialise in getting things badly wrong.
What began as mild irritation became a quiet determination to improve.
Breakfast radio became an unexpected influence. After the Wake Up to Wogan years, I drifted — reluctantly — into listening to The Chris Evans Breakfast Show.
I noticed something reassuring: even polished, confident people regularly admitted to misjudgement. Radical change rarely arrived with certainty — but it was possible.
Success rarely arrives in a straight line. Judgement is often retrospective.
It dawned on me that I had been making decisions with confidence rather than competence — and in some cases, with very little thought at all.
Writing those episodes down felt oddly therapeutic — and considerably cheaper than therapy. Occasionally, they were funny too.
Over time, those notes evolved into something more structured — a framework that took shape through drafting, restructuring, cutting and rebuilding.
Read about the full process →
What the Series Explores
Each volume examines a different arena of modern life — career and ambition, parenting, health and wellbeing, education, relationships with friends and family, and the mistakes we make — through the same lens:
Movement mistaken for progress.
Preparation mistaken for action.
Luck mistaken for judgement.
As the pattern became clearer, I began making notes of where I had gone wrong — grouping them by theme and committing them to paper. What started as scattered observations gradually formed a framework.
Reflection alone is not the objective. Having learned the harder lessons of overconfidence and misplaced certainty, the project will also support new founders and early-stage businesses.
Learn more about Giving Back →
For more about the background behind the writing — and the experiences that shaped it — visit the Author page.
The First Books in the Series
Careering Off Course
The opening volume, Careering Off Course, examines a working life shaped by activity rather than direction — from stalled corporate roles to ill-judged ventures and confident decisions taken without sufficient direction.