I coasted, rationalised, and called it ambition.
Careering Off Course is a cautionary story of career misfires, failed ventures and the misplaced confidence that quietly derails professional ambition — told with humour and uncomfortable honesty.
Paperback — 1 September 2026
Pre-orders open now
£9.99
Signed first editions available — first print run only.
Where capable careers quietly unravel
Careering Off Course examines the small decisions, optimistic assumptions and half-formed ventures that slowly redirect a working life.
Find out more
• Mistaking movement for progress
• Confusing intention with execution
• Side ventures driven by optimism rather than discipline
• Confidence that outlives the evidence
The Reviews page is where praise, criticism and uncomfortable truths will eventually gather.
Ready to see how it all went wrong?
Pre-order Careering Off Course today.
About the Author
Andy Laker writes about careers, business and enterprise — particularly the moment well-intentioned decisions begin to drift quietly off course.
After years spent navigating office life, property ventures and entrepreneurial experiments — often with more confidence than evidence — Andy became interested in how optimism, impatience, overconfidence and the quiet habit of coasting can slowly derail a working life.
We get things wrong because of patterns we don’t recognise at the time — patterns that feel like ambition while they are quietly becoming something else.
Those experiences form the foundation of the How to Get Things Badly Wrong series — a study in misplaced confidence, flawed execution and the recurring behaviours that undermine professional progress. The wider concept and future titles are outlined in more detail on the About The Series page. The writing blends dry humour with hindsight, examining how ambition, enthusiasm and comfortable coasting combine to produce very avoidable outcomes.
Andy lives in the West of England, where he continues to write, explore new ventures and remain cautiously optimistic about the next idea.
Supporting New Enterprise
5% of profits
from Careering Off Course will be donated to Virgin StartUp, supporting new founders and early-stage businesses across the UK.
Careering Off Course
“Inspired by Chris Evans Virgin Breakfast Show”
“A brutally honest account of drifting professionally while calling it strategy.”
“A cautionary tale for people who confuse movement with progress”
The funniest book I’ve ever written…
— Andy Laker
Andy Laker
The author that lets you decide what’s written next….
Vote for the next book to be written in the HTGTBW series
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‘I treated my body like my car — absolutely fine as long as I didn’t look under the bonnet.’
Late nights. Bad food. Gym memberships bought with optimism.
Health was always something I’d deal with tomorrow. -
‘You don’t realise how flawed you are until someone copies you.’
Parenting isn’t exhausting because of sleepless nights.
It’s exhausting because of the mirror.This is about raising decent humans while correcting yourself in real time.
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‘You can inspire a child. You can’t inspire a spreadsheet.’
I loved teaching — the breakthroughs, the noise, the moments that mattered.
I didn’t love the paperwork.A story about instinct trying to survive inside a system.
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"‘I wasn’t committed to education. I just kept failing to quit.’
From primary school to degree — never entirely convinced I belonged.
Leaving early wasn’t ambition. It was failure.So I stayed.
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“You can’t gaslight someone who remembers you with a mullet.”
Family never forgets.
They remember the haircuts. The phases. The opinions you held at sixteen. You can evolve.
Someone still has the photos.