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Careering Off Course is what happened when stupidity gave me the confidence to pursue one unhinged idea after another. The result was a trail of missed opportunities, expensive lessons and an ambition that quietly disappeared somewhere inside a career I never really wanted. It’s told with humour and uncomfortable honesty.
Many of the names have been changed — mainly because asking permission sounded like unnecessary admin.
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Careering Off Course is a darkly funny career memoir about corporate misfires, failed side hustles, and the quiet drift that keeps intelligent people stuck.
Across office jobs, near-miss business ventures, and entrepreneurial experiments that almost worked, Andy Laker explores how ambition slowly gives way to comfort — and how activity can be mistaken for progress.
This isn’t a story of spectacular collapse. It’s about something far more familiar:
staying busy, chasing income over clarity, starting strongly and fading in the middle, and convincing yourself you’ll ‘sort it out later’.
Blending humour with behavioural insight, Careering Off Course examines modern work culture and the subtle patterns that cause careers to stall without anyone noticing.
If you’ve ever felt busy but not advancing, optimistic but directionless, or successful enough not to change — this book will feel uncomfortably recognisable.
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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.
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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 Hatch Enterprise, a registered UK charity supporting underrepresented entrepreneurs to launch and grow sustainable, impactful businesses. I'm delighted that money raised by the book will help support Hatch's work.
