As someone who has crashed his car on an icy road, crashed his bike on a scary set of drops and crashed his skis in a steep couloir, I can confirm that the body goes where the eyes look. Another way of saying this is that I tend to manifest for good or for bad the image I have in my mind’s eye. While my results sometimes seem random, the contents of my imagination are up to me. If I want different results, it starts with the story in my own head.

My brother Warren is a very gifted screenwriter and we have spoken many times over the years about story structure. In Shakespearean drama and the classic three act story structure, the hero of the story faces some key conflict in act two, after we discover his motivation in act one. The protagonist seeks some goal, confronts the antagonist and then it plays out in the third act as either a comedy (he gets laid) or a tragedy (he dies). The conflict is typically man-versus-nature, man-versus-man or man-versus-himself. It’s difficult to discern in act two whether the hero is winning or not. Regardless of whether it’s a comedy or tragedy, the protagonist is getting his ass kicked.

I think that I make up the script that my life generally follows. I either consciously write my life story or I let forces external to me (and maybe at best indifferent to my best interest) write it in my absence (like the main character Will Ferrell plays in Stranger Than Fiction, whose life follows the script being written by Emma Thompson.)

As far as I am concerned, I make the choice about whether I am living in a comedy or tragedy. But in difficult times, as I am duking it out with my antagonists (my environment, other men and myself), it's very easy to lose faith and forget that my life is in the process of working out. But I am the author of my life.

I've said this before in previous posts: as human beings, we make shit up. If this is true we might as well make good shit up and decide we are living in a comedy, even if the evidence in any given moment suggests otherwise. This is the fundamental choice we all have to make every day and a viable way to face the challenges of creating a new venture.

I have started a new philanthropic venture to assist high potential millennial entrepreneurs in building sustainable ventures that create wealth and a high quality of life as they contribute to the social fabric and integrity of our natural world. Please check out what we are up to at stepone.net. Click here to purchase your copy of my new book. It's a comedy, even as it begins with a crash.