I’ve spent too much time rereading old chapters, revisiting discussions, and things I should have handled differently, and dwelling on reasons why an opportunity slipped away. I do the same for past wins, revisiting and reliving them as if they are proof that I still have what it takes. But the past can only inform the present, as lessons learned and experience gained. The real story lives in the blank pages ahead of us, yet to be written.
I think we forget this sometimes and treat our lives like finished books, something to analyze instead of something to create. We can be so focused on what’s already happened that we miss what’s trying to happen next. The surprise, the growth, the possibility, it’s all waiting in the pages ahead. Travel taught me this with those unexpected, unplanned moments that just unfold if we are lucky enough to notice them. One of my favorites is the memory of standing in a narrow alley in Marrakech, watching a baker pull flatbread from a clay oven while the call to prayer echoed overhead, catching me in an unforgettable moment. That’s what keeps me motivated and fascinated, the quiet moments that catch me off guard.
Travel reminds me that discovery leaves us changed. Each unfamiliar street or unexpected encounter rewires how I see the world. Entrepreneurship has been the same kind of education.
When Sanjay and I started J2 twenty-two years ago, we sat in a borrowed office with a whiteboard and more questions than answers. No guarantees, no real plan, or a clear path to our end goal. Just a decision to turn the page and see what came next. Every chapter since has brought people, challenges, and lessons I couldn’t have imagined. And after all these years, I still feel it, that pull toward what’s ahead.
For years, I mistook that “pull” for restlessness, the need to chase, to prove, to keep moving so I wouldn’t fall behind. But I’ve come to realize it’s not restlessness. It’s readiness. Readiness is the recognition that we’re still writing, still becoming, and that the next chapter might be the one that changes everything or simply deepens who we already are. Either way, it deserves our attention.
We can’t control how long the book will be, what plot twists are coming, or how it ends. But we can choose to keep writing it, to stay curious and to greet the future not with fear or nostalgia, but with open hands.
We spend so much time rereading what’s already been written. Perhaps we should instead find the courage and joy that live in the act of turning the page and keep writing.
“You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one.” – Michael McMillian
A journey you’ve been putting off, a risk you’ve been hesitant to take, or a story you’ve stopped yourself from writing? Share it with me;or better yet, start turning that page today.
This weekend, turn the page.
-Vijay