The following is an excerpt from the opening chapter of my book, 60+ Lessons from the Creative Journey: A Handy Guide for the Budding Entrepreneur (available Feb. 25). Pre-order it now on Amazon!

Every world-changing, life-altering, needle-moving endeavor started with nothing more than an idea. 

Everybody who has ever “made it” was somebody, before they ever became a household name. Jeff Bezos famously founded Amazon in his Bellevue, Washington garage in 1994. The company – which started as an online bookstore – is now home to more than 1.5 million employees, sells just about everything under the sun, and has been referred to by PBS as “one of the most influential economic and cultural forces in the world.”

Before she was Lady Gaga, Stefani Germanotta was an NYU student, songwriter, and producer who made her name by sending her songs to major labels. She was signed to Def Jam in September 2006, but was dropped by the end of the year. Less than two years later – and no doubt due to her own persistence and artistic ingenuity – she became one of the biggest pop stars in the world. She has continued to re-invent herself to remain a force in entertainment ever since.

Less famously, the guy writing this book is only doing so because of a series of realizations throughout the summer of 2013. I was on the everyday grind in corporate America, commuting multiple times per week from rural New Jersey – yes, it exists! – to New York City. I had just stopped playing football, my first love, in the year prior to focus on more “adult” things. I was in a long-term, serious relationship with somebody far more risk-averse than I. Add it all together, and it was time to straighten up and fly right.

Life was fine enough. However, I had begun to wonder if that was all there is. Would life ever truly be interesting again, or had I already peaked at 26?

Insidious at first, that existential unrest hit flush in late June of that year. While on a cross-country road trip, I suffered several panic attacks.

At first, I didn’t realize why – and if you’ve ever had a panic attack, you know that the confusion surrounding it makes the whole thing worse. The more you think about it, the more severe it gets.

“What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I just enjoy this? Am I dying? I might be dying, in this rental car in the middle of Louisiana!”

In hindsight, I’ve come to realize that the time spent driving from New Jersey, down to New Orleans, across to San Diego, and back again had finally afforded me time to be with my thoughts. Between commuting to New York during the week, and the Philly area where my girlfriend lived on the weekends, I hadn’t had such a luxury in a long while. My life had become a series of going to the next place, for the next thing, for somebody else. On paper, I was crushing it more than I had ever crushed it before. However, my footrace with the Joneses had left me moving without a sense of identity or purpose.

Now, I was faced with the opportunity to organize my thoughts, ideas, and everything else I had been suppressing for the sake of being “normal.” I was overwhelmed and unprepared; I had absolutely no idea where to begin…