You’re Living in the Wrong Story!

There are moments in life that wake us up.
Not gently… but suddenly. Almost violently.

That moment when…
The Truman Show begins to crack.

A stage light, labelled “Sirius”, falls from the sky in front of Truman…
And the world no longer feels real.

That moment when…
Schindler’s List shifts from black and white…
to a single flash of colour.

(A little girl…in a red coat.)
And something inside Oscar Schindler awakens to the horror of reality.

These are not just cinematic moments.
They are human moments.

Because the truth is this…

You and I are living inside a story. A narrative.
One that’s running quietly, relentlessly, in the background of our lives.

And it plays out in business; particularly in leadership…

Yet, that story is often not ours.
It’s borrowed… absorbed… inherited.

For five years I told myself an exciting story.
It was a story, a formula, about Scaling Up.
You know: “More clients = More reach = More transformational impact”

Or so I told myself.

Until one pitch black Tuesday night … I awoke in a sweat. And whispered this truth out loud to the stifling dark:

“I Hate This!”

Now, the strangest thing was…
On the outside… it all looked like it was working.

The numbers. The activity. The momentum. The recognition.
All the signs of success…

And yet…
Something in me was quietly… steadily… dying.

Because what worked for them… was gently breaking me.
Just like it’s breaking you.

I remembered then what makes my soul explode with joy.

Those moments when my fingers flit across the keyboard… creating stories for leaders that are more poetry than business guides.

The electric connection with an audience… when you just know you’ve pierced through the suits; the titles. When you’ve touched their hearts. Perhaps even made them squirm with the recognition “Heck, he’s talking about me.”

Then those sacred hours. Sitting with a client or a small team.
Thinking. Exploring. Listening… fascinated.
Fully present… In a conversation that actually matters.

When the room feels as if it’s filled with magic.
And they discover wisdom pouring from them that they didn’t know they possessed.

That was the moment.
that night.

The moment the stage light fell.
And a red coat glowed in a black and white world.

I didn’t need to scale, did I?
I needed to go deeper!

Fewer people. Richer conversations. More truth.

And it took someone else to help me see it.
A client who didn’t nod politely. Who didn’t admire the story.
Who disrupted it… completely. A slap in the face. An ice-cold dunk.

And I see the same pattern…again and again in financial services.

Leaders… busy enough to look successful… but too busy to notice what it’s costing them.

Copying other people’s success stories… wrapped in golden numbers.
Growth… Margins…Productivity… Efficiency.
Popularity… Prestige… Position… Power.

And returning from webinars and conferences, arms full…
Only to place that weight onto already burdened teams.

And for a while it feels right… because the story sounds so convincing.

Until the quiet moment arrives, and something doesn’t sit well.
Because what worked for them…is quietly breaking you.

And still you continue.
Because the system is in motion.
Because the metrics look good.
Because stopping feels dangerous.

So, you stay living inside the story.
Like a fish – in a very small tank – believing…
“This is the ocean.”

And yet there is another moment available to us: to you and me.
Not a dramatic story, you understand. Not cinematic.
But real.

A pause… a breath… a question.
And it’s this:

“What story am I living inside?”
“And whose is it?”

And what will you stop doing… today… if the answer is uncomfortable?

And there’s something even more powerful.

You have a choice.
A choice to step outside the tank.
To lead differently. To speak differently. To serve folk differently – colleagues and clients.

To define success… not by what can be measured…
But by what can be felt.

Peace… Depth… Joy… Time.

Time with the people you love.      
Time to think. And time to matter.

And here is the quiet truth:
You’re allowed to choose your own story.

You’re allowed to shape it… and to simplify it.
To return to the work that gives you life.

And when you do… well, something unexpected happens.
The numbers often follow.

But more importantly…so does the life.

And that, my friend, is a story worth living.

Because that, right there, is The Soul Millionaire Way.