Have you ever written a story you believed in, but couldn’t get it published? Or maybe you’ve had a dream, but after months or even years of pursuing it, you feel no closer to achieving it. That’s not a fun space to be in, but the good news is, you’re not alone.

In this episode of Character Test, I talk with a bestselling author and good friend of mine about his decade-long journey to publish one book.

Paul Angone is the creator of All Groan Up and the author of 101 Secrets for Your Twenties. He wanted to help people, so he wrote a book he believed in about one of the hardest seasons of his life. But try as he might, he couldn’t get it published.

Ten years in, his wife asked him how much longer he was going to do this—and one month later, he had a publishing deal. Now, 101 Secrets for Your Twenties has sold over 100,000 copies. You can find it on the shelf at Target (which is a really big deal!).

Listen to our conversation on the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Android, Spotify, Stitcher, SimpleCast, or here below:

Paul is passionate and driven, and if you’ve ever committed to a project you believed in and then struggled to achieve it, I think you’ll enjoy our conversation. In this episode, we talk about what it feels like to pursue a dream for years, even when others don’t believe in it anymore, including:

• The driving force behind his writing
• The powerful message he can’t not share
• The one question he asks to keep himself going
• His personal war for hope, how he almost gave up, and what happened when he didn’t
• When enough is enough, and how he knew when it was time to let go of a dream
• How a post on Pinterest changed his life
• How a publisher rejected him three times—and then published his book

You can find Paul at allgroanup.com, as well as on Facebook and Instagram (@paulangone). You can also buy his books on Amazon.