The Wall He Built Ten Years Before Anyone Called

Steve Jobs said you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. In 2016, I covered a wall with sticky notes about something I called the Optimist Program. I wrote down the people I wanted to write about: Gandhi, Lincoln, Franklin, the Dalai Lama. I wrote down the research: Harvard Happiness, Positive Psychology, Growth Mindset. I wrote down the product: a printed optimist journal. Then life happened. Peace Corps. Books. A family. Ten years passed. And on March 11, 2026, a publisher called and said: 'One big platform — we love it.' I went home and found the wall. Every dot was there. I just hadn't seen how they connected yet.