A nervous breakdown. At one point in my mid-20s, I was playing music, writing, taking 21 credits per semester, and working full time at a local newspaper. I slept minimally, thinking I can do it all. I was wrong and literally crashed. When I awoke from that day I decided at that point to change everything in my life, and writing was at the core center. I went from a dreamer of the arts to an executioner in business and set out to learn everything possible to build a business based on the essential elements of writing.