CHAPTER 2 BEGINS THIS WAY

Many of you have read a draft of Chapter 1 already. 

You have met Caleb, the main character for the book, Profit Seeks Purpose.  Caleb is a very successful entrepreneur.  He has a lovely family, a nice house, a business that has grown beyond his imagining.

You meet him in Chapter 1 just having closed on the biggest property in his portfolio of apartment complexes.  But he is not satisfied.  The deal is great, a sweet deal, but inside he wonders why he is doing what he is doing.

At just the right time, his friend, Nathan, invites him to join a group of peers who are also successful entrepreneurs and business leaders.  Caleb’s initial reaction is to say “No!”

But, with the help of his wife and daughter and an honest awareness that he needs something more, he agrees to join the group, a small mastermind that meets on Tuesday mornings at 6:00 a.m.

Here is the opening of Chapter 2, Tuesday morning.   

RESTLESS MORNING

Caleb had made the decision. Still, his chest buzzed with something he couldn’t shake—half dread, half hope.

Sleep evaded him Monday night, the night before his first mastermind meeting. All night it  felt like someone was whispering to him, but he couldn’t make it out.

He filled threw his feet over the edge of the bed at 4:30 a.m., careful not to disturb Sarah. After splashing cold water on his face, he grabbed his bike and rolled out into the moonlit morning before daylight.

At the beach ramp he rolled down onto the hard-packed sand, turned north, and started pedaling hard, trying to outrun the tension in his chest. The cold, damp air cleared his head, but his thoughts still spun.

Why does this meeting rattle me?

He’d promised Nathan he’d attend—but was this group going to be religious? Liz had hinted at faith. Nathan had been a pastor.

Caleb hadn’t stepped inside a church since college. He’d left it all behind after his dad’s funeral. Back at UCF, Sunday mornings meant caffeine and conversation, not hymns and handshakes. It had felt like freedom.

But lately, meaning kept tugging at him.

At the jetties, waves crashed against the rocks. The lighthouse beaconed from the far shore. He turned back, the breeze now with him. The ride had relieved the physical tension.

Back home, sipping coffee, a deeper unease still hovered. Not fear of failure—but fear of what might rise to the surface.

Caleb’s finger hovered over the Zoom “Join” button. 5:58 a.m.

Will Caleb actually “Join”.  We’ll see.

Please comment below with some comments on my writing.  Does it fit?  Does it flow well? How can I improve it?  Is it speaking to people like you?

Your comments are proving helpful as I learn to write this book. Please help me.

NOTE: Eleven of us are in a mastermind that meets every Tuesday morning at 6:00 a.m. Although the book is fiction, it is grounded in my experience currently and over the past decades of pastoral ministry and entrepreneurial leadership.