Here’s a longer ‘about me’, in a timeline format:
June 1989:
- I was born in West Middlesex Hospital, in England. Apparently, the UK had had one of the hottest Summers on record
1993:
- I like to sit under my desk and pretend I was in a rocket-ship, play with my toys, and watch cartoons
- I would dream up stories and “shows” for my little brother
- Primary school was initially big and scary, but my parents soon moved me somewhere else that was a lot smaller, it was like a big friendly house and I loved it there
2000:
- At secondary school, I continued to love learning for the sake of learning
- I continued to enjoy creative writing in English, from short stories through to poetry, reading The Merchant of Venice and MacBeth and so on
- As school progressed, I had to choose subjects and figure out what I wanted to do with my life… I ended up choosing the “important” ones like Math and Sciences, this was when things started becoming tricky
2007:
- I dropped out of university… ended up working in a nice office for a year which I loved… went back to university and dropped out again
- University life was tough for me, being away from home, studying courses I didn’t enjoy… looking back, I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life, and I think I knew deep down that I wasn't going to be doing something “conventional”, so no course would have felt like the right fit at that time
2010:
- With no degree and coming out of a recession, I felt there weren't many “sensible” options on the table
- I ended up in recruitment, in some ways a good fit and some ways out of my comfort zone… I always knew it wouldn't be “it” for me, but after all the dropping out of university I was reminded by everyone that I needed some stability now
- I worked for two different companies over the course of 5 years, and ended up becoming a top-performer at the second one
2015:
- I resigned from my recruitment job the day I had a formal offer to study a year-long Masters in Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) at the University of East London
- I started writing and sharing my thoughts online as I was processing everything, on LinkedIn and then Medium. I started to journal, too.
2016-17:
- After the Masters came to an end, and the winter months drew in, I started to feel low and would later be diagnosed with depression and anxiety
- I spent a few months in therapy, both group and individual
- I continued to blog and journal, and spent some time travelling
- I went back to employment for a year, working remotely for a friend’s company; I soon craved my freedom again, I knew I ultimately wanted to do “my own thing”
2018-21:
- By this point I'd thought about or tried just about every career involving words you could think of, from content writing, journalism, publishing…
- At this point I'd also run various blogs for introverts, too. My INF Club blog - for INFP, INFJ & other creative introverts - spawned a podcast and a community; I ran it for 3 years, publishing to the blog nearly every week for that duration
- I also co-ran a virtual summit (The INF Summit) attended by 2,000 creative introverts across the world
2021:
- I completed the Ebook version of The Indie Author, releasing it in November 2021
- I co-hosted my second online summit for introvert writers: The Introvert Writer Summit
- I ran a 10-week programme for writers built around the notion of simply writing for 10 minutes each week; it attracted a range of neurodiverse writers, including those identifying with ADD/ADHD, Autism/Asperger’s and high sensitivity (HSP)
2022:
- I went through a year-long journey of taking my (digital) Ebook to (physical) Paperback. I spoke about some of the inner and outer hurdles I had to overcome in this blog post and accompanying podcast episode.
- In December 2022, The Indie Author book project was complete when the Paperback version went on sale
2023:
I’m working as a writer and writing guide full-time…
- I’ve started working on book #2
- With a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology, and more than 7 years of journalling and publishing my words, I’m helping writers start and make progress on their book projects.
Thank you for making it all the way to the end…
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Jas Hothi is a writer, coach and author of The Indie Author, featuring long-form interviews with fifty self-published authors. He is currently offering a copy of the book to anyone who signs up for his newsletter. SIGN UP HERE to receive your free copy.
