WAYNE PRESLEY
Author of The Root
Curiosity is not a soft trait; it is the root system. It is the exact mechanisms through which every essential human capability is built. This book is the blueprint of how that root shaped my life—and how it could anchor yours.
Stories and ideas about identity, resilience, relationships, uncertainty—and becoming the person you choose to be.
FREE EXERCISE
Find Your Root
Five questions to help uncover what's really driving a behavior, belief, or pattern in your life.
BEHAVIOR → NEED → ORIGIN → BELIEF → DOES IT STILL SERVE ME?
THE IDEA
The Root isn't about becoming someone else.
It's about understanding who you've become—and deciding what still belongs.
Every one of us develops ways of navigating the world.
Some become strengths.
Some become habits.
Some become armor.
And some worked incredibly well for the person we once needed to be—but no longer serve the person we're trying to become.
A belief can help build your life and still eventually become something you need to question.
MY STORY
I learned most of this
the expensive way.
I’ve spent more than six decades building things.
Cars. Businesses. Airplanes. Relationships. A family.
And, eventually, myself.
For much of my life, I believed being strong meant being completely self-reliant.
That belief helped me accomplish things I’m incredibly proud of.
It also took me a long time to understand something important:
A belief can help build your life and still eventually become something you need to question.
STORIES
The ideas came
from living them.
Three stories. Three lessons.
Each one changed what I believed.
01
LEARNING TO FLY AT 54
There is an enormous difference between wondering what you’re capable of and finding out.
READ THE STORY
02
SELF-RELIANCE
There’s a difference between “I can do this myself” and “I have to do this myself.”
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03
STARTING OVER
Sometimes losing the life you expected creates the opportunity to examine the life you actually want.
READ THE STORY