Can You Solve Contentment Like an Equation?

Fiction writing, self-publishing, thriller novels, author marketing, happiness, contentment, the writing process, and becoming an author all come together in this conversation.

Most authors I interview write nonfiction.

So when Ivan Carl joined me to talk about The Equation: The Secret They Don’t Want You to Know, I was excited because this took us into a completely different world.

Ivan describes the book as sitting somewhere between the mystery and momentum of The Da Vinci Code and the philosophical ideas of The Alchemist.

But what interested me most was where the idea actually came from.

About 25 years ago, Ivan was living in Peru.

He saw people with very limited material resources who seemed genuinely content.

Then he thought about people back in the United States who had significantly more, yet were miserable.

That question stayed with him:

What actually creates contentment?

Years later, COVID nearly destroyed the study-abroad business he had built.

His business was in trouble.

His family was facing real financial uncertainty.

And strangely, that old question returned.

Ivan has an engineering and mathematical mind, so instead of simply thinking about happiness philosophically, he started trying to solve it.

Literally.

Could the human experience of contentment be reduced to an equation?

Eventually, he created one.

Then came another question:

How do you share an idea like that without writing another traditional self-help book?

His answer was fiction.

He decided to build a thriller around the philosophy.

That led us into a conversation about something I don't get to explore enough on this show: how fiction actually gets created.

We talk about building characters, creating a global fictional world, balancing philosophy with a page-turning story, dealing with self-doubt, and knowing when to stop writing and start editing.

Ivan also breaks down why he chose independent publishing instead of waiting for the traditional publishing process, what surprised him after launching the book, and one mistake many authors make:

They spend years creating the book and only start thinking about how people will discover it after it's already published.

One of my favorite parts of this conversation comes near the end.

If you have an idea for a book, Ivan's advice is simple:

Write it.

Don't wait until you know if people will like it.

Don't try to make the first draft perfect.

Don't let the imaginary judgment of future readers prevent you from creating something that doesn't exist yet.

Every author takes a swing without knowing exactly where the book will land.

But the process changes you.

And sometimes the biggest mystery you're trying to understand through your writing is yourself.