As writers, we sometimes feel as though we’re in a free fall. We took a chance. We wrote a novel. We took another chance. We published it as an eBook. We jumped into social media and have been looking for a soft landing spot ever since.

Was it a mistake?

Was it impatience overriding better judgment?

Did we get in a hurry?

Did we leap without a parachute?

Several years ago, I was writing an article about the sky diving competition from the skies above Zephyr Hills in Florida. The temperatures were great. The winds were perfect. And an odd and curious assortment of people were actually going up above the clouds and jumping from perfectly good airplanes.

Made little sense to me.

It was a great thrill ride for them.

“Why do you do it?” I asked one skydiver.

“Simple,” he said. “Sky diving is the safest sport in the whole world?”

“How can you believe that?” I wondered.

“Well,” he said, “when you jump out of the plane, you have two parachutes.”

I nodded.

“You pull the rip cord on the first chute, and if it doesn’t open, you still have plenty of time to pull the rip cord on the second chute.”

I nodded again.

“And if the second chute doesn’t open,” he said, “by the time you realize that it’s not going to open, you’re only about ten feet off the ground.”

He paused.

He gazed up at the sky.

He shrugged.

“And any damn fool can jump ten feet,” he said.

So that’s the way it is in the independent world of writing and publishing.

Take the leap.

You always have two blogs in you.

You always have two tweets.

You always have two posts for Facebook.

And if one blog or tweet or Facebook post doesn’t work, try the next one.

And then the next one.The only time you can’t quit is the last time you try.

A reporter once asked a wealthy businessman, “What is the secret of your success?”

“I jump at good opportunities,” the man said.

“How do you know which opportunities are good?” the reporter asked.

“I don’t,” the man said. “I just keep jumping.”

As long as you’re jumping, you have a chance. When you’ve made your last jump, it’s all over but the mourning.

Caleb Pirtle III is author of the Christian thriller, Golgotha Connection.