Published in 2002 by Rugged Land, Henry’s List of Wrongs is about Henry Chase’s metamorphosis. Dumped on prom night by the girl of his dreams, Henry hardens his resolve to take over the world. After a decade of steely, callous reinvention, Henry is now known amongst his Wall Street colleagues as “The Assassin.” He lies, seduces, flaunts his wealth and rock hard abs, and manipulates to get whatever he wants.

Henry puts a billion dollar deal in Europe on hold so he can return to his hometown of Wichita, Kansas where he plans to take revenge on his prom date by destroying her family business. He imagines confronting the girl who jilted him so many years ago: “Every detail that defined him—his distinguished degree from Swofford Business School, his two-hundred dollar haircut, the ripple of his stomach muscles, his propensity for hate-fucking every upper-crust married woman he could put her face on and, more than anything, his success. All of it was because Elizabeth Waring had reached inside his rib cage, pulled out his bleating heart and stomped all over it in front of his dying eyes while he twitched beside her in the front seat of Aunt Ethel’s Chevrolet.”

We won’t give away too much of the plot, but suffice it to say that Henry has a rude awakening in Wichita that forces him to take stock of every choice he’s made over the course of the last decade. Indeed, he’s forced to take stock of what he’s turned himself into.

Henry’s List of Wrongs is a fun, engaging, light-hearted read. It can be a bit hard to find these days, sometimes its in stock at Amazon, other times you might need to check your local independent used bookstore to find a copy. But we’re not here to talk about literary criticism. Instead we’re here to suggest, advise, and implore: Do not become Henry Chase.

Anger and revenge can be powerful motivators. And they often are the forces that propel us off the couch and into the gym to work out, back to the computer to finish that novel, or out into the nightlife to find a new girl. But you cannot build a healthy, successful life fueled by anger and revenge.

To be truly lasting and effective, your drive for self-improvement and change needs to come from within. Not to prove the critics wrong. Not to show the woman who broke up with you that she made a mistake. Not to thumb your nose at unreasonably critical parents. You must improve for you. And you only.
How can you tell when your quest for change is fueled by improper emotions? When you measure your accomplishments by how they are viewed by others instead of what they mean to you. When there is no joy in increasing your bench press or meeting a gorgeous new woman, just a grim satisfaction that you “showed them.” When harsh and negative sneers like “shove it in their face” and “that’ll teach her” and “he’s going to learn a lesson” repeatedly flow through you mind.

If you find yourself being unreasonably driven by anger or revenge, take a time out and figure out what you really want to achieve and why. Because otherwise, those negative emotions will cloud your judgment and you’ll end up like Henry. You’ll wake up one day and realize your mistake. But then it will be too late. You’ll only have years of empty and hollow aggression to look back on.

So keep anger and revenge in check. If you must, use them in short bursts, like a street racer hitting the nitrous. Get a quick jolt of energy from those emotions if you need to, but quickly replace with more healthy, self-affirming attitudes. Your transformation will be more effective, you’ll enjoy the journey more, and your life will be a generally happier experience