Losing Everything

I'm reviewing books for Elle magazine. I've read 2 books today, and one is titled Losing Everything, by David Lozell Martin. Initially, the book didn't seem interesting to me. It's nonfiction, and details his struggles growing up and various bouts with depression, marital infidelity, and financial ruin. But I kept reading, because his words are suffused with humanity -- and by that, I mean that it is easy to relate to his writing, even if your circumstances are very, very different. His ability to convey basic human emotion is excellent. Toward the end of the book, there is a passage that jumped out at me. 

"...At the end of your life, at the very summation of your life, all that matters is what you've done....This is the thirteenth book I've published. It doesn't matter what effort it took for me to write them. It doesn't matter how far back from the pack I had to start in the race to become a writer. It doesn't matter what else was going on in my life. All that matters is that I wrote the books and they are published and people read them. I'd like to write thirteen more, but what I'd like to do doesn't count in the end. That's the latest lesson I learned -- if it's important to you, do it. Because not doing it, while having a good excuse, doesn't mean anything in the end."