APRIL 2026:
LET'S TALK ABOUT SURRENDER

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Making Cent$ is a monthly newsletter by Mira Katz dedicated to the taboo topics that affect creatives in business. Best enjoyed with a cup of ☕️ and a 🥐.

If you’re keeping track, my last newsletter was about being a routine rebel, and in true form I haven’t sent my monthly newsletter in 2 months… a reminder that I make up the rules and I can change them whenever I want. I encourage you to do the same.

But this message has been bubbling inside of me since February, in an intense way, and needs to be shared. So here it is. And it all started with a book.

We start in the mountains

Books are like people — they come into your life at the exact right moment and not a moment sooner than that. So, The Surrender Experiment by Michael Singer came into my life on Valentine’s Day weekend. I was at a retreat center in the mountains, no Wi-Fi, and a book as my only source of entertainment.

Like all hard-working and ambitious people, I have been hustling for years. I’ve always been under the impression that my effort is what creates great things. That my hard work is the most necessary ingredient to my own success, to the flourishing of my projects, livelihood, and reputation.

But what if that’s an illusion? I opened the book, and the first premise was that nature (aka us) grows and thrives without effort. Flowers bloom, clouds move through the sky, rain waters the forests, and it all gets done without planning or strategy. And since we’re part of nature, and a piece of this ecosystem, then the factors that determine the outcome of our lives are way more complex than we can ever understand or solve on our own.

In other words: the design of life itself is way more intelligent than we are.

Greatness can't be forced

Think about it. How did the greatest things come into your life? Did you make it happen? Or did those things happen to you? Like meeting your best friend. Or falling in love. Or landing your dream client. How did it actually happen? Were you hustling to arrange all the details, or did it seem almost kismet? Were you in the right place at the right time, and it was as if life orchestrated it all to fall into place almost too perfectly?

I’ll answer for myself here: life has always been the better planner.

The premise of the book that changed everything was: “What would happen if you put aside your personal preferences and gut reaction, and just say yes to life’s design instead?” Michael Singer wrote a book about how 40 years of following this lifestyle transformed a homeless hippie into a healthcare technology founder and billionaire.

Honestly, it blew my mind, so I had to try it. And here’s my humble 2-month report:

1. I feel way less stressed

I’m assuming that life is designing things in the most efficient way possible. So, when plans change, or things get cancelled, or fall apart, I’ve been like “okay cool, thanks, this is way better I guess!” A little frustration hits me at first, but I quickly return to trust and move on.

My $400 Amazon order got stolen — I didn’t cry (old me would have).
I booked a non-refundable flight I couldn’t take — didn’t even blink, just laughed.

2. I went on a bucket list trip

This entails a series of events that I could only truly explain in person, but I’ll give you the short version. I agreed to meet someone for coffee, even though I initially didn’t want to. I assumed life wanted me to meet them for some reason. Two weeks later, we ended up on a six-day trip of a lifetime.

3. I pitched my biggest project yet

I was invited to attend a panel that a friend was hosting, which I honestly didn’t have time for, but I went anyway (again, assuming life wanted me there if I was invited) and ended up being introduced to a CEO who invited me to pitch him on his 500 million dollar project in Miami 4 weeks later. Guess what? I was already going to be in Miami. LIFE, YOU’RE GOOD! (Cross your fingers for me, please.)

Philosophically, I'm here:

I’ve allowed myself to entertain the idea that perhaps Singer (and myself) achieved so many great things through, yes, hard work and determination, but also by not clinging to any outcome and by opening ourselves up to whatever opportunities life had for us.

Surrendering is not giving up; if anything, it comes after discipline, determination, and persistence have helped you separate your identity from your thoughts. That’s when a different kind of freedom appears.

You begin to see how the mind is constantly labeling everything as good or bad, organizing life around what it prefers and what it resists. And in doing so, you risk missing so much. Your past and your ideas about the future create fears that restrain you, control you, and often leave you paralyzed.

But what if you could realize that, at any moment, you have the ability to shift your thoughts, quiet your mind, and allow life to surprise you? After all, if everything went exactly according to YOUR plan, what would be the point? Maybe we’re here not to know — to be surprised, to be challenged, and to learn from everything that unfolds.

Perhaps the game is not to forge our path, but to get out of the way so that life can build it for us. And I can assure you, the path life reveals is far more expansive and magical than anything you could have designed in your mind.

I hope this makes sense!

Love,
Mira

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