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One line

Ten reasons not to give up on your dreams — from a Filipino social entrepreneur who built one from a place that gave him no reason to believe it was possible.

Short — 50 words

The Unreasonable Why argues that people abandon their dreams not from a lack of discipline but because their reason for continuing gets outweighed by the discouragement around them. Rodel Sinapilo offers ten reasons to keep going, each closing with a reflection exercise. No quick fixes, and no promises.

Long — 120 words

Most people do not decide to give up. The dream is quietly downgraded — from a plan, to a someday, to something they used to talk about — and no moment of deciding ever arrives. That is the observation The Unreasonable Why is built on.

Rodel Sinapilo argues that a dream survives on the strength of the reason behind it, and that reason rarely looks reasonable from the outside. Across ten short chapters, each ending in a reflection exercise, he makes the case for continuing — drawing on research such as Deci and Ryan’s work on intrinsic motivation, and on ordinary people rather than celebrities.

Written from the Philippines by the co-owner of a social enterprise, not from the far side of a famous success. 113 pages.

Author bio — short

Rodel Sinapilo is a Filipino author and social entrepreneur, and co-owner of Coco Deli, a Philippine social enterprise working with local farming communities. The Unreasonable Why is his book on why people give up, and why they should not.

Author bio — long

Rodel Sinapilo was born and raised where dreaming big was neither encouraged nor thought possible. Like many Filipinos he went overseas to work and support his family, and knows the particular loneliness of a life put on hold while everything looks fine from outside.

He is now co-owner of Coco Deli, a Philippine social enterprise making food products from coco sap, lettuce and oyster mushrooms while working with smallholder farmers. He wrote The Unreasonable Why to say one thing plainly: if he could turn a vision into something real starting from where he started, so can the reader.