“Who gives everyone else the authority to decide what your life is supposed to look like?”

Go behind Chapter One of No Mud, No Lotus: “Permission.” Discover the real story behind the three-signature pencil that pushed Darren to quit his job, sell nearly everything he owned, and buy a one-way ticket to Bangkok. Then step into 2004 travel before smartphones, meet the stranger who helped him find Khao San Road, and explore what Darren understands now about the difference between leaving and actually being free.

“What happens when the place that's supposed to feel like home doesn't anymore — and it's not the place's fault?”

Go behind Chapter Seven of No Mud, No Lotus: “Monday Mornings.” Discover what it was like to return to Hollywood after six months in Southeast Asia and try to fit a changed version of yourself back into a life that had kept moving without you. Then explore the cereal aisle, the impossible two-sentence answer to “How was your trip?”, and the career decision that eventually forced Darren to ask whether he was chasing a career or just a payout.

“What if you can't understand where you're going until you let go of where you've been?”

Go behind Chapter Twelve of No Mud, No Lotus: “Let Me Go.” Discover what made Netflix's culture so different from the rigid workplaces Darren had spent years trying to escape, and why the company gave him the autonomy he'd been looking for. Then explore what happened when Netflix let him go—and how an ending he couldn't understand at the time set off a chain of events that would eventually lead him back to China and, years later, to writing this book.

“What happens when the risks your parents took become part of the story you inherit?”

In 1985, Darren's father was a Sydney stockbroker when two men walked into a pub with a movie nobody wanted to finance—and asked for $8 million. What followed involved options trading, a multimillion-dollar missed bet, an Australian film that became an international phenomenon, a video store that sparked Darren's love of movies, and a family history that eventually came full circle. It's a story about money, risk, ambition, regret, and the strange ways our parents' choices become part of our own.