An old friend of mind recently had a book published. He'll have something to put on his shelves for years and when people pass by, he can answer the question, "Hey Ryan, why do you have an entire bookcase full of 350 copies of the same book?" with "Oh, I forgot those were even there...that's just a book I wrote...that's all....I'm surprised you even noticed it"
I went to a conference once and heard an amazing speaker. I went up to him after his talk and asked him what book I had to read. This guy had a silly amount of info up in the 'ol cabeza, so I figured he'd read a book or two in his time. I wanted to know what was at the top of his list.
He mentioned a few that were big influences and we started talking about different things he'd learned. Then he mentioned another book...and hesitated. He said, "Actually that one is out of print..." and then went looking through his stuff. He pulled out the book and said, "here, you can have this one" This guy was a big deal. It was kind of a big deal that I was even able to sneak up and talk with him at all. Here he was giving me the copy of a great book that was out of print....his personal copy.
I figured out later why - his name was on the book. He probably had a few extra copies.
I heard the author of a pretty well known book do a weekend conference one weekend and he took questions in the end. Someone asked him why he'd devoted his life to writing books - and he said, "think of the greats - think of the folks that have changed the way people thing - think of the people who have had the most influence...and then he listed author after author after author....and he was right.
Sure there are exceptions - I don't know how many books (fill in this blank with a few famous names here) wrote - but you can't argue the point that some of our great movements or shifts in thinking have at least started with someone putting pen to paper.
So I wish my friend luck. I hope his book does well. I'm not sure it'll change a generation, but it'll still be fun to see his book on shelves...
I went to a conference once and heard an amazing speaker. I went up to him after his talk and asked him what book I had to read. This guy had a silly amount of info up in the 'ol cabeza, so I figured he'd read a book or two in his time. I wanted to know what was at the top of his list.
He mentioned a few that were big influences and we started talking about different things he'd learned. Then he mentioned another book...and hesitated. He said, "Actually that one is out of print..." and then went looking through his stuff. He pulled out the book and said, "here, you can have this one" This guy was a big deal. It was kind of a big deal that I was even able to sneak up and talk with him at all. Here he was giving me the copy of a great book that was out of print....his personal copy.
I figured out later why - his name was on the book. He probably had a few extra copies.
I heard the author of a pretty well known book do a weekend conference one weekend and he took questions in the end. Someone asked him why he'd devoted his life to writing books - and he said, "think of the greats - think of the folks that have changed the way people thing - think of the people who have had the most influence...and then he listed author after author after author....and he was right.
Sure there are exceptions - I don't know how many books (fill in this blank with a few famous names here) wrote - but you can't argue the point that some of our great movements or shifts in thinking have at least started with someone putting pen to paper.
So I wish my friend luck. I hope his book does well. I'm not sure it'll change a generation, but it'll still be fun to see his book on shelves...
when YOU write a book i will dedicate a post to it on my blog. come on...do it!!!!
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