Books
Learn to Write Like Author Richard Bach
Mar 9th
“The meaning I picked, the one that changed my life: Overcome fear, behold wonder.” ~Richard Bach
Last time I wrote about planning and the importance of setting big goals, long term goals that stretch out at least 10 years. I was going to write today about the process of setting these goals and how to create a great attitude that makes this process even easier and even more fun. Well, scratch that bit of learning for a couple of days, wonderful as it would be and will be again and instead let’s go on a little adventure filled side-trip together. Let’s take a trip into the mind of best-selling author and pilot Richard Bach.
Learn to Write Like Richard Bach
I have been reading Richard’s books since early 1970 and after nearly 40 years, his books are still some of my best friends. Just like my human best friends, I enjoy seeing Richard’s books each time and I enjoy spending time with them. Also just like my human friends, Richard Bach’s books are smart and I learn something from them every time we meet. I had the pleasure of finding a short video interview with Richard Bach a couple of days ago and it really had an impact on me. I am including a link to this video here and I encourage you to watch it. For ears that are ready to hear, there are wonderful, bright and beautiful gems of empowering beliefs just waiting to be picked up in this interview. Next time I will talk about some of these beliefs that Richard is gifting us with and how we can use them to make our own writing better and more fun for us and for our readers. The link will autoload and start to play immediately. Link to Richard Bach video interview.
Till next time faithful reader…Jack
“When you have come to the edge of all the light you have
And step into the darkness of the unknown
Believe that one of the two will happen to you
Either you’ll find something solid to stand on
Or you’ll be taught how to fly!” ~Richard Bach
Is Self-Publishing a Wise Choice?
Feb 5th
“Patience is also a form of action”. ~Auguste Rodin
Last time I talked about some of the things that I would not be getting by self-publishing my first book. Now let’s start talking about the rewards of self-publishing.
Rewards of Self-Publishing
- I have much more control of the entire process. My choice of proofreaders, editors, cover design and designers, who gets contacted for peer reviews and many other choices; I get to make these decisions. (There is opportunity and peril here. If I make poor choices here, I am not going to get good results.)
- I learn the book business. I intend to be a successful published author and publish many books. I certainly have the material for many books. I believe that the sooner I learn the process of publishing, the better off I will ultimately be.
- I intend to be a successful published author. (Yes, I said it again…I know.) My research indicates that more than 90% of the first time non-fiction authors, published traditionally or self-published, never make any significant amount of money from their writing efforts. My research also indicates that something in the neighborhood of 90% of the first time non-fiction writers never get a second book published. These seem like very bad odds to me and I wanted a way to stack the deck in my favor.
Next time I will explore in more detail how self-publishing, done properly, can hopefully stack the deck wonderfully in my favor – and yours too.
Till next time faithful reader…Jack
“Patience is the companion of wisdom”. ~St. Augustine
I’m an Idiot for Self-Publishing?
Feb 4th
“One half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it”. ~Sidney Howard
I’m an idiot for self-publishing? Maybe, but maybe not. Last time I talked a bit about what I had recently learned from my study of the genius British novelist Charles Dickens. I also mentioned that some of what I had learned from my study of him had been a deciding factor in my decision to self-publish my first book. I think if Dickens had been beginning his writing career today, he would have almost certainly self-published his first works. Then I think he would have partnered with a great publisher for his next works.
For me, the decision to self-publish was a hard one. I am already busy and writing and then publishing a book – and really doing the proper promotion to ensure a great reception for the fledgling book – this is a lot of work. I had no idea how much work it was until I began the process. For me at least, the writing of the book has turned out to be the easiest part. All of the things that the publisher would do for me, if I had sold the rights of my first book immediately to a publisher, – that has been quite a steep learning curve.
So why did I decide to self-publish? I’ll start from the side of what I won’t be getting or what I am giving up.
- It will cost me more money to self-publish, quite a bit more. Since I am taking on all of the costs of proofreaders and editors, cover designers and printing and the hiring of top-notch PR people, all things that a publisher might have done for me, I am spending more money.
- I am giving up a great deal of my time learning the book business. Had I sold my book immediately, I would have needed to learn very little about the book business – at least at first. I could have let the publishers handle all of the details for me.
- I am giving up the money that I could have made by simply coaching or speaking instead of learning the book business. I am usually fully booked or as booked as I care to be for coaching and I could have simply coached more, earned more, and let the publishers do what they know best.
- I am giving up some credibility for this my first book. A self-published book does not have the credibility in the eyes of some people that a traditionally published book has.
- I am almost certainly giving up some sales that I might have had otherwise. I don’t know all of the distribution channels that an established publisher knows and although I am learning fast – it is certain that I will miss some of them – and not sell those copies of my book.
So, with all of that, why on earth would I self-publish? We will both have to wait until next time for that answer – my time is up for this entry.
Next time I will explain the balance of my thinking about traditional publishing versus self-publishing.
Till next time faithful reader…Jack
“The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps – we must step up the stairs”. ~Vance Havner
Charles Dickens and Groundhog Day
Feb 2nd
“Groundhog Day is a lot like a rock concert but the people are better behaved and there’s a groundhog involved…” ~Tom Chapin, editor of the Punxsutawney Spirit newspaper.
… As an aside, it is Groundhog Day in the United States while I am writing this entry. Although I am not sure that “Punxsutawney Phil” is any better at weather forecasting than me, and I am not very good; I do love the concept! The cute little devil did see his shadow today and has forecast 6 more weeks of winter. Not a shocker – this winter does not seem to want to let go. …
Last time I talked about my first book and its upcoming release in November of 2010. I also mentioned that my decision to self-publish this first book was influenced by my research into the life of Charles Dickens. Here is a bit more about that story:
I recently read “The Making of Charles Dickens” by Christopher Hibbert and I really enjoyed the experience! I not only discovered a new author whose style I liked, but a prolific author as well. This means I have lots of great books waiting for me to find and read. I also got some great insights into what might have helped Charles Dickens be the incredible novelist that he was. (Did you know that he is one of the very few authors that has never gone out of print? And this, as I write this entry, some 140 years after his death? Wow!)
I am always looking for the “secrets of success” or the unique beliefs that help exceptional people be exceptional. Here are some of the secrets that I extracted from my recent study of “Boz”:
1) Being extremely focused on the task at hand – fiercely determined to get it right – is a key to success in writing (and any other aspect of living.)
2) It is okay to be afraid about the reception your writing will receive – as long as you are brave enough to get it out to the public to read.
3) Believe in the value of your writing, even if others at first do not share your enthusiasm.
4) Write about what you know intimately well and share the clarity of your vision.
5) Don’t be afraid to ask what you think your writing is worth.
6) You can do more than you think you can.
7) It is fine to use newest technology to publish your books. (Dickens commonly used magazines and serial releases of chapters – then he sold the books as completed documents. This was pretty cutting edge stuff for the day.) This final point is the one that swayed me to the side of self-publishing.
Next time I’ll be talking about the complete set of reasons why I decided to self-publish this first book and what the implications might be for you and me.
Till next time faithful reader…Jack
“I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time”. ~Charles Dickens from his novel “David Copperfield”
Ready to Learn the Rules of Life?
Nov 4th
“Life is succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood” ~Helen Keller
I just finished reading “If Life is a Game, These are the Rules” by Cherie Carter-Scott Ph.D and it was a great experience! I am not sure why it took me so long to run across this wonderful little guide-book for life. It was originally published in 1998 and I do read a lot, especially in the fields of self-help and self-development. I am going to assume that I was not ready for the lessons contained in the book until now. (If Cherie should run across this entry, my apology in advance. I just could not figure out how to get that mark over the first “e” in your first name. Sorry about that!)
I am not going to repeat all of the ten lessons from the book; I am going to encourage you to buy a copy to read if you don’t already own one. I do want to share just the first three rules…
Rule One: You Will Receive a Body – You may love it or hate it, but it will be yours for the duration of your life on Earth.
Rule Two: You Will Be Presented With Lessons – You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called “life.” Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or hate them, but you have designed them as part of your curriculum.
Rule Three: There Are No Mistakes, Only Lessons – Growth is a process of experimentation, a series of trials, errors, and occassional victories. The failed experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that work.
These three rules really called out to me and in light of my recent illness and my new dedication to the health and vitality of my body, I know that I am ready to learn.
Do yourself a favor – go find this book. Here is a link to Carter-Scott’s website which is also a great education in and of itself.
Till next time faithful readers…Jack
“I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma.” ~Eartha Kitt
What I Learned from Dan Brown of “The Da Vinci Code” Fame
Aug 26th
“You can be anything you want to be, if only you believe with sufficient conviction and act in accordance with your faith; for whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.” ~ Napoleon Hill
I just finished reading ‘The Man Behind The Da Vinci Code” – “An Unauthorized Biography of Dan Brown” by Lisa Rogak. This was by no means an earth-shakingly good book, but it did give me some good insights into how Dan Brown became the mega-successful author that he is today. I love to read autobiographies whenever I can, but Dan Brown has not written one yet. So, this book was as good as I could do.
I read autobiographies and biographies of people that I respect or people that have already achieved some part of what I intend to achieve. I believe that doing this saves me time and missteps – if someone has already done what I intend to do, and I do the same things that they did, I should achieve very similar results. (This is a basic tenet of NLP.) For me, I intend to be a best selling author and Dan has already done that. There should be a great deal that I can learn from him, even if I write non-fiction and he writes fiction.
So, What Did I Learn From My Study of Dan Brown?
- Write early in the day when you have no other commitments or excuses. Dan did most of the work on his first books starting between 4am and 430am.
- Study your first results and early feedback. Dan used each of his books as an exercise in learning what attracted attention and sales and what did not.
- Find a job that supports you while giving you time to write. Dan worked in LA and back on the East Coast as a teacher while working and publishing his early works. Self-discipline must be one of his keys to success!
- Find a supportive mate or best friend. Dan very wisely hooked up with his wife-to-be while he was a musician in LA and from what I gather, she is still a great source of help and guidance and belief.
- Study the competition. What is selling or not selling and how did they do that – I believe that Dan spent lots of time here.
- Carefully plot and plan your work. Dan had great outlines long before he wrote any significant amounts of his actual prose.
- Write much more than you need and edit harshly. I think this is great advice for anyone that writes!
Thanks for the great advice Dan. Even though I am getting this information from someone who did not actually interview you, I think you would agree with what I have extracted. And Dan, should you by some miracle read this – I and millions of others are really ready for your next book – call it good and send it out to us – perfection is unobtainable anyhow.
Till next time faithful reader…Jack
“He who has done his best for his own time has lived for all times.” ~ Johann Von Schiller
What Sir Richard Branson Taught Me
Jul 31st
“I believe in benevolent dictatorship provided I am the dictator.” ~Richard Branson
I just got back from a business trip to Minneapolis and St. Paul; Minnesota, USA. I had a great time – both personally and professionally. I hadn’t been to the twin cities since 1975 and I had no idea what to expect. What I found was a pair of modern cities with great nightlife, great restaurants and museums and just a really nice upbeat feeling. I’m working now to set up some speaking engagements and I can’t wait to go back. I’ll talk more about my trip and places you might want to go another time.
On to Richard Branson and what I have learned from him. I can hear you asking: “Did you meet him?”. Nope. Sadly I haven’t had the chance to meet Sir Richard Branson yet. What I was lucky enough to do was finish reading “Losing My Virginity”; a book that he wrote in 1998. I am not sure that he was “Sir” when he wrote this book, but he was already a most amazing man.
Reading, NLP, Modeling and Richard Branson
i am an avid reader – both fiction and nonfiction books are my very good friends. i estimate that I read around one hundred and fifty to two hundred books per year. As long as I can remember, I have had the gift of rapid reading and it has served me well. It is one of my secrets of success, but reading this many books is not something that I expect anyone else to adopt; and you certainly don’t need to read even a fraction of this many books to absolutely master your chosen field of study.
You do need to read though and I encourage you to read autobiographies, of the people that you admire, whenever you can. My life has been totally transformed from the reading of perhaps a dozen great autobiographies and greatly influenced by a few more. In the case of Sir Richard Branson, I admired what he had achieved and I want to see what he did to achieve it. In NLPish terms, I wanted to model the repeatable aspects of him and see what I could learn and potentially adopt to make my own business journey more enjoyable and more successful.
What Sir Richard Branson Taught Me
You can model many things from a person. Actions, capabilities, beliefs, their identity and even their connection to their creator or to the universe can be extracted and be potentially adopted. For me, here are the main things that I was able to get from my reading of “Losing My Virginity”:
- I believe that Richard views life as a great adventure that is meant to be lived. Throughout the book, adventure is a very common theme. What would you do or attempt to do if you viewed life this way? (This by the way is a belief of Richard’s and also a life metaphor – I believe his dominate one.)
- Richard is great at creating a brand that people want to be associated with. Like Apple is today, Richard’s Virgin brand became something that people wanted to be involved with – they wanted to shop there, hang out there, travel there – Richard carefully nurtured the image of his brand to give his company a huge competitive advantage. How is your brand? I am still evolving mine, but you can bet that I am going to pay attention to it now!
- Richard is great at surrounding himself with people that have the skills that he does not. He is fantastic at forming great partnerships and at recruiting top talent that compliment his skills. How about you? Are you spending your time doing what you are meant to do and having someone else do the parts that are tough for you, but easy for them? What if you did – what great things might happen?
- Richard is not afraid to take big risks to achieve what he wants, and he believes that he will find a way to make whatever it is happen. How about you? Are you willing to take big risks for the right cause? What might it be like if you were?
- Richard believes in following his gut instincts – right or wrong – and over time his gut instinct has gotten very good indeed at being right – by being right and sometimes by being massively wrong! For me, if I view something that did not do what I want as a learning experience and not as a failure, I am much more likely to take sufficient action to make my dreams happen. If I viewed every mistake or sub-optimal result as a failure, I would soon quit – I hate to fail!
- I am not sure if Richard is fearless in self-promotion or simply gets himself to act that way. It really doesn’t matter – Richard promotes himself and his ideas again and again until he gets the results he wants or he finds out that something else is actually more valuable to go after. What about you? What would your life be like is you could fearlessly promote yourself and your ideas – if the fear of rejection simply didn’t exist for you? I know for me, getting past the fear of rejection was the turning point in my life.
Richard may or may not say that these are the key elements of his unusual success, but these are the items that caught my attention. I guarantee that I did some sorting, both consciously and unconsciously while compiling this list. I can tell already that I made note of things that Richard and I did in common and I know that I especially made note of things that he did, or believed, that are not currently in my repertoire. That is one of the many reasons that it is critical that you read! You need to see what makes sense for you. If you are at all serious about achieving a life that you are proud to call your own, then you need to read and find out first hand information that someone else gave their life to identify.
Till next time…here’s hoping you go read a good book!
Jack
We sat around in the church crypt trying to choose a good name. “I know,” she said. “What about “Virgin’? We’re complete virgins at business.” “And there aren’t many virgins left around here,” laughed one of the other girls. “It would be nice to have one here in name if nothing else.” “Great,” I decided on the spot. “It’s Virgin.” ~Richard Branson circa 1970
Online Success and Writing Part 2
Jul 22nd
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.” -Samuel Johnson
In my last post, I asked if you were willing to write for two hours per day if you knew that amount of effort would make you successful? Are you? It’s not a casual question and it is not a trivial commitment. Writing, and all of the associated tasks – reading, proofing, rewriting – these can be a challenge to add into your daily schedule. I know for me it was a significant effort to find this much additional time in my daily routine, I have been fully booked as a coach and a speaker for years, but the rewards from the discipline of daily writing have been tremendous and are growing rapidly.
So, are you serious about making money online and gaining all of the benefits that will bring? Then that means you need to write and from this point forward, I am going to assume that you are. (Motivation is not a constant for most people, it surely is not for me. Still you are going to need to stay in touch with your motivation to keep yourself moving forward. My NLP skills can do great things for us here and I will talk about motivation and motivation strategies in later posts.)
The Fundamentals of Online Success
Here again are the five fundamental pieces, as I understand them today, of becoming successful online.
- You need to be visible – people need to easily find you and whatever it is you want to sell online.
- You need to be credible – people need to believe that you know what you are talking about.
- You need something to sell – this can be your own products or the products of someone else or a combination.
- You need a following – people that care about what you write and say.
- You need partners – in Internet terms, you need affiliates, that will sell your products for you.
Writing is the Key!
Writing directly relates to each of these.
- For visibility – you need to be writing to your blog and making tweets on a very regular, but not irksome, basis.
- For credibility – as you write and read and research, you and your readers, will believe that you know what you are talking about.
- For having something to sell – ideally you are going to take some of the life knowledge that you already have and make it easy for the right people to find you and pay you for that knowledge.
- For having a following – the only way that I have discovered to do this, that really works and sticks around, is to be or become an expert and to write about it.
- For finding and developing partners – once you have good content, a following, and a product, it is fairly easy to find good partners.
So, writing really is the key. Another big question is: What do you write? Well, the topics are of course up to you, but there are some fundamental places you must write and I’ll talk about them soon.
This is a Work in Progress
Understand that I don’t have all of the answers yet. My blog is a chronicle of what I am learning and doing to become a success selling products online. I have hired the best coaches to help me and I am learning and doing as fast as I can. Why not come along on the journey?
What I am Doing Today to Move Forward
- I am writing a blog post.
- I am continuing to read: Writing Nonfiction by Dan Poynter and Losing my Virginity by Richard Branson.
- I am putting together my binder for my manuscript on my NLP based Goal Setting Product. (This will be my first product that I offer for sale online.)
- I am going to tweet on Twitter – enough to be useful, but not so much as to irritate.
- I will continue to work with my existing clients and help and learn.
- I will make some outbound marketing calls for locating speaking gigs for later in the year.
- I will go pick up my new IPhone (finally!) and start to learn how to use this tool.
I expect that will keep me busy. Till next time…Jack
“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” -Stephen King
Woody Allen’s Secrets of Success
Jun 30th
“Eighty percent of success is showing up.” ~Woody Allen
I just finished ready the book Woody Allen by Eric Lax. This biography was published in 1991, just before the huge mess that developed between Woody and one of his adopted daughters. This timing is good for me – I wanted to extract what made Woody such a tremendous comedic talent and I am not concerned with the huge errors that he has made. I have long wanted to add more comedy to my seminars and studying people like Woody Allen is a part of that process.
Here is what I was able to extract from this biography that I believe relates directly the the uncommon success of Woody Allen:
- He had a long-term plan for what he wanted to accomplish over a period of decades.
- He was willing to be terrible at something in order to learn – if he thought it was important. (Woody was not a natural stand-up comic. By all accounts he was terrible – but he kept at it.)
- He had the courage to continue to be bad at something that he felt was important until he got it right.
- He is extremely loyal to his friends and business associates.
- He made his life simple – in order to have more time to focus on his craft.
Now I need to fnd some early audio and video copies of Woody performing – I think there is more to learn here. I also need to find the courage, as Woody did, to be thought bad at something while I learn to be good – and eventually great.
Till next time…Jack
“I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying.” ~Woody Allen
In Search of Excellence
Jun 16th
“The important thing is not to stop questioning”. ~ Albert Einstein
I am almost always looking for ways to achieve things more quickly, or more elegantly, or with less stress. One of my missions, almost since I first entered the business world, has been to get my assigned or desired tasks done as efficiently and effectively as possible. This works out well in my coaching and consulting work with clients and works out well in my ongoing quest for my own personal growth and evolution. People usually have already figured out slow and painful and stressful ways to try to accomplish things. They usually do not need a coach for that!
This leads me to modeling. In my early training in NLP, or Neurolinguistic Programming, I was taught the basics of modeling…extracting the processes, and beliefs, and actions that enable people to achieve extraordinary results. You knew you had done good a good job of modeling someone when you could achieve the same results in basically the same situation in the same amount of time. Modeling someone that already has the result that you want is a wonderful way to save time and effort. They have already figured out a path that leads to great results. Now this may not be the only path that leads to really impressive results; one is always free to model others and combine or meld the different patterns and look for an even better overall result.
Now this finally gets us to the heart of today’s note – modeling Albert Einstein. I wish Albert had written an autobiography – these are often marvelous distillations of wisdom and ideas – especially if written near the end of the author’s life. Although there are many books written about Einstein and many books that have collected his letters and essays, Einstein did not write an autobiography. Sad. Still, there is much to be learned from this genius of the 20th century just from second or third hand observation. What is second or third hand observation? It is reading a book; in this case reading a biography about Einstein.
I am currently reading “Einstein – The Life and Times” by Ronald Clark published in 1971. This is an interesting book, it certainly gives some great insights into Einstein, and it also covers a bit of world history during the great scientists’ life. This is not a light read – at 864 pages – it is anything but a light read. Not sure if I can recommend this book in general, I’m a bit less than half-way thru, I think this book is perhaps best for true Einstein followers and science history buffs. Still here is what I think I have modeled so far that I think contributed greatly to Einstein’s success:
- He was extremely good at being focused. He would often need to be interrupted and told it was time to eat or sleep.
- He loved to surround himself with other great and stimulating minds and would often talk for hours with others from the scientific community.
- He spent significant amounts of time immersed in music and sailing. It is my belief that he used both of these activities to free his unconscious mind to solve problems and invent new perspectives.
- From his early days as a patent application clerk to his college professor positions, Einstein excelled at getting himself jobs that paid him well enough while still allowing him ample time and energy to work on his scientific endeavors.
- Einstein was great at getting someone else to handle all of the mundane aspects of his life – cooking, cleaning, shopping and so forth.
I’ll go over these observations in another entry and look at the implications of them. For now, ponder this: If you were really focused on one great task and you surrounded yourself with other great minds and bounced ideas around on a very regular basis and you found activities that you loved that freed your mind to think and you made enough money efficiently so that you had lots of time to devote to your one great passion and you had someone else handling all of the little time stealers for you…what could you accomplish in a decade or so? (Ten years is about how long it took Einstein to put together the vast majority of the work that would make him famous.)
Till next time…Jack
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” ~ Albert Einstein