What I learned while collecting testimonials for my books

In the past years I had the privilege of connecting with several fellow authors and entrepreneurs to see if they’d be kind enough to share a few words about my books. I’ve been able to collect a few pages of nice words about my writing from people I look up to and admire, which is humbling and exciting at the same time. But there’s one thing that stood out to me:

The more successful someone is, the easier the conversation.

Here’s what I discovered: The more successful someone is, the easier the conversation. Sure, not everyone had (or made) the time to read the review copy of my book – but especially the “rich and famous” from that category were extremely pleasant with their response. I’ve received handwritten notes and phone calls from several people I see daily on television who I already respected. Despite the fact not all of them provided an endorsement, the personal touch in their response made me respect them even more. It’s not every day you get personal emails, handwritten messages and even phone calls from people like Jack Canfield, David Chilton, Brett Wilson, John Parkin and several others.

Now the less successful category. Not everyone I contacted for an endorsement is considered a celebrity, nor do you need to be for me to consider you an inspiration. Many fellow authors and entrepreneurs who are less well known inspire more people than they might be aware of every day. The trend there however was for many to be “too busy” – getting a response, if they responded, ranged from time consuming to downright painful. For one example (which I won’t name here) the whole interaction was so confusing I ended up removing a story I had originally included in the manuscript from the final book.

So lesson learned? Stop the glorification of busy. In his book “Think and grow rich” Napoleon Hill said that the lack of decision contributes to most failure. Successful people make decisions quickly and firmly, and hardly ever change them. So do yourself a favour: make your decisions firmly and dare to be direct about them.