Why Write a Book of Business Lessons?
100 lessons I learned in a decade of entrepreneurship.
When I first started N6A a decade ago, I had read a statistic that indicated only four percent of small businesses survive past the 10-year mark. As soon as I came across this statistic, I made a promise to myself that if I survived 10 years in business, I would write a book to share the most valuable lessons I had learned over the past decade.
From that point forward, I began keeping a journal of all the lessons that I’ve learned throughout the journey. I’ve kept the journal for all these years, hoping that we would make it to the 10-year mark so that I could share the lessons with you.
So, here I am, 10 years later getting ready to share these lessons and learnings with you. On March 1st, Embrace the Pace: The 100 Most Exhilarating Lessons Learned in a Decade of Entrepreneurship, will be released. You can sign-up for the pre-order, or purchase it on Amazon or Barnes and Noble when it’s released. You can also pick up the audio version on iTunes.
In the book, I share 100 of the most important lessons, with short stories behind each. The lessons are ones of adversity, growth, office relationships, management, leadership, sales and entrepreneurship. In some cases, they are lessons about life that I’ve learned through the lens of my work.
The lessons are told firsthand by me as a CEO and entrepreneur, but I’ve found them to apply to all facets of your career, regardless of your job title and regardless of where you are on your career journey.
When I first started the business, I had no idea how much my life would change in the next 10 years. The journey has been exhilarating and rewarding beyond my wildest imagination, and has captured the essence of the title of the book in every sense, Embrace the Pace.
Above all else, the journey has shown me the value of learning. When it comes to learning, I’ve done a lot of that over the past 10 years, oftentimes through failures, sometimes through successes and always through mistakes. The most gratifying part of writing the book was that I was able to share all of these learnings with you, in the hopes that you’ll be able to apply the mistakes and failures – as well as some of the successes – in your own way to become the most successful version of yourself on your career journey.
Writing the book was one of the most enjoyable and cathartic experiences I’ve had over the past decade. It would be a great honor to have you read it when it’s released so we could share in these lessons together. There is no feeling like sharing in the success of each other’s careers. If I’m able to share something that impacts your career journey in some small way through these lessons, then the book was a success as far as I’m concerned.
I poured my heart and soul into the book to make sure it captured the most important lessons of the first chapter of my career.
So, what does the next chapter hold? Well, the same small business survival statistic that indicated only four percent of businesses survive past the 10-year mark indicated that only one percent of those businesses are successful at building a global brand over the next 10 years.
As proud as I am about beating the odds over the first 10 years, I am even more energized about beating them over the next 10. The road to become one of the one percent of companies that is successful at building a global brand begins now. Just like I did over the first 10 years, my plan is to document all the lessons that I will learn over the next decade. If I’m fortunate enough to beat the odds again, I’ll share those lessons with you 10 years from now.
Until then, I hope you enjoy the lessons from the first chapter when the book comes out, and most importantly, I hope you find value in the lessons no matter where you are on your career journey.
#EmbraceThePace