You matter!

I am a pretty excited guy.  The book I have always wanted to write is at the publishers and headed for the printers.  It will launch on March 1, 2011…out in hardback everywhere.

I’ve been a writer for as long as I can remember.  My best buddy, Mike Fayles, tells me that I use to write stories in class and pass them to him to read.  Since I’ve known Mike for about 55 years, I can imagine that those early stories were as bad as he says they were.  I’ve managed to purge them from my memory.

I had a long and, according to me, successful business career.  At every stage, someone helped me to be successful.  Someone helped me get the first job…a job at Allstate Insurance that lasted over 27 years.  That someone was Steve Hopkins…thanks Steve.  Someone helped me break through to my first significant management job.  That was Jim Strohl…thanks Jim.  Jim Marks pushed me to become the president of the CPCU Society…a career highlight.  And, John Amore gave me an opportunity to be a CEO/President of a billion dollar business.  Thanks Jim and John.

And now I am an author.  I traded in 60 hour work weeks for zero hour work weeks.  Of course, the pay is a bit less, but the freedom to write, travel, photograph, surf, snorkel, spend time with those I love and write some more…priceless.  This is THE best time of my life.

When I sat down to write The Way Up: How to Keep Your Career Moving in the Right Direction, I had a head start.  I had already written a career book for those in the insurance industry, titled Designated for Success (now out of print).  I knew how to write, what I wanted to write about and how I was going to go about the process.  Seven days later, I had a book length manuscript.  The book just flew out of my fingers.  It is easy to write about the stuff you know…the stuff that matters to you.

And that brings me to you.  You matter to me.  You matter because I share something in common with you…many things in common.  I had an adequate amount of formal education, but I didn’t have anyone who could show me the way to a successful career.  That way got lit up for me by a number of people…people who took an interest in my success.  I enjoyed a lot of success and some bone crushing failures.  I found myself overworked, underappreciated, underpaid and had the rug pulled out from under me more than a few times.  My journey was not a straight line to the top…sound familiar?

What turned out to matter in the end were a few things…

• someone stepped up and showed me the right way
• someone told me the truth about me
• and I decided to just plain never give up until I got what I wanted in life.

Those things mattered…a lot.  And I can show you how to find each of them. 

Every single one of us can get what we want out of life.  There is no mandatory limit on how many of us can be successful.  The reality of our current situation is valid for today only…it is not permanent.  It is not destined in the stars.  It is not cement into which we are frozen.  You and I can change our reality to the reality we want.  That is what this blog will be about.  And…it is most certainly why I wrote The Way Up: How to Keep Your Career Moving in the Right Direction. 

Read the book.  Read the blog.  Email me with your questions, thoughts, praise or problems.  I would love to be a small part of your big success.