Anyone who's written and published a book (or has even thought about it) knows the terror of wondering, "Will anyone like it? Will anyone buy it? Will anyone use it?"

 

It took six rounds and 45 days to get an error-free proof of Passion, Plan, Profit:12 Steps to Turn Your Passion into a Solid Business from the printer--a process that should have taken at most, two weeks.

Maybe I've been hanging out in Northern California too much (woo-woo land). But I think I had some psychic influence over slowing down this process.

I wanted the people who bought it to use it, and to receive tangible benefit from it. Specifically, I wanted them to earn more money by working through the exercises in the book. I wanted to guarantee this result for every single person who bought the book.

 

As any reader of the Aesop Fables (or your mother) can tell you, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. There are no guarantees. Even if 100,000 people bought the book (which would be very cool), I couldn't control that even one person would read it, or do the work, or earn more money in their businesses as a result.

 

I can only provide the water; you have to do the drinking.

 

In the past, I experienced a raft of pain while working in some of my previous businesses, the pain mostly caused by not earning enough money. It was awful. Because my pain was so sharp and long-lasting, I wanted to save the rest of the world from experiencing anything like it.

 

This is why I was so worried. What if my book didn't save all the other people in the world from feeling the same pain about their work?

 

I forgot that my raft of pain happened to be the perfect amount, at the perfect time, to get me to change; to sell my computer business and to go into coaching and writing. If there had been less pain, I might still be talking to people about computer network support.

 

Pain was (and still is) my friend.

 

And although I hope my book alleviates a lot of pain for those of you who are passionate about your work and businesses, but not earning enough money, the truth is you have to make your own decision about drinking your own water.

 

I did my part to provide part of the water out there for all you thirsty small business owners. The rest is your responsibility.