About That Book You Think You're Writing

The book you start writing is not the one you will have when you finish. It always changes.

The closest I’ve come to finishing writing the book we started writing was when the author had planned the book for a year before we wrote a word. And he’d built his podcast schedule on the content he needed for the book. Even then we developed and refined the material and it grew in another direction. The shape changed. Threads appeared. Some parts moved to make the work more dynamic. Some parts fell off for the sake of making it aerodynamic. Other parts grew stronger.

Writing a book is a process. It’s human and it’s collaborative. It needs you to give into ideas and see where they lead. Explore what stands up strong next to something else. Be curious about what needs to shift to another part of the book. The idea changes shapes. The book evolves.

This is the adventure of writing a book. This is the process. Going through this process means you will also change by the time you’re holding the finished manuscript. This is the whole point.

It’s a process that gives back when you invest yourself in it. It’s too valuable to outsource its creation to a probability machine.

Your book is not just a document of your experiences, your thoughts, or your leadership. It’s a mirror that gives you a chance to see the ideas you have. It’s a lens that shows you what is next.