No. 3: A New Book!
Early in my career, I had many opportunities to get up on stage and present 60 minute informational sessions to audiences of anywhere from 10 to 100 professional service owners and tell them what I knew about business value and valuation, selling to a third-party, and succession planning. In hindsight, I was learning and teaching at the same time! In the early years, I worked to convince the audience members that they did, indeed, have value even though they did not believe me for a long while. Eventually, they came around. It was hard work and I was not a gifted public speaker, try as I might. But that was the job.
I stayed with it and accepted almost every speaking invitation I received. Twenty some years later, I completed over 1,000 such presentations including a handful of webinars and podcasts. As thrilling as it was to get up on stage and look into so many eyes (even those that often wandered to their Blackberry’s, in the day, flip-phones, iPhones and iPads), I never left the stage thinking, “Wow, I got that exactly right! I wouldn’t change a thing.” Never. Not once. That is the way it is with public speaking, I think. It is messy, or at least I felt that way. There are no do-overs.
Writing, a passion and pastime for me, is different in that way. I sat down to write this book, my third, with a good, solid outline. I knew where I wanted to start, and I knew where I needed to end, and then I just started writing and the entire world seemed to go quiet and make sense. The only resources I used was my experience and memory. One-hundred days later, I had 72,000 words on paper and I said pretty much everything I’d set out to say. That sounds easy, and for me, that part was. The hard part was yet to come. It’s called the editing process. Regardless, this is why I like writing way more than speaking!
I did two complete read throughs and overwrites, literally word-for-word, touching up each sentence as I polished up my first draft, and then I set it aside for a bit and came back and polished and perfected my second draft. I turned the second draft over to two professional readers, both with solid backgrounds in law, taxation, and entity structuring, and the perspective of some years. I took all of their inputs, humbled, but satisfied, and then I did what many writers in this part of the 21st century do, I called in the DIGITAL EDITOR!
Oh, my word. This state-of-the art digital editor, which my friends at the Alliance of Independent Authors recommended, basically offered to completely rewrite the entire book. The initial assessment was very complimentary, but it was all downhill from there, grammatically speaking, including too much passive voice, 83 improper uses of adverbs, 487 split infinitives, 4 typos (I would have sworn there were none!), and so on. Who knew, growing up, that the phrase “To boldly go where no one has gone before” from Star Trek, is a split infinitive?! I guess I just assumed that phraseology was OK as I grew up with it. Turns out, grammatically, at least, it is not.
But I stuck with the editing process and I learned a lot, and, I think, became a better writer in the process. I am glad I had good human editors too. Bottom line, by the time I was finished, I was satisfied with the work product. By the way, if there was not a deadline attached to the writing and publication process, I am not sure I would ever, actually, reach the satisfaction point. It is never perfect and maybe that is just how it is. I think that by having this web site to update my thoughts in the book, through blog postings, new or revised lessons, illustrations and such, this book can just keep getting better. Please let me know.
Unlike speaking, the writing process gives me time to think, and rethink, and rewrite. I get to say, or write, everything half a dozen times until I get it just right, or just right enough. That never happens on stage.
And for at least one more book to come.
Thanks for reading,
David Sr.