Christopher L. Hedges's Blog, page 18
June 13, 2014
Graduation day (6/13/14)
Whether it’s high school, college or some other institution that a child is graduating from you will always find an assembly of proud parents flocking around like a pack of tourists burning through rolls of film. That feeling of pride you get from knowing that you did things right as your kid’s walking across the stage to accept whatever symbolic document of completion that he’s presented with was something I got to experience recently.
Mind you I don’t actually have kids, and I probably never will because I have discovered the best form of contraception on Earth…other people’s children. I have spent three weeks volunteering to teach kids to swim, and I have discovered that I don’t have the patience necessary to create my own tribe.
However, two friends for whom I have been serving as a de facto mentor for have experienced drastic growth as of late. One person took on a major leadership role in Toastmasters. In the grand scheme of things that may not seem to impressive unless you knew him three or four years earlier. He started off as a soft spoken laissez-faire kinda guy and he has evolved into a commanding presence in the front of the room. The other just got promoted from a mid level manager to a department head based on the personal development he experienced in the last year and a half.
I don’t think either of my two friends has even begun to scratch the surface of their full potential, but I think both are surprised with the results they are currently seeing. I knew they could do it, but it’s a thing of beauty to sit back and watch as they truly begin to believe in themselves.
June 12, 2014
Who are you? (6/12/14)
After you come to terms with the fact that no matter who you are and what you do that in fact you are a salesman of some sort, you will need to find out who you are. This is the tough question that everybody seems to dwell on. In high school it may have been what clique you aligned yourself with, professionally it may be what your company is known for, and as a person it may be what is said about you in an obituary somewhere way down your life’s journey.
Whatever the answer to the question “Who you are” is regardless of context that is the basis of your brand. So take high school for example; I had friends that played volleyball in the fall, basketball in the winter, and baseball in the spring. In high school part of my friends’ brand would be jock, and all the other descriptive language that comes with it. Once you have determined who you are then you can begin to think about what it is you are going to sell.
I’m embarking on my book tour partly in the hopes of solidifying the answer to “who am I”. I think I know the answer to that question, but who you are isn’t determined by you. Who you want to be is the only thing you control, but in reality who you are is based on societies perception of you. I figure after ten months on the road I will have a good idea of what society thinks of my, and by default who I am.
June 11, 2014
Goodreads Book Giveaway
I’m not tech savvy enough to add the book excerpt into Goodreads so I cheated and copied a link to the book listing on Amazon where you can read the free preview pages.
Average Joe’s Story: Quest for Confidence
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Average Joe’s Story
by Christopher L. Hedges
Giveaway ends June 20, 2014.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
A virtue I need to work on (6/11/14)
Patience is a virtue, and one that I am in short supply of. I think this goes back to my time in the hospital where I put such a luxury on time. You can walk the halls and see the various different patients that are all quietly fighting their own unique battles and if you look hard enough you can almost see time slipping away.
Patience really is just a factor of time. You’re sitting at the kitchen table going over the same homework for three hours, and you lose patience because there are so many other ways you could be spending your time if you weren’t continuously hashing over the same material.
However, I discovered the way to build this virtue. I spent two hours in the pool with a local Kiwanis club teaching young kids how to swim. You build patience because those kids are bouncing around like miniature Tasmanian Devils and are barely listening to a word you say. They could be four legged fish in less than a week if they would listen to the coaching they got, but if that was the case then the adults who spend two hours a day four days a week for three weeks wouldn’t have the opportunity to build patience.
June 10, 2014
Goodreads Book Giveaway
For all of you members of Goodreads I have just setup a giveaway for Average Joe’s Story: Quest for Confidence
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Average Joe’s Story
by Christopher L. Hedges
Giveaway ends June 20, 2014.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
Getting out there (6/10/14)
Someone asked me what I was passionate about recently, and my answer to him was living. I was robbed of nearly three years where I never left the house with the exception of doctors visits and a very rare trip to the movies. Confinement was one of the many drawbacks of living on a feeding tube.
Part of my problem was that the weather would cause me to sweat off my protective bandages quicker than a gator would inhale a child at a petting zoo. The other part was my immune system was so depleted from chemo that the common cold may as well have been the Bubonic Plague as far as I was concerned.
So now I like to get out and do things whenever, and wherever I can. That’s a fringe benefit of this book tour. I’m hoping to cram three or four years worth of life experience into 10 months time. Even though the book tour starts on August 5th with the release of Average Joe’s Story: Quest for Confidence I have already begun to get to work making up for lost time. I have a half dozen events scheduled and I’m trying to schedule more every day. I was fortunate. I got to see that life was passing me by while I still had an opportunity to do something about it. Most people I know either have woken up or will wake up one morning and realize that it’s too late. I’m glad that I no longer count myself amongst them.
June 9, 2014
Putting it into practice (6/9/14)
I was at a conference in May when I put the idea of working with the end in mine into practice. Being a struggling author I need to sell as many books as possible just to make ends meat, and my best prospects are my friends. However, while I was at this conference I gave two books away instead of trying to sell them.
The two friends I gave them to work at the managerial level in two different Fortune 500 companies. One of said friends also happens to teach at a local college.
I sacrificed $30 for two reviews on Amazon/Barnes and Noble/etc, a recommendation to be brought in as a guest speaker for two different corporations if a tie in can be found, an offer for Average Joe’s Story to be the book of the month in a book club, and a recommendation to the department head of a local college to take a look a the book.
I may have possibly lined up four future speaking engagements, potentially 100+ future books that may be sold, and at least 2 book reviews all for the bargain price of $30 in donated merchandise. I potentially will generate 100x the amount of revenue than I would have had if I had tried to get paid up front. By working with the end in mind, and postponing any immediate gratification I magnified my results exponentially.
June 6, 2014
Workin with the end in mind (6/6/14)
When you are selling you really need to begin with the end in mine. This is one of those subjects that fits into multiple different categories like sales, branding and success.
By beginning with the end in mine you can ensure that everything you do gradually draws you closer and closer to that end goal. Most people don’t realize that most authors never make any real money by writing their books. I was made aware of that fact very early on, and so I decided that I wanted to make my money off of corporate sponsorship. The name of the book, the concept, and the subject were all designed so that they could be marketed to corporate sponsors at a later date.
I knew that from the onset I wanted to have a shot at the title of New York Times Bestselling Author so I knew I really needed to work with a traditional publisher instead of self publishing. I needed a publisher’s network if I was going to pierce the protective vale of the big retail brick and mortar stores.
I was able to bring my book into existence purely because I knew where I wanted to end up. Knowing where I wanted point B to be enabled me to funnel all my efforts to one specific end and sell the concept of a book to a complete stranger. This idea of working with the end in mind will translate to success in any activity you choose to apply it to.
June 5, 2014
Straight from the Tiger’s mouth (6/5/14)
If you are going to look for the answers go to the information’s source instead of getting it through a game of telephone. The problem with telephone is that as you play the game the message becomes progressively more distorted the longer you play and the further you get from the original source until the message is finally unrecognizable.
The same holds true for when people try to breakdown how someone else did something, or try to explain the way another person’s mind works. I was listening to Ed Tate, a friend and professional speaker, talk about this very subject. He basically said that if you want to be great then you need to go and watch the champions. I’m not saying that John’s take on Tiger Woods’ mindset is wrong, but he is only giving his opinion based on his interpretation of Tiger’s life.
Based on John’s research he may jump to a conclusion that Tiger’s mindset was based on X, and if you were to ask Tiger himself he might say it was really based on Y. Whenever possible you should try and go straight to the source because if you don’t you may be basing whatever it is you are doing purely on gossip.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
June 4, 2014
I think I get it (6/4/14)
When I was at Barnes & Noble doing some logistics work for the book tour the other day I think I finally understood why celebrities are so standoffish. I spent 45 minutes trying to get some information from the manager in charge of booking special events. She spent the time telling me how difficult what I wanted to do was, and not to get my hopes up. She told me she didn’t want to discourage me, but everything she said was to that end.
That has been the common thread I have seen since I began this journey. “Who are you, and what makes you think you can do this?” No one wants to take a leap of faith or go out on a limb, but that’s okay.
This journey is a right of passage, and every successful person has to walk this road.
What I now believe is that celebrities all walked this road, and became jaded as a result of the process. They may have started out as optimistic and positive, and they slowly became cold and withdrawn. They persevered in spite of what they were told and eventually became celebrities. Now that they are seen as a symbol of success everyone wants a piece of them. They are currently no different than they were before they became the icon that people bow down to worship, and that’s the problem. People wanted nothing to do with them when they needed help, and now that they’ve made it to the top people act like they are best buds. I don’t think it’s entirely a question of signing autographs, taking pictures, or being interrupted at dinner that bothers celebrities. No, I think it’s the hypocrisy of the process, and the inability to be seen for what they truly are that creates the persona that gets played out on TV. They’re just people, and every once in a while I think they just want to be treated that way. I think they want to know that they are more than some object that the world is trying to get a piece of.
