I’m pretty scattered in a lot of other ways, but I’ve always been the kind of person who keeps meticulous project and meeting notes. It has saved my butt or made me a star many, many times. In spite of that, I have no clear record whatsoever of the exact moment we decided to create 101 Ideas to Kick Your Ass Into Gear. It was the spring of 2011, and our April 27 meeting notes make no mention of it. Yet one week later, our May 4 notes contain a starter list of topics for the book. Just sixty days later, we met our deadline of July 4th to finish the basic manuscript. Much of the book was complete not long after that, but meanwhile we had the next big task (and many others) to consider: how do we get it published?
That long-forgotten moment at the beginning of May 2011 when we decided to collaborate on a book set a lot of wheels in motion; we ended up creating a publishing company, a bookstore devoted to Ann Arbor authors, publishing four more books in three years, and along the way did a LOT of marketing, research, blogging, and even some workshops. We knew we were on the right track when we originally laid out some goals to create tools and media for personal transformation, but the first couple of months produced only concepts and clever ideas. It was deciding to take one small action that started the ensuing avalanche of productivity. It’s advice that’s older than the hills: take that one small step, and things will start happening.
Like Will Rogers said: “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
