Last week my blog posts were about an office managers workshop that I presented at. The material that I used for the workshop was based on the book “The Supermanager” by Greg Blencoe. This is the third “Supermanger” workshop that I have presented in the past year and I can say that each of the attendees leaves with increased knowledge to lead their team. I am very excited that today Greg Blencoe has agreed to do a guest post on my blog.
Sometimes you need to “burn the ships” ~ Greg Blencoe
My journey as a writer began in late 1997 when I started the first version of my book on how to manage employees. Between late 1997 and late 2004, I worked on the first four versions of the book. After I completed and marketed the fourth version, I realized I needed to take most of the main ideas in that version and turn the book into a story.
Between 2005 and 2010, I was CEO of an alternative energy start-up company. To make a long story short, we were probably 5-10 years too early. Therefore, the company closed in 2010.
Around the fall of 2010, I started working on the fifth version of my book which is titled “The Supermanager”: A Short Story About the Secrets of an Extremely Successful Manager” (the PDF and Kindle versions of the book can be downloaded for free at www.freemanagementbook.com). A couple of months after I started working on “The Supermanager”, I began working in a part-time job that would help me pay the bills while still giving me enough time to work on my book.
Fortunately, “The Supermanager” has gotten some fantastic reviews. I’ve been extremely pleased with the feedback the book has gotten. However, despite lots of good things happening, “The Supermanager” has yet to really take off like I know it can.
The phrase “burn the ships” refers to members of the military fighting more effectively when their ships are burned and turning back is not an option.
I realized late last year that my problem was that I wasn’t fully committed to “The Supermanager.” Due to the security the job was providing for me, I was dipping my toe into the pool instead of jumping in. Therefore, I let the people where I worked know that I would be leaving in the middle of this year (it was necessary for me to stay that long in order to make sure the transition would be as smooth as possible) in order to work on “The Supermanager” full-time.
This past Monday was my last day working there. It was very difficult to say goodbye to all of the wonderful people I worked with. And it’s a little scary to take such a leap of faith.
But I know deep down this is the right thing for me to do. Sometimes you need to make a bold statement to yourself about who you are. Sometimes you need to put yourself in a position where you are forced to face your fears. Sometimes you need to refuse to back down in order to get what you want.
Sometimes you need to “burn the ships.”
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