THE STORY OF SUCCESS MADE EASY
Honoree's Note: I've known and admired Ron Martin, one of my mentors, for over a decade. We met while I was living in Hawaii. Ron is one of those people who lives an authentic, no-holds-barred, making-it-happen kind of life. If you've ever said to yourself, "I'm going to do it 'one of these days' this post is a must-read for you!
It was a lazy Saturday afternoon out at my
beach house in Haleiwa, Hawaii. I was sitting on the lanai “talking story” with
my client, the famed artist, Wyland. He said, “So Ron, when are you going to
write a book?” My response was, “One of these days.” Wyland said, “Have you
ever opened up your day timer and at the top saw the words, ‘One of these
days?’” I thought, “WOW that’s heavy.” He then said, “How about right now?”
Hoping to end this conversation I said, “I wouldn’t know where to start.”
Wyland said, “Stand up,” which I did. He then took the chair and table from
where we were sitting and dragged them out on to the lawn by the ocean. He went
into my closet, picked out a hat and shirt and said, “Put these on, and sit
there.” He then set up the table and went out to his car returning with his
camera. He took this picture and said, "Okay, you have the cover, I am
going to go home and write the foreword. All you have to do is start on chapter
one." Wow, how do you get out of that?
I decided to devote two hours every Sunday
morning and see where this went. It was 1996 and I was still “non-computerized”
so the next morning I sat down at my desk with pen in hand staring at a blank
piece of paper for a good 30 minutes before the title came to me; SUCCESS MADE
EASY. I wrote that down and started writing a Table of Contents. When my
two-hour commitment was up I faxed what I had written to my secretary and asked
her to type it up and fax it back to me.
The following Sunday morning I edited what she
had typed and started on Chapter One. That’s the way it went for the next 10
months, edit, write, rewrite and fax. In what seemed like no time I had a
manuscript about three inches thick. I found a retired high school English
teacher and engaged her to help me with spelling and grammar.
When I thought that I had it finished I sent
the manuscript off to Wyland for a read. He called me back a few days later and
said that he had sent a copy of my manuscript to his friend Spencer Johnson who
was willing to spend 20 minutes with me discussing the book.
I knew of Spencer from his famous book THE ONE
MINUTE MANAGER so I was eager to meet with him expecting high praise for my
book. That 20 minutes became two hours as he pointed out all of the things in
there that he didn’t think anybody would be interested in. He said, “You have
to write the book the reader wants to read, not the book the writer wants to
write.” I left Spencer’s home quite disappointed, but determined to “fix it,”
so I began tearing out pages and when done it was half the size. I sent it to
Spencer again and he called saying, “Now you have a book” and he agreed to let
me acknowledge him in the book.
Next I hired a graphic artist, found a
publisher and ordered 5,000 hard cover books. I was looking at a $20,000
investment at this time and thought that all I need to do is sell 1,000 copies
at $20 each and I’ll have my money back. I engaged a distributer to place it in
bookstores priced at $23.95, and began offering “Pre-Publication” copies signed
and numbered with a special seal for $20 each. I sold all 1,000 of them before
my 5,000 books arrived.
Feeling pretty good about myself, I started
writing RETAIL SELLING MADE EASY, then SALES MANAGEMENT MADE EASY. I
co-authored PUBLIC SPEAKING MADE EASY with Pam Chambers, a known public
speaking coach in Hawaii. All of this was done long hand. 10 years later I
wrote E-MAIL ETIQUETTE MADE EASY on my computer. What a difference that made.
I continue to sell thousands of dollars a month
worth of books and the first two have gone into several printings. All of this
happened because Wyland didn’t accept my “One of These Days” excuse. I now teach
that, “One who wants to finds a way, one who doesn’t finds an excuse.” Excuses
are often times easier to find, but the rewards are nowhere near the same as
finding a way.
Ron Martin
Success Dynamics, Inc
Honolulu, Hawaii
808-221-3330
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