This week’s “Business Question of the Week” is posed by Bessie McElvaine, who resides in Charlotte, NC:
I just finished reading your book Leslie and enjoyed it a lot. Is there a strong possibility that you will do a sequel?
Omar Tyree Answers:
Well, Bessie, you’re in luck. For the most part, we want to answer strictly “business” questions in this weekly Equation blog, but in this particular case, and with this particular book title of Leslie, you have actually chosen my next big business adventure into feature film production. The book Leslie was written as a movie idea nearly a decade ago, and now we are extremely close to realizing this great New Orleans-based novel as my first feature film production. And that is indeed “big business.”
With all that’s going on with the world economy these days, American films miraculously continue to make money, with already $1 billion dollars alone in January 2009, and a reported 22% business increase from 2008 at this time, while nearly every other business, outside of Wendy’s and McDonald’s - because we all have to eat – tanks.
With that being said, the idea of Leslie was originally thought up as a trilogy, where I would write not one, not two, but three books in a Leslie series. But I never wrote the sequel book because I wanted to wait for enough people to read the first book. Well, with a great film production now in the works, as soon as we acquire the green-light capital needed to start the Leslie film production down in New Orleans, Louisiana, for this summer, I will then begin an immediate discussion with the publishing houses about the sequel and trilogy books, which would be pushed a lot stronger by the extreme marking power of an expected film.
So The Equation for this week’s question encompasses all 4 components, beginning with your Love for Leslie as a novel, my Art of creating Leslie in the first place, and now adapting it into a screenplay, the new Support that we expect to receive for the novel produced as a feature film, and the Business investors that we still need for it all to happen.
So stay tuned to my web site announcements between now and June to see if we are really on our way toward Leslie the film, which immediately kicks in the sequel, as well as the trilogy.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Want a Book Deal from a Major Publishing Company, Learn to Hustle
This week we turn to the Big Apple for the “Business Question of the Week,” Nicole Little from New York asks:
What advice would you give to a self-published author looking to get a book deal from a major publishing company? What are some steps that a self-published author needs to take to position his or herself for a book deal?
Omar Tyree Answers
Nicole, as the famous song and acronym from a Staten Island, New York, rap group called the Wu-Tang Clan goes, “Cash Rules Everything Around Me / CREAMed it / the money / dollar, dollar bill, y’all!”
When I was picked up for my first, historical 2-book deal with Simon & Schuster, it was because I had already sold 25,000 books on my own, which represented more than $250,000 generated in the publishing industry with my name attached to it. So it became a no-brainer. “If this kid can move $250,000 worth of product on his own, imagine what he can do with us behind him.”
With that being said, as a self-published author, you have to learn how to HUSTLE, with marketing, promoting, sales, and hopefully a good book that creates a lot of buzz through word-of-mouth.
Just to name a few self-published authors outside of myself in the African-American publishing arena who went on to become major brand names are; E. Lynn Harris, Michael Baisden, Terri Woods, and Vickie Stringer. And although Terry McMillan, Zane, and Carl Weber were not self-published, they utilized much of same business savvy and marketing tools that self-published authors used to push their works and create major followings.
So, similar to last week’s blog, The Equation for success in any business is the accumulation of Green SUPPORT! You must have it in order to survive and to move forward. And once you have shown that you can indeed gather a large number of supporters for your work, you will have no problem getting a major publishing house to sit down at the deal table and talk serious numbers with you.
Now, if you would also like to know more about what steps to take to make those bigger sales happen through time-tested ideas, well, you’re talking to a man who has been there and done that himself, so now ask me about my publishing “Master’s Degree” program @ (www.OmarTyree.com). But that’s only if you’re serious about moving forward!
What advice would you give to a self-published author looking to get a book deal from a major publishing company? What are some steps that a self-published author needs to take to position his or herself for a book deal?
Omar Tyree Answers
Nicole, as the famous song and acronym from a Staten Island, New York, rap group called the Wu-Tang Clan goes, “Cash Rules Everything Around Me / CREAMed it / the money / dollar, dollar bill, y’all!”
When I was picked up for my first, historical 2-book deal with Simon & Schuster, it was because I had already sold 25,000 books on my own, which represented more than $250,000 generated in the publishing industry with my name attached to it. So it became a no-brainer. “If this kid can move $250,000 worth of product on his own, imagine what he can do with us behind him.”
With that being said, as a self-published author, you have to learn how to HUSTLE, with marketing, promoting, sales, and hopefully a good book that creates a lot of buzz through word-of-mouth.
Just to name a few self-published authors outside of myself in the African-American publishing arena who went on to become major brand names are; E. Lynn Harris, Michael Baisden, Terri Woods, and Vickie Stringer. And although Terry McMillan, Zane, and Carl Weber were not self-published, they utilized much of same business savvy and marketing tools that self-published authors used to push their works and create major followings.
So, similar to last week’s blog, The Equation for success in any business is the accumulation of Green SUPPORT! You must have it in order to survive and to move forward. And once you have shown that you can indeed gather a large number of supporters for your work, you will have no problem getting a major publishing house to sit down at the deal table and talk serious numbers with you.
Now, if you would also like to know more about what steps to take to make those bigger sales happen through time-tested ideas, well, you’re talking to a man who has been there and done that himself, so now ask me about my publishing “Master’s Degree” program @ (www.OmarTyree.com). But that’s only if you’re serious about moving forward!
Friday, February 27, 2009
Men Read for Education, Women for Pleasure
This week’s “ Business Question of The Week” is asked by Heather Washington, San Francisco, CA.
In The Equation, you speak about a book signing you had at a mall kiosk that was located right across from a video store. You wrote about the lines of men who came to buy the new John Madden video game, but had no interest in buying a book. Why do you think men would rather play video games over reading a book?
Omar Tyree Answers:
That’s easy. Men would rather play a video game over reading a book because a video game takes them away from their everyday grind of work, while reading a book keeps them in it. You must understand that a majority of men don’t actually read books for pleasure, they read books to sharpen up on certain career skills, or to read about other men who they admire in industry or in character. With that in mind, for men, reading is not so much to be enjoyed as it is, but to be studied and digested.
Women, on the other hand, tend to read much more for pleasure, where the actual content itself is not taken as seriously as if a man would read it. So oftentimes, when I ask the average woman to explain what she read to me, many of them can only offer if they felt the book was good or not, based on their personal pleasure principle, while bringing up certain emotional points of the book that they may have disagreed with or found interesting. But they usually cannot state an overall view, objective, or theme of a book like an average reading man would.
On the flipside, where video-playing men can get all into understanding the physical and technical manipulations of a video game, most women would find that to be a tremendous deal of work for no particular purpose at all. Why would a man want to spend so much effort and time, like a human octopus with a joystick, just to score imaginary touchdowns, steal cars, shoot up enemies, and kill bloodsucking zombies instead of doing more constructive things like fixing the broken garage door, repainting the house, or helping their sons and daughters with their homework assignments?
So as the book and the saying goes, Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus. But since I happen to be in the book writing and publishing industry, I became one of those few men who will actually read for pleasure as well as for work. And I happen to Love it! But what if I was not a writer? How much would I love to read then?
The Equation here concerns our individual Passions and Purposes. What turns us on as men or as women? And what is the ultimate Purpose for the things that we choose to do in our lives?
In The Equation, you speak about a book signing you had at a mall kiosk that was located right across from a video store. You wrote about the lines of men who came to buy the new John Madden video game, but had no interest in buying a book. Why do you think men would rather play video games over reading a book?
Omar Tyree Answers:
That’s easy. Men would rather play a video game over reading a book because a video game takes them away from their everyday grind of work, while reading a book keeps them in it. You must understand that a majority of men don’t actually read books for pleasure, they read books to sharpen up on certain career skills, or to read about other men who they admire in industry or in character. With that in mind, for men, reading is not so much to be enjoyed as it is, but to be studied and digested.
Women, on the other hand, tend to read much more for pleasure, where the actual content itself is not taken as seriously as if a man would read it. So oftentimes, when I ask the average woman to explain what she read to me, many of them can only offer if they felt the book was good or not, based on their personal pleasure principle, while bringing up certain emotional points of the book that they may have disagreed with or found interesting. But they usually cannot state an overall view, objective, or theme of a book like an average reading man would.
On the flipside, where video-playing men can get all into understanding the physical and technical manipulations of a video game, most women would find that to be a tremendous deal of work for no particular purpose at all. Why would a man want to spend so much effort and time, like a human octopus with a joystick, just to score imaginary touchdowns, steal cars, shoot up enemies, and kill bloodsucking zombies instead of doing more constructive things like fixing the broken garage door, repainting the house, or helping their sons and daughters with their homework assignments?
So as the book and the saying goes, Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus. But since I happen to be in the book writing and publishing industry, I became one of those few men who will actually read for pleasure as well as for work. And I happen to Love it! But what if I was not a writer? How much would I love to read then?
The Equation here concerns our individual Passions and Purposes. What turns us on as men or as women? And what is the ultimate Purpose for the things that we choose to do in our lives?
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Using Technology to Keep In Touch
This week’s “ Business Question of The Week” comes from S.R. from Virginia:
I know you travel a lot promoting your books and I’m sure you meet a lot of great people wherever you go. How do you keep in touch with the people you have worked with and what is the best way to follow up opportunities with them? It can all seem so overwhelming?
Omar Tyree Answers:
You know what, I’ve had that same issue for years. I literally have stacks and stacks of business cards from being out on the road on book signing tours and at speaking events. And it is overwhelming to have that many contacts to call back and follow up with.
Amazingly, I have always been able to at least call back the people who I’ve wanted to do business with, but not all of them. All of the contacts may not be important in your immediate stream of things. However, you never know when something big may spark from an unlikely source. So you may have to touch bases with people anyway.
In my final fiction book entitled Pecking Order, published in September 2008, my main character “Ivan David” came up with the excellent idea of utilizing his web site staff to input all of the data from the business cards that he collected at network functions and parties. They would then send out thank you notes and follow up, especially since “Ivan” had an internet and web site marketing business.
So to take a page out of my book, Pecking Order, you may want to pay someone as little as $50 to input all of your business cards into an e-mail and data file like “Ivan David” does, and send them all a form letter from your “assistant” with your return address attached for their responses so you can carry out business with the interested parties from there. And e-mails make this process a lot simpler than phone calls.
In the meantime, if you don’t already have it, you may want to check out that Pecking Order book. I hear it’s about a guy named “Ivan David” who utilizes The Equation’s third component of Support to amass a fortune in just four incredible years. So learn it from the experience.
If you have a question you would like to ask Omar Tyree, please email it to omartyree@ascendantstrategy.net.
I know you travel a lot promoting your books and I’m sure you meet a lot of great people wherever you go. How do you keep in touch with the people you have worked with and what is the best way to follow up opportunities with them? It can all seem so overwhelming?
Omar Tyree Answers:
You know what, I’ve had that same issue for years. I literally have stacks and stacks of business cards from being out on the road on book signing tours and at speaking events. And it is overwhelming to have that many contacts to call back and follow up with.
Amazingly, I have always been able to at least call back the people who I’ve wanted to do business with, but not all of them. All of the contacts may not be important in your immediate stream of things. However, you never know when something big may spark from an unlikely source. So you may have to touch bases with people anyway.
In my final fiction book entitled Pecking Order, published in September 2008, my main character “Ivan David” came up with the excellent idea of utilizing his web site staff to input all of the data from the business cards that he collected at network functions and parties. They would then send out thank you notes and follow up, especially since “Ivan” had an internet and web site marketing business.
So to take a page out of my book, Pecking Order, you may want to pay someone as little as $50 to input all of your business cards into an e-mail and data file like “Ivan David” does, and send them all a form letter from your “assistant” with your return address attached for their responses so you can carry out business with the interested parties from there. And e-mails make this process a lot simpler than phone calls.
In the meantime, if you don’t already have it, you may want to check out that Pecking Order book. I hear it’s about a guy named “Ivan David” who utilizes The Equation’s third component of Support to amass a fortune in just four incredible years. So learn it from the experience.
If you have a question you would like to ask Omar Tyree, please email it to omartyree@ascendantstrategy.net.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Does a career in the arts void business sense?
This week’s “Business Question of The Week” comes from Naila Chauncey,Columbus, OH:
Question - Why do you think that those with careers in the arts are not given credibility as business people?
Omar Tyree Answers:
To make a long story short here, people who have careers in the arts have a blessing and a curse dilemma. Even though the business salesman, marketers, company men, and investment people can’t sell anything without creative products to sell, they typically don’t want the artistic opinions or emotions in the way when they’re trying to push the dollars and cents game. And artists typically have more of an invested interest in what they’re trying to create than just pure dollars and cents. Artists typically have quality control goals, just like salespeople have numbers goals. But typically, many business people have learned to disrespect the artists who create and innovate the product because they are not driven by the utilitarian purpose of a buck for the sake of a buck. Artists want to earn that money with their quality control in check.
But do you really want your innovative artists spending time calling up Tom, Dick, and Harry to sell the product instead of creating the product anyway? Then they’ll have the valid excuse that they didn’t have enough time to create or perform well to make the product valuable enough to sell. So you have to look at the priorities of the business model and say, “Look, we need folks to be able to focus on creating the best product that we can get.” And that is their JOB, and that is BUSINESS whether the rest of us understand that or not! But if you start having every artist or innovator or athlete for that matter, trying to do everything, and their premiere product begins to suffer because of it, then we ALL suffer.
And the artists and athletes who do tend to get too involved in the business side, can generally come off as unfocused, greedy, selfish, and money-driven which ends up hurting their business when people can’t connect to the Love of the art. Nevertheless, both of these departments of innovation (Art) and sales (Support) are needed to make economic gain. And the Business people have to understand that. It’s ALL A PART OF THE BUSINESS!
So no matter how many times you hear the creative Art people complaining about the sales and Support people, and vice versa, they both need each other to survive. Humans who are never inspired by the Love of entertainment, performance, or new innovation will not have the daily energy to work. PERIOD! So the companies who are able to better balance those two entities of innovation and sales, are usually the ones that are more successful. Because if you disrespect your creative artists, and they start leaving your company to join someone else, and your team can no longer win because of it, then your business model has failed. And if you have artists who don’t understand the importance of the business model and sales force, then you need to sit them down and explain it to them, or give them The Equation to read (smile).
And The Equation to this answer is this; IT’S A TEAMWORK GAME, SO LEARN TO RESPECT EVERY PART OF THE TEAM! Just ask the Pittsburgh Steelers! It’s offense AND defense that wins the game! But when you do find those artists who can also do the Support that is needed for the Business, or a salesperson who can comprehend the excellence an execution of the Art, the synergy becomes a beautiful thing to witness.
Question - Why do you think that those with careers in the arts are not given credibility as business people?
Omar Tyree Answers:
To make a long story short here, people who have careers in the arts have a blessing and a curse dilemma. Even though the business salesman, marketers, company men, and investment people can’t sell anything without creative products to sell, they typically don’t want the artistic opinions or emotions in the way when they’re trying to push the dollars and cents game. And artists typically have more of an invested interest in what they’re trying to create than just pure dollars and cents. Artists typically have quality control goals, just like salespeople have numbers goals. But typically, many business people have learned to disrespect the artists who create and innovate the product because they are not driven by the utilitarian purpose of a buck for the sake of a buck. Artists want to earn that money with their quality control in check.
But do you really want your innovative artists spending time calling up Tom, Dick, and Harry to sell the product instead of creating the product anyway? Then they’ll have the valid excuse that they didn’t have enough time to create or perform well to make the product valuable enough to sell. So you have to look at the priorities of the business model and say, “Look, we need folks to be able to focus on creating the best product that we can get.” And that is their JOB, and that is BUSINESS whether the rest of us understand that or not! But if you start having every artist or innovator or athlete for that matter, trying to do everything, and their premiere product begins to suffer because of it, then we ALL suffer.
And the artists and athletes who do tend to get too involved in the business side, can generally come off as unfocused, greedy, selfish, and money-driven which ends up hurting their business when people can’t connect to the Love of the art. Nevertheless, both of these departments of innovation (Art) and sales (Support) are needed to make economic gain. And the Business people have to understand that. It’s ALL A PART OF THE BUSINESS!
So no matter how many times you hear the creative Art people complaining about the sales and Support people, and vice versa, they both need each other to survive. Humans who are never inspired by the Love of entertainment, performance, or new innovation will not have the daily energy to work. PERIOD! So the companies who are able to better balance those two entities of innovation and sales, are usually the ones that are more successful. Because if you disrespect your creative artists, and they start leaving your company to join someone else, and your team can no longer win because of it, then your business model has failed. And if you have artists who don’t understand the importance of the business model and sales force, then you need to sit them down and explain it to them, or give them The Equation to read (smile).
And The Equation to this answer is this; IT’S A TEAMWORK GAME, SO LEARN TO RESPECT EVERY PART OF THE TEAM! Just ask the Pittsburgh Steelers! It’s offense AND defense that wins the game! But when you do find those artists who can also do the Support that is needed for the Business, or a salesperson who can comprehend the excellence an execution of the Art, the synergy becomes a beautiful thing to witness.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Making Your Career Passion A Reality While Working 9 to 5
This week’s “Business Question Of The Week” comes from Jasmine Johnson, Los Angeles, CA.
Question - Many times people have to take a job because they have families to support or bills to pay. When they finally make the decision to follow their passion, but still have to keep their job to pay the bills, how should they go about this process?
Omar Tyree Answers:
That is an excellent question and indeed a tough situation to be in. Let me begin to answer the question by saying this; when I was a senior undergrad at Howard University, I often heard my peers discuss entrepreneurship as a ten-year goal. They all had this idea that they would work for the system for ten years, learn everything they needed to learn through their experiences there, and then break away and start their own company within the same field. And although the ten-year plan seemed to make perfect sense to them, it didn’t make as much sense to me. The reason being was that it takes money, time, sacrifice and plenty of active effort to start your own company, which I did at age 22. But far too many of my peers had the idea that entrepreneurship would somehow be easier once they had put in ten years for a parallel company.
On the contrary, I believed that, since we are all humans with needs and greeds, in ten years, you would most likely be married, with kids, a home, cars, and bills up the wazoo that would inhibit you from saving the money, having the time, being able to make the sacrifices, or having the leftover energy that is needed to make the effort to create your own successful company. My idea was to go right at your career goals much earlier, if not from day one. Why? Because you’re a broke college grad, who hopefully has no kids or family to provide for yet, no big bills to pay (outside of your workable college loans), and you have tons of energy, tons of optimism, older professionals, who are willing to teach you added skills on the fly, and your sacrifices are much smaller because you don’t have anything to lose yet.
As the saying goes, “Youth is wasted on the young.” And while you’re still young, you want to take full advantage of having nothing to lose. So please, start your Love goal, EARLY, and with plenty of internships in your given field for 1-3 years instead of working there for ten.
Now let me answer your question. If it is now too late for you to drive toward your career goal early, and you have all kinds of responsibilities as on your shoulders, then you must now make the extra time to keep your bill-paying job while VOLUNTEERING to help out in a field of your passion whenever you can. And you do that until you can find an in to make money from that passion, while still holding onto your bill-paying job. Most companies won’t pay you to learn. And if you can’t find the time to make that grown-up internship happen, then get ready to go Kamikaze and live or die to succeed on your own merit away from the company experience.
But the reality is this; you will still need time to sharpen your skills in your field of passion to create the valuable Art that people will see as a product or service worth paying for. And there is no short regarding the time that will be necessary.
Then you would have to receive the Support of your family members to allow you to do it. Your wife or husband and kids will all need their time. So now they are forced to sacrifice with you. In some cases, like with many immigrants who relocate to new countries, their whole family gets involved. So you put the wife and husband and kids to work with you. But that sacrifice; to acquire real skills through time, must happen to become serious about making a career change. You are essentially starting back over from the bottom, which again is much easier to do when you’re young and unattached. You also have to build the Support of customers who are unfamiliar with you. Just because you worked for the company for ten years doesn’t mean that you’ve earned any trust in your own name. So you now have to earn public Support for your individual skills and company.
Lastly, we need to talk about income and investment. And unless you have an able or willing relative or friend, or you can talk someone into investing in your passion, or acquire a small business loan, money must be built, invested and multiplied for your passionate career to become an ongoing reality. Otherwise, your goal can become a very time consuming hobby at the expense of everyone around you. Therefore, tough Business decisions will need to be made to survive, which is actually a good thing. You will learn to be in Business by not having a choice. But do you and your family have the courage to try?
With the state of the present world economy going sour, we are all under the gun. But those who will best survive these times of hardship are those who learn what it means to get started, acquire the needed skills, make the necessary partnerships and sacrifice. You must tighten up your living expenses, ride it out, and make sure you find folks who are willing to pay for the products and services that you have to offer them.
The Equation does not change just because you have more responsibilities that are holding you back from starting your career goals. You simply have to make the adjustments now, with a solid plan that you can stick to. And if nothing you do works, then keep that bill-paying job until you can find another opportunity to attempt your career passion successfully.
If you have any questions you would like me to answer, please email them to omartyree@ascendantstrategy.net.
Question - Many times people have to take a job because they have families to support or bills to pay. When they finally make the decision to follow their passion, but still have to keep their job to pay the bills, how should they go about this process?
Omar Tyree Answers:
That is an excellent question and indeed a tough situation to be in. Let me begin to answer the question by saying this; when I was a senior undergrad at Howard University, I often heard my peers discuss entrepreneurship as a ten-year goal. They all had this idea that they would work for the system for ten years, learn everything they needed to learn through their experiences there, and then break away and start their own company within the same field. And although the ten-year plan seemed to make perfect sense to them, it didn’t make as much sense to me. The reason being was that it takes money, time, sacrifice and plenty of active effort to start your own company, which I did at age 22. But far too many of my peers had the idea that entrepreneurship would somehow be easier once they had put in ten years for a parallel company.
On the contrary, I believed that, since we are all humans with needs and greeds, in ten years, you would most likely be married, with kids, a home, cars, and bills up the wazoo that would inhibit you from saving the money, having the time, being able to make the sacrifices, or having the leftover energy that is needed to make the effort to create your own successful company. My idea was to go right at your career goals much earlier, if not from day one. Why? Because you’re a broke college grad, who hopefully has no kids or family to provide for yet, no big bills to pay (outside of your workable college loans), and you have tons of energy, tons of optimism, older professionals, who are willing to teach you added skills on the fly, and your sacrifices are much smaller because you don’t have anything to lose yet.
As the saying goes, “Youth is wasted on the young.” And while you’re still young, you want to take full advantage of having nothing to lose. So please, start your Love goal, EARLY, and with plenty of internships in your given field for 1-3 years instead of working there for ten.
Now let me answer your question. If it is now too late for you to drive toward your career goal early, and you have all kinds of responsibilities as on your shoulders, then you must now make the extra time to keep your bill-paying job while VOLUNTEERING to help out in a field of your passion whenever you can. And you do that until you can find an in to make money from that passion, while still holding onto your bill-paying job. Most companies won’t pay you to learn. And if you can’t find the time to make that grown-up internship happen, then get ready to go Kamikaze and live or die to succeed on your own merit away from the company experience.
But the reality is this; you will still need time to sharpen your skills in your field of passion to create the valuable Art that people will see as a product or service worth paying for. And there is no short regarding the time that will be necessary.
Then you would have to receive the Support of your family members to allow you to do it. Your wife or husband and kids will all need their time. So now they are forced to sacrifice with you. In some cases, like with many immigrants who relocate to new countries, their whole family gets involved. So you put the wife and husband and kids to work with you. But that sacrifice; to acquire real skills through time, must happen to become serious about making a career change. You are essentially starting back over from the bottom, which again is much easier to do when you’re young and unattached. You also have to build the Support of customers who are unfamiliar with you. Just because you worked for the company for ten years doesn’t mean that you’ve earned any trust in your own name. So you now have to earn public Support for your individual skills and company.
Lastly, we need to talk about income and investment. And unless you have an able or willing relative or friend, or you can talk someone into investing in your passion, or acquire a small business loan, money must be built, invested and multiplied for your passionate career to become an ongoing reality. Otherwise, your goal can become a very time consuming hobby at the expense of everyone around you. Therefore, tough Business decisions will need to be made to survive, which is actually a good thing. You will learn to be in Business by not having a choice. But do you and your family have the courage to try?
With the state of the present world economy going sour, we are all under the gun. But those who will best survive these times of hardship are those who learn what it means to get started, acquire the needed skills, make the necessary partnerships and sacrifice. You must tighten up your living expenses, ride it out, and make sure you find folks who are willing to pay for the products and services that you have to offer them.
The Equation does not change just because you have more responsibilities that are holding you back from starting your career goals. You simply have to make the adjustments now, with a solid plan that you can stick to. And if nothing you do works, then keep that bill-paying job until you can find another opportunity to attempt your career passion successfully.
If you have any questions you would like me to answer, please email them to omartyree@ascendantstrategy.net.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Succeeding In Uncertain Times
After publishing two consecutive books in the past four months that deal with the subject of business and people who are successful at making money (Pecking Order - September 2008 and The Equation - January 2009) and with the state of the world economy being what it is, I was asked the following question in a recent interview with the METRO newspaper staff to be published and distributed around the city streets of New York, Philly and Boston:
METRO - The world is mired in a nearly unprecedented economic crisis and businesses are failing left and right. Is there any additional advice you might give your readers on how to succeed in these uncertain times?
I answered the question accordingly:
Beautiful question. And thanks for asking. Last fall I wrote my last adult fiction book for Simon & Schuster called Pecking Order where I outlined one man's rise from the cubicle of an accounting firm, making $60,000 a year, to the majority stock owner of his own company, worth $180 million. And I wrote all of the details of how this fictional character "Ivan David" made it happen for himself. However, the book is 500 pages long, and many fast-reading fiction fans typically don't want to read that many details. But understanding the details is the only real way to learn anything. Ask any successful CEO.
So at the end of the day, I have been a teacher of book writing for twenty-one years. But if needy people of the world fail to learn from the long and detailed lessons of life, in fiction or in non-fiction, then what more can you say to them? And if you think my book Pecking Order was bloated with business information at 500 pages, then do a page count of Warren Buffett's new book at your local bookstore and tell me how many pages he wrote. And that's the real Equation, my friend. Understanding how to get yourself out of a hole economically is a long and diligent read of life with very few shortcuts.
Now I've decided to continue to do my part in raising the Economic I.Q. of the people by answering one important "Question of The Week" in business, as it relates to The Equation of life.
Stay tuned, the first question and its answer will be posted January 18. If you have a business question that you would like me to answer please email it to omartyree@ascendantstrategy.net . For more information on The Equation or any of my books please visit http://www.omartyree.com/.
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