Mine, is using words to save lives. Not just change lives, but save them.
I met a homeless man once who told me to “rip off the rear view mirror,” and keep on driving.
He had done that in his own life and finally found peace from all of his troubles. He had been abandoned by his father on the side of the road when he was a child, and could still remember that day. One of the blessings in my role here at OnFire Books is to help people like him rewrite their story. When we can see a brighter perspective, we can change our lives and the lives of those around us.
Often times it’s a CEO who comes to me to build a corporate book, yet the process is still the same.
Writing is an internal journey through the broken and strong walls of your heart. At Medstar, the executive I wrote the corporate book with explained how his father had died in front of him from a heart attack when he was a teenager. This one life changing event turned him towards a career in rescue, as he trained to become a paramedic and then an executive running an ambulance company.
And it was the same for me. I turned to a career of rescue after a career of rescue. From airline emergency response team leader, working an airplane crash in the jungle of Colombia, to an entrepreneur author who uses words to save lives. If you have ever sat with someone who was in serious need of rescue and counseled them, you understand
how powerful words can be.
I find that during the writing process it isn’t just the audience we save, or transform, but the author himself or herself, as they journey through the hard obstacles and memories of their past. People often come to us to write a book during a critical crossroads in their life.
Either they’ve survived a great success or failure, and they’ve learned from it. One author sold her company for $50 million and now teaches entrepreneurs how to build, be all in, and create a larger business. Other authors like Jenny come after surviving cancer, while athletes, coaches, and CEOS who are at the top of their game, need a book to build a brand beyond just their existing career.
When the game is over, you are who you are, and not what you do.
Legacy isn’t a career. I love this book process because it helps individuals break down their stories, experience, and philosophy. I love helping people discover their legacy.
Chi Chi Rodriguez told me recently that golf was just a tool. Just the tool for him to live out his legacy to help change the lives of kids and orphans here on earth.
What’s your legacy?
