The best nonfiction books are the ones where the author spent a decade or more becoming the book before writing it. That’s why sequels often fall short. How could you possibly come up with the same amount of insight a year later? Of course, publishers know whatever comes on the heels of a mega-hit will meet relative success regardless, and so they push their bestselling authors to do more.
Greg McKeown published Essentialism in 2014. It sold incredibly well. Still, he waited for seven years before releasing a follow-up. And while Effortless was decent, it didn’t come anywhere near Essentialism—neither in sales nor in quality.
Books are the obvious example, but the same idea applies on a smaller scale, too. Many people join social media networks only to teach others how to succeed in gaining reach on such platforms. But if all you’ve ever talked about is social media, how can we know you’re any good at using them to reach anyone else but a fellow marketer? The same applies to writing platforms and Youtube. Do you have more to talk about than the medium you’re using? Or is it all just a means to make money?
If you want to share ideas from interesting books, first, you’ll have to read some. Your waffle recipes will land a lot better if you’ve actually used them to make hundreds of waffles. You can document your journey, take pictures, and share which quirky events happened along the way! A generic “how to flip condos” tutorial isn’t cool. What’s cool is seeing how you flipped a condo. How you spent hundreds of hours searching for the right place in the right location, renovating it, and going through the listing and sale process.
Even the tiniest tale is more magical when it draws on at least a morsel of experience. I can make hot chocolate come alive because I’ve prepared it many times. I spilled it in my microwave, so I can talk about that, too. Experience needn’t be big to be meaningful when you share it. But first, become the story.
