I could tell he was excited before he even opened his mouth.
“You sitting down?"
“Yeah!”
“My book's headed to the Alamo.”
The Alamo…as in James Bowie, Davy Crockett...a Texas monument.
And also the perfect place for my friend’s book.
You see, he wrote a book about Texas. In this book he interviewed prominent and not-so-prominent Texans who described what it meant to be Texan. He’s got people as high-profile as Willie Nelson and as low profile as your average Texas Joe (we'll call him Earl).
As a serious history buff, I love it. And my friend Tweed has been writing this thing for 2 years already, and it just now came out.
His book appearing in the Alamo's gift shop gives him 2 things:
- credibility
- validation
Credibility goes without saying, but validation…
…hey, sometimes we all need to know that we did something right…I’m not big on getting validation from outside sources, but it never hurts.
But Tweed taught me something about doing what it takes to be successful.
As I was talking to Tweed, he was getting a fax confirming the order. He got off the phone with and talked to the Alamo people.
I got a call the next day from Tweed.
The Alamo had asked him when he could get them the books.
He told them, “How about tomorrow morning?”
And sure enough, the next morning Tweed packed the books in his car, drove a couple of hours to San Antonio and delivered the books. They were on sale by that afternoon.
The lesson in this story is this: when you want something bad enough, don’t be afraid to do what you have to do.
Getting what you want takes decisive action.
I applaud Tweed for his decisive action…and he’ll probably sell a whole lotta books before he’s done.
And it’ll be that determination that’ll do it for him.
And…if any of you are big history buffs…buy his book Texas in Her Own Words. It’s an excellent oral history of Texas.
To Your Continued Success,
Carlon Haas
