Leaving A Legacy — Why You Should Write A Book
So why am I so passionate about books?
Books are a legacy – something you can leave behind you that says I was here, a statement about your business, your expertise, about your life, about your family.
Books very rarely get destroyed, thrown away – Business Cards Do. A book will stay on a shelf, it may be read cover to cover, may be skimmed through. A book will be passed on, it may be end up in a second-hand store. Years down the track someone will pick up your book and read it and wonder and learn about you, your story, your message, your business. For me that is so powerful.
Books Books Books! You are hearing it everywhere – write a book, you need a book, everyone has a story! It can be very overwhelming, and I hear the questions. Why should I write a book? Does it make a difference to my business? Do I really need one? There are so many books out there about what I do what value can I add with a book?
Only you can answer the question – do I want to write a book? because only you can decide to put the commitment into writing that book. For the other questions and from my perspective YES a book is valuable to your business, YES it will help you stand out, YES it does add value to your credibility, YES you do have a story, YES you can add value with your book because you are unique and YES it worth the commitment to write.
Here are two of my reasons why I write books to leave my legacy.
Family: Have you ever sat around at family gatherings? Perhaps it’s at a birthday, Christmas, or just when you get together with the family. Everybody starts talking about what used to happen in the past, and your grandparents or your parents are there sharing their memories and stories. All of these stories are family stories, family history and you say we really need to write these down or record them and you don’t. Until one day it is too late, they are gone and the so are those stories.
Currently I am writing a very important legacy book. We lost our son Craig to suicide in 2007. One of the things that stuck in my mind at that time, was I did not want his name to be forgotten. This book will be a place where I can share who he was and what he left behind in the short time we had him.
You may have lost someone, be grieving or want to capture those family stories. A book is somewhere where you can capture that memory of them and hold onto them. In these cases, it really does not matter if that book is going to be sold or not. The fact is that you have written that book, you have captured those stories. You’ve got that legacy and it’s there to pass on, even if it’s just to pass on to your family.
Business: When you have a business, then a book will help you to Get Known Be Seen.
No matter what sort of business you have, whether it’s brick and mortar, online, an app, a book, a product or a service you provide, you want to shine the light on you and your business making it easy for your clients to find you. A book will help you to stand out. What is also important about a book, is that it becomes your business card. We all have business cards. I think they are important and
I’m not advocating getting rid of them. There’s a place for them. But how often do those business cards eventually end up in the bin? Quite often. However, I never throw a book out and I don’t know anybody who actually throws a book out. The book becomes your business card. You can give your book to people. They’ll keep that book. They’ll put it on their shelves. They might pass that book on. That book becomes a living business card for you, for your business.
Having a book today is so much easier than when I wrote my first book fourteen years ago. You can self-publish, use a publisher, you can print on demand, do an e-book. You don’t have to write a big book. It can be a series of short books.
Writing that book – my biggest tip is to just start writing. Writing five hundred words a day for thirty days gives you fifteen thousand words. That’s a reasonable size book.
When you have your book published, print or digital book or both, then you can take the next step and re-purpose and leverage that book to reach a wider audience. That’s a story for another day.
My challenge to you is leave a legacy – start that book now don’t think about it – just start it.
