Lost Book…Lost Cause?

I’ve observed that many who received an Advanced Readers Copy of The Power of Professionalism have made a lot of notes and posted a ton of tape-flags in their books. In other words, they took the book to heart—something that every author secretly wishes for. One gentleman said in his Amazon review that he’d never loan his book out—simply because it was too valuable.

Fast forward to an e-mail I received last week from a colleague-friend, Mike Kelly.

“Bill—Bad news.  I think I’ve lost my computer bag. I’ve scoured the places where I thought it could be, but to no avail. That means I’ve lost my tablet and some in-progress work products…which, of course, is a pain. But what really infuriates me is that my copy of The Power of Professionalism was in the bag. All my notes, all my next-step action plans…gone! This is a disaster! “

Mike is the CEO of Techtel – a firm that is well-known for its leading-edge market research. Despite the impressive success he had achieved, Mike had previously come to the realization that his firm needed to address bigger, even more important, problems that transcended market research. He made the tough choice to re-make his firm into something even better than before. It was shortly after this decision that a mutual friend introduced us…believing we’d have a great deal in common. We did.

After reading The Power of Professionalism, Mike became convinced that the book’s principles held the key in unlocking the much-needed collaboration that was required to make the really big breakthroughs in his field. Mike was fired up…excited about the prospects. I had previously seen Mike’s marked-up copy. For all intents and purposes, he had turned his Advanced Readers Copy into a action-oriented Fieldbook. It was no wonder why he was so upset when he thought it was lost.

Fortunately, Mike later found his computer bag—with the contents fully intact. Crisis averted. I doubt Mike will ever put his copy of The Power of Professionalism under lock-and-key. Nonetheless, it was heartening for me to learn that he once considered it.