I thought I was done.
Travel, beach days, and pickleball. That was supposed to be my next chapter. After nearly four decades of leading people in business, I was cooked. Spent. From the endless meetings where nothing changed and from arguing with leaders who didn’t care about anything or anyone, except themselves.
But something wasn’t letting me go.
I kept hearing the voices of people I’d worked with. “Please don’t go, nobody else listens to us.” And “You can’t leave. Who’s going to be the voice of reason?”
Then came the nudges to write a book.
A book?! What?! Did you miss the part about me becoming a professional beach bum?
But one day, it was raining. So, I’m not sure why, but I sat down and just started writing.
The memories came rushing back. From the hilariously funny to the horribly sad. From the failures I’d rather forget to the moments I’m most proud of.
There was a lot there.
So much that by the time I came up for air, many days later, I had tens of thousands of words and, somehow, shockingly, the outline for a book.
I was angry. Angry about how much bad leadership advice had been pushed out by people who had never actually led anyone in business. All the rakes I stepped on because I did what the self-appointed leadership gurus told me to do. What they told all of us to do.
It wasn’t until I finally tossed all of that aside and led the way I knew was right that everything changed. For the better.
That’s what kept me going. Kept me writing. The truth. And the people who deserved to hear it.
Eighteen months later, I’m done writing. Now it’s being made more ‘readable’ by people who know how to do that sort of thing.
More soon.
But get ready. This won’t be like any leadership book you’ve read before.
Larry
