My latest skills development project is learning how write a book.
When I built my first website, I had articles on how to make a job change. I began to post links to other useful articles. I added a newsletter to my website.
My son suggested that I begin to write articles for my website on a regular basis. He said that over time, I would have enough material for a book.
Throughout my career as a recruiter, I helped people with career advice. Some of these people were senior executives. Some of these people were recent college graduates who were the children of senior executives. I have read hundreds if not thousands of resumes and countless cover letters. I have helped hundreds of people for job interviews. I have been through hundreds of salary negotiations. I have worked with multiple hiring managers at over a hundred companies.
When my son suggested that I write articles for the basis of a book, I had plenty of information to share.
He gave me copies of books from bloggers: Leo Babauta, Tim Ferris, Mark Sisson, Seth Godin, and others.
When my articles began to number in the hundreds, I started to try to figure out how to take these articles and put them into a single book. This part became baffling. By the time I finally got all the articles into one editable document, I had nearly five hundred pages of material.
However, five hundred pages of website articles don’t make for any book that I would want to read. If I want to read website articles, I will go to websites.
If I write more books, I am certain that I will get better at the process. However, this first book is for me an enormous growth experience.
Some great writers like the brilliant 20th century novelist Thomas Wolfe would write hundreds of pages of material and send them to an editor, Maxwell Perkins, to turn them into a book. Perkins also edited the writing of Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Therefore, the newest phase of my career growth is learning how to write a book , and right now, I am trying to channel Maxwell Perkins through my mind.