Book is for Sale! Thanks to All Who Made it Possible

My book, 6 Secrets to Startup Success, is now available through major booksellers. I’m proud of the finished product, excited about early feedback, and looking forward to your additional reactions and comments.

Publishing a book is an imperfect process of fits and starts, revisions and iterations. Thoughts become words. Words grow into pages and sections and chapters and, finally, a finished book. Time flies by. The final few months, especially, feel like the blink of an eye.

In the haste of last minute revisions back in July, I wrote an Acknowledgements section, hoping I would come back to it with a bit more time on my hands. Of course, there is never enough space to include all the names of people who have been instrumental in helping me produce a published book, but I gave it my best shot at the time.

In reviewing the final book, I immediately realized that I had neglected to mention several key people who have been instrumental to the book writing process and to the development of Ready Founder Services. The fact that I neglected them has nothing to do with the nature of their contribution and everything to do with my scattered thinking over the past eight months.  So, here’s my first addition to the Acknowledgements section (there will likely be more to come!) . . .

Special thanks to:

• Meg Kimmel, the gifted editor and writer who guides key publications for Davidson College, and who helped me shape my earliest book proposal over four years ago. Thanks, Meg, for humoring me and shepherding a very shoddy product into something that was worth a literary agent’s time.  From that humble beginning, the book concept evolved in several new directions and looks very little like the original proposal, but Meg gave me the confidence and wisdom to move forward.
• Patty Marion, of Kaleidoscope Business Options (KBO).  In the book I mention and thank Mary Bruce, a “consultant’s consultant” who founded KBO and has been a key thought partner to me over the years. During that time, Patty has helped to coordinate and manage key client projects and moved administrative mountains with finesse and speed. Thanks, Patty, for all you do to serve our clients and keep my wheels on the road.
• Scott and Cindy Schattenfield, who bought and renovated an old two-story house on East Boulevard in Charlotte more than four years ago, and agreed to let me be the first office tenant (actually, the second, after Scott’s own law firm). I was looking for a writing cave in which to steal away from client activity and workplace noise, and found the perfect spot in Scott and Cindy’s building. Thanks to both of you for being the perfect landlords, for being patient with the strange hours of my “Mad Scientist” phase, and for putting up with my ever growing stash of research papers, books, and files.

And, thanks in advance to all of you for checking out the book and letting me know your thoughts!