It’s Not About Me

Today is the first day of the ten day launch of my newest book, Leadership Is Not About You.

Can I tell you something? It’s exciting to launch a book. It’s such a great feeling to see all of your words spread out on a bunch of pages with a nicely printed cover. It felt like Christmas when the first box of copies showed up off the UPS truck. I opened the package and there it was…my book…times 150!

I quickly began to hand them out to all of my student leaders and make them available to other interested people. It’s fun to hand out a book that has your own name on it and your own words in it.

But I didn’t write the book for me.

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It is rewarding to complete a project; to get the thoughts out of my head and put them in organized form. But the real reward is the good it will produce in the lives of others.

It’s not easy to write a book. It takes discipline, energy, and perseverance. It costs something.

I didn’t write this book for me. I wrote it for my student leaders. As I typed out the words, I imagined myself sitting across the table from the students I work with on a daily basis. That was my motivation when I didn’t feel like writing. That’s who I thought of when I got stuck. That’s why I sat down at the keyboard in the first place. I wrote it for them.

For the last four years, I’ve made a personal goal to write a book each year for my student leaders. Last year, I wrote Leadership Starts With You. This year, I had to write the sequel.

I share all of this with you because today is the day I launch Leadership Is Not About You beyond the walls of my institution. When you buy the book, I want you to know why I wrote the book. I want you to know that it’s not about me…it’s about them. It’s about the students who are elected or selected for a student leadership position but don’t quite know how to lead (or get others to follow them). It’s about the path that effective leaders take to make a difference in the lives of others. It’s about finding ways to lead others through the opportunities you have to get behind them.

I didn’t write this book for me. I wrote it for you. I hope you find it helpful.

The Leadership Is Not About You Launch: 1/13/14

To celebrate the release of this book, I some bonus material that you can receive for free if you purchase the book during the launch period.

The launch will run from January 13-22, 2014. During that 10 day period, when you purchase the paperback copy through Amazon.com you will receive the following bonus material:

  • The audio version of Leadership Is Not About You (read by me!)
  • The Kindle version of Leadership Is Not About You (.mobi file)
  • The Leadership Is Not About You study guide

HERE’S HOW: To receive these bonuses, simply copy and paste your receipt from Amazon into an email, showing you purchased the book between January 13-22, 2014. Send it to [email protected]. I will respond to your email with a special link to access all of the bonus material.

Give Your Student Leaders Direction

Some people enter into leadership hoping to attract followers like some sort of “pied piper.” They mistakenly think those around them will automatically do what they say and respect them because they’re in the front of the line (and they have the flute). True leadership — the essence of what people long for and desperately want to follow — entails an appropriate level of humility that brings out the best in others. It is the capacity to recognize that leadership is about serving others instead of being served.

– From the introduction of Leadership Is Not About You

Buy Leadership Is Not About You

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