First published 27 January 2020 on Your Best Year Starts Here with Nigel Risner.
Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Nigel brought a quote to open this one. "Excellent is not being the best. It is doing your best." It took me straight to something I see all the time when I coach people. They compare their chapter one to someone else's chapter seven. Six months into something new and wondering why they aren't where someone is after ten years. (Ten years. That's why.)
Nigel had just had his first feedback on his new books, and one person told him there were too many coloured pages. So he asked how many coloured pages their book had. They hadn't written it yet.
He took us back through his own books. The first was spiral bound, done by Prontaprint, and he could only afford 40 copies. He found out later he could've had 400 for about the same money. The second used clip art of two men shaking hands. By the time he did the one with three monkeys round a table on the cover, the Getty image alone cost more than the whole of that first book.
I brought up my old book on data protection law, which Nigel strangely hasn't read. It's out of date now, so it's gone. My point to Nigel was that if he's a bit embarrassed by that first book, good, because it means he actually did it. Then he hit me with a word puzzle someone had sent him. Take "don't wait" and cross out the N, the T, the W and the A. You're left with "do it".
Near the end I talked about the motto at my daughter's school, Be the best you can be, and how they turn BEST into an acronym. The T is for together, and that's the bit I like most. Success on your own isn't half as much fun. Nigel finished by announcing he has a fetish for PVC. The P is for passion. I wanted to call the episode Nigel's Fetish for PVC.
What I'd pass on
- The only person to compare yourself with is you. Your chapter one against their chapter seven tells you nothing.
- Watch out for the "you know what you should have done" person. They've usually never done it.
- If your first go makes you cringe a year later, good. It means it's out there.
- Don't wait. Take out the N, the T, the W and the A and it says do it.
Excellent is not being the best. It is doing your best.
Nigel Risner
Your first book, the way you're describing it and you're saying you're a bit embarrassed about the way you did it, good, 'cause that means you actually did it.
Neil Martin
