“The world is coming to an end.
Children no longer obey their parents and
every man wants to write a book.”
—Babylon tablet, c. 2800 B.C.

When I first met Dottie Walters in 2001, she advised me to “write the book” in support of my new speaking career outside of medicine. The book would serve both as a marketing piece and for potential sales within a client’s educational materials budget. In March 2002, I attended Dottie’s weekend seminar in Glendora, where she once again reminded me to finish the book.

This I did.

During my 25 years “in the trenches” of group medical practice, I became a student and eventually an expert on leadership issues and skills with a focus on organizational strategic planning. These were the foci of my speaking and consulting career for almost three decades. During that time, it became obvious that any organizational strategic plan was, in actuality, an amalgamation of the personal strategic plans of the key individuals in the organization. As a result, I took the time to dig deeper into the power of personal strategic planning and wrote the book Optimize Your Life! The One-page Strategic Planner.

This book provides step-by-step text and user-friendly worksheets for addressing the major questions of one’s life, starting with:

These questions lead to other questions, answered so as to produce a personal inventory as well as Mission, Vision, and Values Statements and Goals. The unique concept is the reduction of each Goal into component Projects and then into a series of Tasks, each one of which is assigned a One-page for its completion. The One-page Strategic Planner is a self-development system that features a program for readers, and attendees at my keynotes and workshops, to define, improve, and accept themselves.

Since the subject material is quite serious, and by definition personal, I chose to lighten up the book and the presentations with some cartoons from The New Yorker and comic strips from Cathy. Also included is a wide range of serious quotations, as well as some “wisdom for cynics and skeptics.”

While completing the book, I took the high road by creating a book proposal and sending it off to a number of literary agents, several of whom I had met at the various writing conferences and workshops. None fully materialized, so I chose the shortcut to the world of publishing by self-publishing. I would be joining historically successful writers who started as self-published, including Mark Twain, Zane Grey, Thomas Paine, Edgar Allan Poe, and George Bernard Shaw. Recently, other successful self-published writers include Piers Anthony, Spencer Johnson, M.D., Kenneth Blanchard, Ph.D., James Redfield, and John Grisham.

I received additional support and guidance from Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series, at his Mega Book Marketing University. At that seminar I also met Dan Poynter, the guru of self-publishing, who provided valuable one-on-one consultation during the entire process.

As the work progressed, I reorganized and printed the manuscript in the format of a six- by nine-inch book, galley cover, contents page, index, and all. A real book, my book was developing, maturing within the womb of the studio. Soon, the One-page book was finished and sent off to the printer.

However, before the book was back from the printer, I was well underway on a trilogy of books. The second book, the basis of my signature keynote Lessons for Living from a Mt. Washington Misadventure, based on my “near-death” rescue from Mt. Washington, wherein I offer three admonitions: Be prepared to die! Have a plan to live! Do it now! The final book of the trilogy will be The Journey Into the Self, an allegory that features two protagonists who journey through time and space seeking wisdom on three levels: know yourself, know your world, and make wise choices.

Recently, the first testimonial came in from the galleys I sent out several months ago. It was a winner: “Everyone needs to be strategic. My friend, Dr. Bernie, makes it easy to understand and do—instantly!” It was from fellow Viking Mark Victor Hansen. He and Jack Canfield have sold over 82 million copies of books in their series. His endorsement should spark other reviews, lots of book sales, but, above all, speaking engagements—both keynotes and workshops.

As I distributed printed copies for review, I received interest from both literary agents and publishers who have found the book potentially valuable for their marketplace. Perhaps the self-publishing avenue is not a dead end, but merely a first step.

Writing books is not easy. It requires discipline, skills, and time. But when a book materializes, the ecstasy far exceeds the agony.

“There is no end to the making of books...”
—Ecclesiastes 12:12