Yes, we—there is no way this would be possible without you here reading, and for that I am grateful beyond words.
The Pivot Method will be published in hardcover by Portfolio/Penguin in early 2016, one of the top business and career imprints, and I could not be more thrilled! Their vision for the book blew me away, and I feel very lucky to be in such great hands over this next leg of the JB journey.
(View from the Portfolio/Penguin Lobby before my big meeting . . . I pretty much died and went to Heaven . . . and yes, this is exactly what my view of Heaven looks like!)
Portfolio/Penguin is home to books by Seth Godin, Richard Branson, Ryan Holiday, Pamela Slim, and many other “new media” authors like me. Now I’ve gotta get cookin’ on writing! A solid first draft is due in April.
I will be documenting my writing process and systems to share with you along the way, and more importantly, I want to write this book WITH you and FOR you.
It’s critical that I write what you actually want and need, so I’ll be sending surveys, holding phone calls, and creating a course in the new year to help “prototype” and pilot the ideas in the book with your feedback (fitting in with my Pivot Method process too, as it were!). Make sure you’re subscribed to my behind-the-business updates to get a crack at everything.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Similar to the impetus for writing Life After College, after getting absolutely rocked aroundby my most recent pivot for the last 2+ years, I decided there has got to be a better way. And dog gonnit, I was going to figure it out. Yes, there should be a template for that!
WHY, given the fact that career change is accelerating at such a rapid clip, are so many of us still so fearful and confused?!?! And why are we shaming and blaming people who want more out of their lives and careers by calling them “entitled” or shoving them back into little cages by saying, “It’s impossible in this economy. Quiet down and stop looking for unicorns and greener grass!”
“The opposite of love is indifference, and the opposite of happiness is boredom.”
—Tim Ferriss, The 4-Hour Work Week
I believe growth-seeking individuals are intuitively responding to the imperative of the knowledge economy: innovate or be obsolete.
I remember looking angrily at my bookshelf of 200+ business and development books during a particularly low night last year, asking “WHY AREN’T YOU MORE HELPFUL?!”
In keeping with my favorite agile development quote, “Every time you repeat a task, take one step toward automating it,” in the last three years I’ve read hundreds of books on finance, the physiology or risk, resilience, business, entrepreneurship, startup culture, and many more so that I could do exactly that: reverse engineer a simple process that we can all follow to shift in a new direction, without going crazy.*
*Wouldn’t that be nice?!
As I’ve said before, mid- and quarterilfe crises are out: pivots are the new normal.And they will only happen more frequently as technology continues to transform our economy and our lives at warp speed. This book will teach you how to fish—how to navigate change with confidence, not just once, but hopefully for the rest of your life.
Pithy description is still a work in progress (especially since the book isn’t written yet!), but here’s the more official description:
In The Pivot Method, The Lean Startup meets a personal playbook for change.
Borrowing from the Silicon Valley mindset of building lean, agile companies that thrive under conditions of risk and uncertainty, so too can we become more fluid in our own lives. The Pivot Method is a blueprint for becoming more resilient in a rapidly-evolving economy, and includes a three-step process for methodically navigating major career changes by starting from a foundation of what is already working.
This book is geared toward anyone who values growth and impact. Individuals will learn how to take calculated risks to pivot within and outside of organizations, and leaders will walk away with strategies to engage and retain top talent.
BEHIND-THE-SCENES OF THE BOOK DEAL
To read about how the pitching and deal-making process went down, check out yesterday’s behind-the-business newsletter (huge thanks to everyone who replied!!), and make sure to sign-up to be part of the process and get private updates that I don’t share here on the blog.
Check out other episodes of the Pivot Podcast here. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen, and if you enjoy the show I would be very grateful for a rating and/or review! Sign-up for my weekly(ish) #PivotList newsletter to receive curated round-ups of what I’m reading, watching, listening to, and new tools I’m geeking out on.