In 2019, I made it a personal goal to write a book. Here is what I learned.
On Christmas Day 2018, I decided that I wanted to write a book. This is something that I always wanted to do. I’ve always enjoyed learning and sharing knowledge, and have done so in various forms and outlets, but when it came to a book I never knew what I was going to write about, and wasn’t sure how to get started. I’ve learned that with these types of projects sometimes the best step you can take is just to jump in, so I made it my goal to do it.
Early on, I decided the book would be about business school, and specifically, how prospective and current students can make the most of their MBA experience. I wanted to write about this topic because it’s been near and dear to my heart, as I’ve been writing about it for the past five years, or basically since I’ve been in business school, on my blog, MBASchooled. Over that time, I’ve interviewed hundreds of MBA students to learn about how they’re making the most of their MBA experience, how they’re achieving and setting their career goals, and how the MBA is helping them grow in their careers. And with that, came the idea for MBA Insider: How to Make The Most of Your MBA Experience
This topic was near and dear to my heart, because I thought back to my own experiences in Business School, and just knowing that I was fortunate in order to be able to navigate it pretty well. But it was because of being able to rely on a lot of other people around me for tips, guidance, best practices. And in addition to that, what I realized was, is that while there was a lot of this great tribal knowledge, there wasn’t anything that really codified, that people could turn to or rely on. To solve this challenge, my goal was to write a book that could Chronicle all of the tips, guidance and best practices to help people understand how they could best navigate business school to achieve their career goals. I wanted to make a how-to guide to help people make the most of their MBA experience. And so that was the book that I was set out to write.
Lesson 1: There’s a lot of advice, do your homework but follow your gut and goals
The first lesson that I learned is that while research and analysis is important, at some point you need to follow your gut. There’s a lot of advice that’s out there, on how to write a book and how to be successful in self-publishing, and since I was a first-time author, I made sure to rely on this guidance because I was new to the scene. But throughout the process, I was constantly overwhelmed with all of the information (some of it conflicting!) that it made it difficult to know what to do. For example, depending on who you believe, social media is either the devil, or the most important thing to launching a book!
My learning from this is that while you should always do your homework, you at some point need to ask yourself “what are my goals and how does this insight/information apply to me? In many cases the advice on the surface I was getting was probably directionally accurate, but it didn’t quite make sense for what I was trying to achieve. In other cases, it was flat wrong, but because I was new to this, I often got hung up on “what is the best practice?” Best practices are great but appeal to the least common denominator, which isn’t always what you need.
Lesson 2: Focus is Important, clear your priorities and schedule
Not necessarily rocket science here, but one of the key reasons I was able to get my book done was that I made it my main priority. In the past, I have had a tendency to take on numerous side-projects outside of work at the same time, and while they tend to have varying degrees of success, I always felt I was leaving something at the door by spreading myself too thin. The great thing about this book is that for this year, it was my singular focus in terms of projects outside of work, which helped because it allowed me to put all of my energy and focus into one thing.
As someone who is curious and loves to explore creative ideas, I found myself on numerous occasions coming up with a really interesting idea or thought, and then having to ask myself, “does this apply to my number 1 goal of writing a book?” The answer was always no, and I had to reluctantly turn it down. While in the moment it was difficult, in the end I’m confident this focus contributed to my ability to finish the book.
Lesson 3: It takes a village, so use it!
The process of writing at times is very much a solo adventure. All those afternoons in the coffee shop and on the cross-country flights were time I spent writing on my own. That said, to publish a book it takes a village, and one of the key lessons I learned is that it’s important to use it. Getting others involved is a great tactic for writing a book, one because they can give you ideas and feedback that can strengthen your writing, but two, because you honestly need it. There are so many aspects of publishing a book, and especially as a first-time author, it got overwhelming at times. To have people on my squad right by my side pitching in and helping with things big and small was both essential and incredibly gratifying.
Furthermore, since the book is about business school, I relied a lot on my classmates, friends, and peers who had gone to business school, and even incorporated many of them into the actual book. This not only was helpful for practice reasons (i.e. getting words onto the page) but it actually got others invested into my work, and many of these people are helping with the marketing and awareness once it launches.
Lesson 4: Embrace feedback, don’t run from it
Getting feedback is essential to any writing process and was so helpful to being able to complete my book. That said, it wasn’t always easy in terms of accepting feedback, especially in the beginning phases of the process. As someone who is very sensitive, the idea of investing a ton of time and energy into something and then showing it to others is always a little bit unnerving. That said, the book would not be what it is without the feedback from lots of people who read drafts and gave their point of view. For example, when I initially wrote the first drafts of the book, the book was very much positioned as a great guide for current MBA students.
As a result of the feedback from early readers of the book, I realized that the book is actually meant to be positioned for to-be MBA students, or prospective students. Without that feedback, it would have been harder for me to come to that conclusion on my own. In the end, I think I embraced the “progress over perfection” mindset, and realized that even if something wasn’t landing, that it wasn’t anything that couldn’t be fixed.
Lesson 5: Test, Learn, and keep iterating!
With a big project like writing a book, it’s easy to fall into the trap of feeling like everything is a big deal and you have to get it right, and do so right away. Oftentimes, what this amounts to is spending a lot of time trying to analyze and figure something out, which often takes away from actually getting something done.
Instead of suffering from “analysis paralysis,” I decided to embrace the agile development mindset of “test and learn.” Just like software developers think about MVPs and small experiments instead of large implementations, I began treating aspects of the book as smaller releases that I could launch, get feedback on, and then change as I went based on the feedback that I got. Taking on a new type of skill or project can be daunting, but using an experimentation mindset can often de-risk and break this big behemoth into a much smaller and more digestible process.
As the saying goes, “a journey of 1000 miles begins with one single step,” and for me, that was committing to writing a book.
Are you writing a book? I’d love to hear what you’ve learned!
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