A book review of Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy.
This is a guest post contribution by Anne Peterson. Anne is a poet, speaker, and published author of 16 books, including a children’s books, poetry books, two memoirs.
I love to write. But sometimes writers find we put books out there, but people are not breaking down doors to buy our books. Okay, most of the time. But this book I’ve recently devoured will change all that. I’ve found out I’ve been asking the wrong question when it comes to wanting to succeed with my goal of getting my books before as many eyes as possible. Could it be that you have been asking the wrong question, too?
I’ve been asking How do I do this?
Instead of Who can help me with this?
Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy’s book, Who Not How is not just a good read, although that’s true as well. It is a revolutionary idea. It gets us to look at things differently.
“By asking this new and better question, you’ll start to make immediate progress toward even your biggest goals. You’ll have access to someone else’s time, knowledge, connections, and capability. You’ll stop being limited by yourself.”
That last paragraph is enough to chew on for quite a while. But before you misunderstand, and think you’ll be looking for what you can get from others, that’s not true at all. It’s a mutual arrangement that you’ll make. A win/win for sure. Peppered throughout the book are wonderful quotes from people we’ve all heard about. Like this one from Zig Ziglar.
“You can have everything in life you want, if you
will just help other people get what they want.”
It doesn’t mean we do everything they need, but instead, through our resources we create something even more wonderful than we would have created by ourselves.
Over and over Hardy doesn’t just tell us what we should do,
but explains step by step how to do it.
And even though I learned I was asking the wrong question, I felt free to admit I’ve been doing it wrong and I didn’t feel shamed at all. Perhaps because there was transparency by the author. He admitted it was something he needed to learn himself.
For so long, I have been comparing myself with others and getting frustrated wondering why things weren’t working out for me. It even got to the point that I had trouble being excited for fellow writers, as one by one, doors seemed to be opening for them. When was it my turn? Foolishly, I felt like I could not do anything to change that. After reading this book, I learned my thinking was faulty. This book made the playing field level, and coached me into seeing what I need to do about my life.
Another real plus for this book is that it doesn’t deal with one aspect of our lives alone, but all the pieces that make up the whole. It can help us in regards to our relationships, our finances, our fitness and even more areas.
I love stories. I think most writers do.
This book is full of them.
Stories about collaborations and how the two parties took the best of what they had and combined it to make an even better product. If you’ve ever thought of collaborating with someone you’ll find practical advice in this book.
Can I just tell you that I found this book highly motivational?
The fact that Benjamin Hardy benefited from his findings wasn’t enough for him. He had to take that motivation he felt and share in each and every page written.
I didn’t feel alone in this.
You could imagine if we were to share our goals and visions, he would be in the audience cheering us on.
While this book applies to many areas of our lives it was also a book that dared and encouraged us, to think huge. Almost as if anything we could imagine could be done. The bigger the better!
And then there were even more examples of those who practiced these principles and came out with flying colors.
When I first started writing
I remember I was a returning student.
I loved learning and being in class. It was different than in earlier years when attending was expected. When I’d get an assignment for any type of paper, I had to show self restraint and not get too excited. And getting feedback satisfied something deep inside of me. Being a returning student the gap in age between me and my instructors was small. Their encouragement fueled me making me want to soar.
Two of my instructors hosted poetry parties for me when they read my work. And in one of those parties eight women purchased one of my poems. A poem that later got me into a company back in 1996 that I still write for. When I read in Who Not How that one of the first steps is to articulate what it is you want to do. To write it out and then speak it. I immediately remembered doing just that. And the results they talked about in the book were the ones I experienced.
For me, this book was a wake up call. Somewhere along the line, I started realizing that I was doing something wrong. And it’s true. Because I was doing it all, but not very well. In his book, Hardy states instead of us doing everything and getting exhausted, we should concentrate on the things we love to do and find a person to do those things that we hate. Doesn’t that make you excited?
If that’s not enough…
Hardy states that there are people out there who would love to help in the areas we struggle with.
This was a book I will read again and again. I know my tendency is to try something then revert back to picking up the whole project myself.
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you always get what you’ve always got.”
Albert Einstein
The choice is ours. Will you stay on the treadmill? As for me, I’m getting off.
Get your copy of Who Not How today.
And watch the landscape of your life begin to change.
