The 10-day Business Book Proposal Challenge kicked off today, and looks like being another group full of interesting people with something significant to say: really looking forward to the next two weeks.
One business owner introduced herself but reflected on the timing of the challenge and her sense that maybe it wasn’t somehow appropriate to be thinking about writing a book when people are getting killed on our streets:
‘I know life goes on but priorities change and I’m finding it hard to focus on a frivolous, pretty book to be honest.’
And I’d struggled with this myself. Is it ok to go ahead with business as usual when the world is anything but?
This was my answer:
‘I know – it’s surreal to just keep on keeping on as though things were normal. But then the mass handwringing doesn’t seem helpful either. I’m going to try to keep this space separate from all the stuff that’s going on out there, because that seems the only sensible way to do it. Having said that, what’s going on in the world might affect the way people in this group see their own skillset and expertise, in which case it’s absolutely appropriate to think about what you could create to help the situation… We do what we can do. The world needs emergency response personnel but it wouldn’t be much of a world if we were ALL emergency response personnel.’
By all means wring your hands – the situation deserves it, quite frankly – but don’t get stuck there. Keep on doing what you do, making a you-shaped difference in the world as boldly and as well as you possibly can. When things are dark, that’s when we’re obliged to shine brighter than ever.