What Time Do You Get Up?
Throwing your hat in the business book ring can be a bit intimidating.
It sometimes feels as if everyone who writes a business book gets up at 5:00 AM to hit the gym, lives without caffeine, hikes up mountains with their team members, reads three audiobooks a week, and still has time to draw life-affirming viral aphorisms from studying their kids’ behavior as they play.
Oh, and runs a growing business empire in between.
Don’t be intimidated. That’s the look-at-me, Instagram end of the business book industry. It turns writing into a d**ks on tables exercise. I'm smarter than you and more disciplined than you. I need less sleep than you. And I'm more dedicated to my work, my team, and my family than you.
I don't buy it. Everyone wants to feed their families. Everyone wants their team to be happy. Everyone wants to be a success, to make a difference, to take pride in what they do. And if really doesn’t matter if some people prefer to drink coffee and watch sports than get their running shoes on.
Let’s just accept that there are lots of different ways to write a book. (Take it from me: I’ve tried them all.) You can schedule it around yoga classes and green smoothies, or you can fuel yourself with beer and chips. You can work in a library or a café or in bed. You can work in silence or with music blasting (one writer friend in LA writes with videos playing constantly on his laptop – and they’re not Disney or David Attenborough.) And you can write early in the morning or late in the evening – even though only one of them has become associated with being a brilliant entrepreneur.
I have authors who get up at 4.30am. But it’s true that some of them are in bed by 7pm and all of them by 9pm. (I tried it once and was asleep again by 10am.)
All of which is to say, horses for courses. There’s no right way to write a book and no type of author whose habits make them more qualified to write one.
So don’t worry if you’re still pressing snooze at 7.45am. You can write your book later, when the alphas are all tucked up in bed.
