(NOTE: This is a nonfiction book, so I’ll be reacting to it much like I did with The Problem of Pain.)
I found this book immensely reaffirming. For me, I held a lot of the concepts in this book true without any terms or explanations.
The first thing I read that really resonated with was the concept that time is a valued currency. I’ve said for a long time (I even wrote it in my own personal Code) that the only two true forms of currency are love and time. This book speaks to that belief and supports it with both relevant anecdotal evidence as well as research. If you only buy this book to read Chapter 8, it would be worth the money.
This isn’t just true of someone who likes self-help, non-fiction books. This chapter is specifically for all those people who “say” they want to be an author. This chapter forces a person to look at their life and truly understand what they do establishes their priorities.
This book speaks to sticking to your purpose and pushing, never giving up. That’s pretty much me in a nutshell.
There were parts that truly got me thinking. The big conundrum to authors is the idea of supply and demand. Great businesses tap into what’s going to happen. They jump the market. They give people what they want. This is very hard to do as an author. At the end of the day, people want to read good stories. So how does one of a huge number of authors prove his stories are good or better than the other books out there? How does an author earn the time of readers? This is a mystery I’m trying to solve, and the answer will make whatever author learns it very successful.
This book speaks to mentorship. It challenges people to seek out people more successful than you. I’ve done that over the last year or so, finding the Slush Brain and other people that I can speak to and learn from. Writers WANT to be part of a group of successful authors. Just look at history and you’ll see what tends to happen to talented individuals who share that sort of energy.
This book challenges readers to look at what they’re doing and why. It gives readers courses of action that can help them drive in on what they want. I’d have like a bit more time in terms of identifying purpose. While I have my purpose, I find that most people don’t, and I felt if any part could have more, or rather if I wanted any more of one segment, that would be what I’d wish. I tell my students pretty much daily that I don’t care what they want; I just want them to WANT SOMETHING. So more information on finding that, and if I’m being honest, helping others find that, would have made this product even stronger.
Entrepurpose isn’t good because a friend of mine wrote it; it’s good because it’s useful. It’s good because it does what I think non-fiction should do. It calls you out, offers you tools, and forces you to admit you’re the one who has to move. I’m so very glad for Rusty and Brian. I recommend this book most specifically for people who know what they want, but are afraid or unsure if they should go for it.
M.L.S. Weech 