Living in More Than One World

Although the major reason I attended the American Library Association annual conference in Chicago from July 10-14 was to do the first signing for my new book Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life, the conference was a valuable professional experience as well. I’ve been a librarian since 1987, and a longtime member of ALA, but this was my first ALA annual conference. The size and scale is considerably bigger than the Special Libraries Association annual conference, which I’ve attended four times. I was prepared to be overwhelmed, but I managed OK.  There was more than one session at a time of interest, and the exhibit hall was huge, with vendors I would have liked to have investigated in more depth. There were many writers at the ALA’s LIVE! @ your library Reading Stage, as well as others who signed books at various booths. A major example of the latter, complete with huge lines, was Neil Gaiman. I knew I couldn’t do it all, and planned out my schedule each day before I left my hotel. The conference was mainly held at the massive McCormick Place complex. The signage was generally good, and it was relatively easy to get around. Friday was devoted to getting to Chicago and settling in, registering at the conference and getting the lay of the land. Saturday revolved around my book signing, with the rest of the day spent touring the exhibits and networking. (The latter activity was all-pervasive during my entire time in town.) Sunday and Monday were mainly devoted to attending sessions. I met friends who live in or were visiting Chicago — not for the conference — for meals on Friday, Saturday and Monday. Although it was tempting to go to the author readings, I couldn’t justify doing that when there were so many educational sessions that I wouldn’t be able to attend otherwise. More on the latter in my post tomorrow.

I have just returned from the American Library Association annual conference in Chicago, where I did my first book signing for Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life. It was a huge success, thanks to the hosts for the event, the great people at Ingram Publisher Services, the distributor for my publisher, Berrett-Koehler. I signed 150 books in one hour at the Ingram booth, for librarians and other information professionals. Because it was such a whirlwind, I couldn’t talk for very long to each person in line. But I quickly learned the ropes about the protocol, such as to find out if the person you are signing for wants a personal inscription, or just signature and date. There was quite a variation of preferences. Some also wanted it inscribed to them personally, others to their library. It was nice that I could sign on a lucky date, 7-11-09. Although I had never met most of the people, some friends were there, including Duane Webster, the recently retired executive director of the Association of Research Libraries. That was really meaningful to me, as I started seriously studying Drucker’s works in the summer of 1986, for a library management course Duane taught at the Catholic University of America’s School of Library and Information Science. For more on that back story, see the recent guest post I did for the Government Info Pro blog. Marydee Ojala, the editor of ONLINE, also did a wonderful post, complete with a photo of me signing books, on the Infotoday blog. When I left the conference, I found out that the book is now in stock on Amazon, a major milestone for my author journey. Starting tomorrow, and for at least the next couple of days, I’ll blog about what I learned and experienced at the sessions and exhibit hall.

Just a quick post to note that after today, I’ll take around five days off blogging when I’ll be in Chicago for the American Library Association Annual Conference. It should be an exciting time, as I’ll be doing my first book signing for Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life, which will be published shortly by Berrett-Koehler. The signing will be held Saturday, July 11th, from 2:00-3:00 PM at the booth of Ingram Publisher Services, B-K’s distributor. If you’re attending the conference, please come by and say hello. (It should be booth #2347, but double check when you get there.) The signing may not be listed in the printed schedules, because it was added only recently.  Also, B-K now has a free PDF excerpt on their product page for the book. Even though I’ve been a librarian since 1987, this will be my first time at ALA. And Chicago is one of my favorite cities. I’ll report back on my experiences and impressions of the conference next week.

Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species was not the only groundbreaking book of 1859 that celebrates its 150th anniversary this year. The BBC’s Kate Williams points out in Self help Victorian style that 1859 was also the year of Samuel Smiles’ book Self-Help, which gave rise to the now multi-million selling genre. In fact, Williams says it was published on the same day as Darwin’s.  Smiles’ book was a huge best-seller in its time, and continues to sell well. Her piece sets up an interesting, somewhat tongue-in-cheek premise: it speculates on what Smiles, with his Victorian perspective, would say about modern (though fictionalized) self-help dilemmas, and how they might be solved by current popular self-help authors, such as Stephen Covey (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) and Paul Wilson (author of the Little Book of Calm and related titles). Williams was also the presenter for a BBC Radio 4 broadcast, The Grandfather of Self Help, on July 2. For a more extensive treatment of Samuel Smiles and his book, check out the terrific website of Tom Butler-Bowdon, author of the 50 Classics series, including 50 Self-Help Classics, from which this entry on Smiles is drawn. (Butler-Bowdon wrote an endorsement for my forthcoming book, Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life.) He notes that though obviously dated in many respects, Smiles’ book still inspires readers through its portraits of people who improved their life through hard work and sheer will. Some reinvented themselves before it was fashionable, or before there was a term for it. Others improved not only their own lives, but those of many other people. We may no longer be living in a Victorian world, but some personal attributes and ways of thinking will never go out of style.

I’ve been a big sports fan since childhood, and I watched many times on TV during high school and college as John Wooden coached UCLA to college basketball glory. He is one of the most successful coaches in any sport, of all time. And at age 98, he has done quite well writing books, and in public speaking. Michel Hiltzik’s column, John Wooden’s still Coach, even in the investment game, in the Los Angeles Times is a highly interesting interview with Wooden about his investing principles. Hiltzik points out that Wooden coached in an era (the 1940s through the mid-1970s) when coaches weren’t paid particularly well. A big takeaway from this column, besides Wooden’s thoughts on investing, is how he dealt with uncertainty in life after retiring from UCLA at 65. Besides seeking prudent professional advice for getting his finances and estate in order, he transitioned into what became a lucrative career writing and speaking about not only his coaching principles, but more importantly, his principles for leadership and living a successful, meaningful life. In 1975, it was much less prevalent for people to reinvent themselves after retirement. Wooden is still going strong, 34 years later. And he didn’t dwell on how he possibly could have had more money when he retired from coaching (partly because of a decision revealed in the lead of the column). “But if you always think things will be better with more money,” he tells Hiltzik, “your life’s not going to be that good.” Regarding the concept of initiative, one of the 15 building blocks of his “Pyramid of Success,” Wooden gives a great quote that can be applied well beyond the world of investing: “Don’t be afraid to fail. We’re all imperfect. We’re going to fail at times. If you’re worried about temporary reversals, you’ll be afraid to make a decision.”

What first drew me to Sam Allis’ major Boston Globe profile of architect William Rawn, Starting slow, finishing fast, was the emphasis on Rawn’s  listening skills. Rawn says architects aren’t trained in this skill, yet he spends considerable time at it, especially at the beginning of a project. William Rawn Associates was named the top architectural firm in the country by Architect magazine in its May 2009 edition. Beyond the idea of success-through-listening, the profile is a fascinating portrait of a professional at the top of his game. He is 66 and took a non-traditional path into the profession. Rawn says that architects reach their peak in their 50s, 60s, or even older.  He graduated from Yale and Harvard Law School, and then practiced law in Washington for a couple of years. He spent four years he spent as assistant to the president and then assistant chancellor for physical planning at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The UMass experiences honed his listening skills and convinced him to become an architect, enrolling at the MIT School of Architecture + Planning. He started as a solo, growing to a 32 person firm that does high profile work for universities, arts centers, libraries and religious institutions. The photo portfolios on the company’s site and the photo gallery that accompanies the article are stunning. Although I didn’t know at the time that he was the architect, I was highly impressed by a visit last year to one of Rawn’s buildings, the Glavin Family Chapel at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., before I gave a presentation elsewhere on campus. It’s a nondenominational space that I wandered into and had to myself for half an hour. The combination of wood and 30 foot high floor-to-ceiling windows opening onto the adjacent wooded area makes for a powerful spiritual experience. I made a mental note at the time that I’d like to return to speak there in the future. That’s an affirmation of a building’s power that I think Rawn would like to hear.

Planning for the Rest of Your Life, a concise essay in the Chicago Tribune by Jim Sollisch, an executive with a Cleveland-based advertising and public relations agency, provides food for thought as we enter the holiday weekend. He reflects on the question “So what do you want to be when you grow up?” He finds that it is relevant not only for his 23-year old son with a BA in Political Science who is working odd jobs as he determines a career path; and his daughter who is about to begin college; but for himself, at 51. He points out that despite a presumably high-powered job, he tells new college graduates looking for internships that he still struggles with how to define himself. He explains that he got both a BA and MA in English, followed by teaching and writing two novels. That life was traded for work in advertising, while still writing short essays for various publications. He has an intriguing warning for young people: you can get stuck in life not just by financial and family obligations, but by success. You can get so efficient at what you do that you make fewer false starts, which “are the fuel of art. They lead to dead-ends and to cliffs that force you to jump. Which requires you to imagine how to land.” His personal and professional strategy that brought career success keeps him from getting up early to write another novel, in his estimation. His message to all of us, at almost any age, is that exploration and what you do and learn when you get lost are important in life. And asking yourself what you want to do when you grow up is really a lifelong question.

If personal reinvention is something you’re considering, or would just like to learn more about, take a few moments to read a brief, interesting first-person account, Reinventing Myself: My Journey Back to Music, by Steven Tjernagel, on the extensive jazz site allaboutjazz.com. In eight short sections with subheads such as “A Reevaluation Of Priorities” and “The Crisis,” through “A Good Plan Never Dies” and finally “The Light at the End of the Tunnel,” Tjernagel details how and why he began his reinvention as a jazz guitarist after years of a well-paid job that he did not find satisfying. He reignited his longtime love of playing music and determined that he wanted to enter a one year jazz studies masters program, finally settling on The University of the Arts (UArts) in Philadelphia.  It cost a lot of money, and involved a difficult audition, but he finally made it on the second try. (He was accepted the first time, but his financing fell through and he had to wait two more years until everything fell into place.) This piece shows that simply having an idea for personal reinvention is only the first step. Many difficulties and roadblocks will probably lie ahead, and it’s all too easy to give up. Yet reading about how he made his decision and overcame some of those roadblocks is inspirational. Becoming successful in music is tough. Tjernagel is to be commended for getting this far, as he notes that he did well in his first semester and is starting his second. “I’m extremely optimistic for the future as I continue to reinvent myself once again,” he writes. His words and experience should resonate for all of us traveling on the road to reinvention.

A nice place to be this week, starting two days ago and running through July 5, is the Aspen Ideas Festival. A large and diverse group of big thinkers from academia, business, law, science, government, nonprofits, the arts, architecture, media and more have converged in Colorado for what looks to be a highly stimulating event. Since most of us can’t be there, the next best thing is following it online at the festival’s website and on the blogs from Atlantic Online. The Atlantic is a co-sponsor of the event, along with the Aspen Institute. Just a handful of the more recognized names from the 200 speakers and moderators: Madeleine Albright, James A. Baker III, Stephen Breyer, David Brooks, Marian Wright Edelman, Thomas L. Friedman, Howard Gardner, Frank Gehry, Alan Greenspan, Sandra Day O’Connor, Tim O’Reilly, Susan Rice, Charlie Rose and Eric Schmidt. You can see the entire list of the speakers and moderators, with photos and thumbnail descriptions, on the festival site. The Aspen Daily News has an interesting piece reflecting on the first day of the festival, and looking to possible highlights from the upcoming speakers. You can view videos from the festival on the Audio Video Library portion of the festival site. One of the several that are available now is Google Looks at the Economy: In Conversation With Eric Schmidt, in which Google’s Chairman of the Board and CEO is interviewed by Kai Ryssdal, host of “Marketplace,” on American Public Media. We are fortunate to live in an age where we can have a virtual experience of these major events (including music and literary festivals, and to some extent, professional conferences) that we can’t attend in person.