Author(ity)
I wrote a book.
What!?
When I was younger, I never thought I would ever be able to, nor want to, write book.
Last year brought me to an interesting place. A place of authority that I never knew I’d reach.
Personal Finance in a Public World has been an incredibly rewarding project. Many of you have supported it and I am forever grateful.
Two Benefits
There are two main reasons why the book has changed my life.
The first is something many people experience and can be a result of many different things. It’s accomplishment.
The most relevant definition is:
the successful achievement of a task
What have you accomplished in your life?
A lot of time it is the sense that is the most productive in our lives. It feels good.
Coincidentally, dopamine is an important topic in the book. It’s very relevant here as well.
See “Dopamine” on the Psychology Today website for some information about how this hormone works.
Ya know when they say, “That person’s hormones are raging.”? It doesn’t always mean lustfully.
It’s good to have a healthy dose of dopamine.
The accomplishment of completing the book provided me some valuable dopamine and it continues. When I think of the people purchasing it and benefitting from its contents, it make me feel more and more accomplished.
The sense I feel is completely internal. It could be argued that it leads to confidence that I express externally, but it’s ultimately a benefit that only affects me.
The other benefit to the book is authority, which is defined as:
the power to influence others, especially because of one's commanding manner or one's recognized knowledge about something
If we can agreed that commanding manner doesn’t quite fit, then we believe that influence due to recognized knowledge is the benefit.
The Root of Authority
As noted above, authority comes from recognized knowledge.
I suppose anyone can write whatever they want and publish it in many ways these days.
However, there is something special about a book. It’s words will never go away. It’s locked in and available for criticism and review. I can’t take back what I said without writing something new. My credibility would quickly fall if I didn’t back up the content with references.
I wasn’t smiling like this working on the Appendix.
Let me tell you that the Appendix was the most stress inducing part of the text. Not that I wasn’t interested in crediting people, but that doing it in a uniform way with so many different sources was extremely challenging.
I have tweeted thousands of times. I have written over eighty E-Impact Blog entries. I’m sure I did plenty of writing when I was in school. None of it compares to the book though.
The book makes me a published author.
The root of “authority” is “author”.
The second benefit of writing Personal Finance in a Public World is gaining authority in the personal finance space.
Interestingly though, the possession of authority alone, regardless of the subject matter, is valuable in itself.
I am thrilled to have influence in the financial world. And you could argue that that came from 12 years of work (expertise based on Malcolm Gladwell’s criteria, listen to Episode 67 of Speaking of Impact for more information), but the book brought it to light.
Writing for Impact
I recognize that this entry is somewhat self-promotional. However, I have learned that consistency leads to success. It took a lot of work (and support) to write a book. It’s also taken a year and half to produce this many blog articles about positive impact.
The point is that if you work at something consistently, you will find authority.
The Impactmaker Movement is not about overnight successes. E-Impact 56 speaks to the benefit of delayed gratification.
I am not asking you to change the world overnight. I am encouraging you to stick to your ideas, dreams, and impact projects. We can make the world a better place if we are consistent.
Consistency will lead to authority - influence, due to our acknowledged expertise in the world of “good”.
The simple way that I have found some influence is by expressing my thoughts through the written word.
Ultimately, I believe it most important to spread kindness (even above great financial and technological habits as described in the book). Therefore, I’ll be continuing to dedicate time to Initiate Impact, this blog, the podcast, and other positive impact actives.
Everyone should be a writer. I don’t mean we all need to be published authors. I think you’d be surprised if you don’t think you have it in you but it’s not for everyone. Yet, writing is.
I urge you to pick up some writing habit. It will likely grow, but even if it doesn’t, you’ll increase authority.
Impactmakers should be expressing authority through the written word.
Modern Yet Classical
Another topic of my book is cryptocurrency (crypto). Read up on Blockchain to learn the basics about how crypto works.
I am not here to promote or demote this new form of money but we can draw some lessons of authority from how it came to be recognized.
The story of Bitcoin started with a newsletter. Yes, a digital, e-mail, newsletter!
This new, progressive, type of money (or its influence at least) started with words, not numbers.
Satoshi Nakamoto had this great idea, and the digital programming to back it, for a fair, decentralized, and deflationary monetary asset.
For an even deeper dive of the characteristics of money see Episode 597 of Bitcoin Audible, a podcast that is simply a voice recording of writing from the crypto world.
Bitcoin and its competitors and fellow cryptocurrencies have gained traction and its supporters have gained authority, because of writings. They provide plenty of research and reasons for the existence of such a technology whether you agree or not.
The most modern monetary and economic system yet, has relied on an age old thing, writing, to gain authority.
Application
I suggest that you start with the mindset of Satoshi Nakamoto (who as you know if you read the Investopedia page linked to above, may have been multiple people).
Take your idea and begin to share it. Start simple. Share it with yourself first. Journaling is a powerful force for confidence and fleshing out your thoughts.
Think of the things that you feel you need to change in your life or in the world. How have you experience them and how do they need to change?
Once you can articulate the basis of your thoughts, you’ll start to believe what you think and feel a need for solutions or more information. This leads to research and a momentum of curiosity.
This is application of authorship and the beginning of your positive impact authority.
Deeper (and Wider)
My business partner and I left our previous employer because we had built such a “width” of knowledge that we wanted to build “depth” of relationships. E-Impact 75 referenced this transition as well.
This professional and life change has opened up a curiosity that I didn’t know I have. It was a few new habits (or requirements at the time) that have opened me up to a world of thoughts and opportunities.
The Impactmaker Movement is full of things to do and learn about. You just have go little deeper (wider will come).
Once your journaling has sparked your curiosity, you’ll find a wealth of information to learn about and share. This is where you expand on your authorship.
Journaling can evolve into a social media platform. I prefer Twitter because it forces you to keep your writing short and poignant. It develops a good habit for “punchy”, impactmaking, content.
A good 280 character writing habit will help make bigger works easier to “sell” and the finer points of those works more powerful.
I happen to be a rather wordy speaker and so blogging has been effective for me to “talk” out my thoughts. But, Twitter has made them more effective. Thus, I recommend short Twitter-like writing to begin you process.
See Ship 30 for 30 for an example of a habit based essay cohort experience that has taken off in the past year.
Check @heyandrewc for killer Twitter engagement tips
One of my Twitter friends, Andrew, has participated in “Ship 30” as the “kids” call it and he has talked about his experience as an early Twitter user in this series of tweets.
He talks about the “void” and how it sucked to tweet into it. Things are a bit different after some consistent effort. See his Framework for Constructing Engaging Tweets.
Here’s a good thing about the void though - if you’re a little hesitant because you don’t know what people will say, that’s your advantage in the early going. You don’t have to worry about many people seeing it!
Tweet into the void! Or, LinkedIn post into the void…whatever platform suits you.
Just START WRITING and building your authority.
Go deeper.
Collaboration
Once you’ve built some depth to your skills, a great way to expand your influence is to collaborate.
I always mention at the end of podcasts episodes that I would love to hear from other impactmakers. We have plenty of guests who want to join the show and people who would like to write for the blog but I’m always looking for more thoughts - more authority. This is because the power of working together is exponential.
Positive impact and authority is not an addition or multiplication game.
We are working with exponents here!
Did I just take you back to high school math? My apologies. This entry is supposed to be about words.
Make some friends in the Twittersphere (the void, haha) or any other platform where you can publish. Then, work together to amplify your messages.
Writing is authority.