It was 4:10 in the morning, and I was wide awake. I hadn't slept very well that entire night, and I knew it wasn’t insomnia. There weren’t any stressful thoughts floating through my brain that kept me awake either. No, this was pure joy and excitement keeping me awake this time. Today the first order of my book would be arriving. It might sound trivial to some, but this wonderful news wouldn’t let me sleep a wink. Let me explain.

The Time Commitment is No Joke

First of all, when you write a book it takes a whole lot of time. Honestly, I don’t know if I would have ever started had I known it was going to be so hard. I have no idea how many hours I put into writing, but it was well into the hundreds of hours just for the first draft. To create the book, I woke up at five o’clock each day and kept writing until about eight a.m. Then I got a shower and went to my regular job. I did this every day for a year until the book was finished. I even wrote on weekends too! And all of this work was for the first draft, which wasn’t even very good. Since then, I’ve gone through nine more versions of rewrites. My wife, Sarah, has gone through the book quite a few times as well. Then there were the two professional editors and a whole slew of beta readers too. Each time we received feedback, we tweaked and rewrote portions of the book. Whew! It’s exhausting just thinking about it.

Looking back, a big reason it took so long was that I didn’t have a definitive outline when I got started. I’ve learned a lot over the last two years and could probably do it a little faster the next time around. The truth is, I had no idea what I was doing, which is another reason it took so long. In summary, it took me a full year to write the book and another year to edit and get it ready for launch. During that time, we worked our butts off—which brings me to another point.

Learning Any Business Takes Time

Part of starting a company is learning the business. Publishing is no different. I have heard about people who write a short book, throw it up on Amazon, and consider themselves entrepreneurs. To be clear, that’s not what I’m talking about here. I’m pretty sure anyone can write a book, but I was setting out to do something completely different. I wanted to start a business that would serve my mission and also provide revenues. When I started, I had no idea how far down the rabbit hole I would go. I learned typesetting, epub formatting, product photography, book promotions, book launches, Amazon ads—and all kinds of deep stuff I didn’t fully understand. I wish I could tell you it was easy and I learned quickly, but I can’t. I spent many days (especially when recovering from Covid-19) watching YouTube videos and reading blog posts about the publishing industry.

It's helpful that I have been an entrepreneur for the last 20 years, so I knew it would take time and patience. And thankfully, after spending a lot of time learning and planning out our vision, we’re ready to launch our company. Please understand that while we have NOT mastered all of this stuff, I’m confident we are headed in the right direction. But that’s not what kept me awake the other night.

The EntreSpirit is More than a Book

You see, The EntreSpirit isn’t just a book—at least not to me. It’s part of who I am and it’s foundational to our family’s mission. For the last two years, we’ve poured our blood, sweat, and tears into it in hopes that it would encourage someone. Let me just tell you that it was difficult at times. To get to this point, we’ve had to overcome a lot. Not only did we walk through and survive the collapse of our previous business, but we also faced cancer, two surgeries, and being hospitalized with Covid-19. All of this happened while we worked full-time jobs. Did I mention we have two children? Fighting off the daily discouragement that life brings was completely overwhelming some days. But we kept working on the book because it was our heartbeat.

So when it came time to open the package, I’ll admit it was an emotional moment. It’s kind of like opening day for any business after spending hundreds of hours decorating and setting things up. Of course, we have a lot more to do. But entrepreneurship isn’t a destination. No, it’s an exciting journey where you chart a new path into the unknown and are excited about what may lie ahead.