Looking back, I remember writing a blog in 2018 that talked about not being able to join the dots going forward. It talked about how life is pretty unpredictable and hence it is only with hindsight that you are able to see links that you never knew were there.
I used the example of how I ended up writing business books and major project strategies after a life of including writing in various unrelated parts of my life. These included writing competitions in primary school, essays to get me into grammar school, writing manuals for IBM, my blogs, press releases, speeches and other activities that were incidental to the main role.
I also recognised that many of these things happened because opportunities appeared that I was prepared to grasp. Often these opportunities were riskier than staying where I was, but ultimately the opportunity proved worth the risk.
The reason for reviewing those past blogs now is that it has happened yet again. For my own fun I wrote a little short story about a squirrel while idling away on holiday in Malaysia for the amusement of myself and my wife. Later my wife suggested that I make it into a real story rather like when I wrote my business books.
I played about with the idea for a while and then the pandemic lockdown gave me the time to write the story and turn it into a 17-chapter book. Still at this stage I was writing it for my granddaughter. However, for that it needed illustrations.
As I was located in Malaysia I sought references from a Malaysian writing contact for an illustrator. I was pointed to an amazing children’s illustrator and the book now had colour as well as words.
Next, I needed a publisher and the first one I contacted was very interested. The result is that I have now signed the contract for publishing my first children’s book with the publisher wanting first refusal on further books in the series. There is even talk of a book launch in a bookshop in a mall, along with marketing to retail, online, libraries and schools.
This world continues to show me that there is always another opportunity around the corner. What started out as a bit of fun for my grandchild has ended up with me publishing my first children’s book and starting work on the next ones in the series.
I can still fit in my business project writing and my international consultancy, but I now have another role as well. What helps me to develop this latest string to my bow is technology.
I can communicate with the illustrator and the publisher electronically and hence it doesn’t matter whether I am in my home in Turkey or my home in Malaysia. Indeed, this first book, ‘The Secret Mission of the Malaysian Squirrel’, has been created without me meeting either the illustrator or the publisher. Hopefully we can all meet at the launch.
So, if I can do this at 74, I really believe that it is never too late to grasp opportunities.
