Looking for your next book?

Weather you have millions of followers or not, this could be the right pick for you

After more than ten years of research and two and a half years of writing, the book “Time Economy and The Human Time Machine” is finally out there. The book provides a unique and new point of view on behavioral economics and life as a whole.

The perspective presented in the book is served with exciting stories on some of the world’s most successful figures and suggests a new way to perceive value in all fields of life – a way that can easily help us all spot preferable opportunities and rip the winnings.  

But there is a challenge with this book too. Differently from many other great books in behavioral economics written by Dan Ariely, Daniel Kahneman, or Richard Thaler, this book was not written by a Ph.D., well-known professor, or a Nobel laureate in Economics and that poses a real challenge…

How could you know what is written in the book is true? Is it based on solid research? Is the book really good and worth reading?

In today’s hyper-stressed and super fast environment, putting a few hours in reading is an investment not many of us can do, and when we finally make the effort it better be a good book. Reading a new book that has yet to hit the New York Times bestsellers list, followed by a Hollywood film production, or that at least came into our minds from a few different sources we trust – such as dear friends or influencers we follow – would be a long shot.

In a way, when you consider a new book you are thinking like a VC (Venture Capital) fund: Is the concept worth it? Does the writer have prior well-documented successes? How much capital is requested and will we be able to shift it to success for ourselves and many others?

If we have to think more than a second about whether to buy the book or not, that is already too big an effort for us, especially if it is more than $9.99. But, what if the writer complied with the investor’s favorite request? What if the writer put some “skin” in the game?

When approaching a VC and asking for a $100,000 or $1M, one of their first questions would be “how much did you invest in the company so far?”, “how much were you willing to risk?”

So here is a list of how much I risked so far and how much am I planning to risk further as well as what will I be able to offer to the “right person” – someone that many people can trust and can take a weekend off enjoying the book and tell the world how much the book is worth it and can save us time to figure that out ourselves.

Skin in the game list:

• Leaving a top-notch position in a company raising $50,000,000 and counted as one of the top five best new companies to work at in the start-up nation (Israel), just to write the book I was “cooking” for the last 12.5 years.
• Choosing the tough route of convincing my non-risk-taking wife about how fabulous the book would be. This is what took 10 years and made the concept far more mature and valuable.
• Writing 14-18 hours a day during the first 100 pages through 6 months under the assumption that having no income will limit my ability to invest in the book for more than 12 months.
• Finding out that out of the 100 pages only 6 were a wow. 10 of my dear friends read it, complimented it, and had me sitting beside them, sometimes from 20:00-04:00, only to see that the light in their eyes, some smiles, and excitement limited to the same 6 pages.
• Scratching 94 pages.
•  Writing 125 more pages, repeating the process, and ending up with 15 more pages.
•  Completing the book about a year later and sending it to a private lecturer in Israel’s biggest book publisher, getting many comments and compliments, one of which was that something changed for the better! Making the book (or what was left of it) an excellent book.
• Spending one more year writing 100 new pages and ending up with a much better book. One that was read by 5 new professional lecturers and 20 friends and family members pointing out that it is all a wow, but not an easy read, and that people might not have the time for it…
• Spending 6 more months and Implementing all reviews ending up with a fabulous book that can be read in an evening or two and still impact one’s life as any other great book can.

Except for the feedback I got about the book – feedbacks that I am extremely happy for and proud of – I got two more critical feedbacks:

• Some lecturers pointed out that they had never seen a writer so open to feedback. Someone that is willing to rewrite everything and accept any comments and can implement them all.
• One of the readers, a very practical person who was a Professor of quantum mechanics, pointed out that for him, the most impressive thing during those 2.5 years of writing, is that I was able to leave my previous job and fund the implementation of the theory presented in the book with only my stock investments. In other words, the leading physics professor said “theories are nice, but sometimes the reality is important too.”

I guessed that he was able to appreciate that I put some “skin” in my game and that it worked.

I hope he is not alone.

In any way, not all of us will count our personal friends. Hence, there is a burning need for a respectful, well-known figure, someone that has a lot to lose by recommending a poor book. So this is a public calling for those people. People with dozens to millions of followers willing to take a weekend off, get the book, and freely share with the world their thoughts.

If they dislike the book, I would thank them as they will save me and others time and effort, and will push me back to writing. But if it rocks then many of us will be able to take a risk-free decision and try it ourselves!

Contact me at timeeconomy@timeeconomy.com to give me your thoughts on my book “Time Economy and The Human Time Machine”.

To learn more about the book or read a free chapter, check it out here.

Sincerely,

The author.