My next book, The Stoic Path to Wealth, was supposed to come out in February 2024.
But my publisher decided to push it back to July 2024. When I heard about the new publishing date, I already started with the marketing strategy for the new book.
I quickly adjusted and immediately started creating a new strategy with the new timeline in mind. I also began recording the audio version of my third book, Do It Today.
This is quite ironic, but I actually procrastinated on recording the audio version of my own book about overcoming procrastination.
But I have a valid reason for that. I always work on one big project at a time.
And I always had other big projects to work on. So the Do It Today audio book was never at the top of my priorities. But now that my schedule changed, I pushed it to the top.
I finished recording the entire audiobook, 33 chapters in total, in a week.
I used ‘strategic opportunism’ to keep succeeding
Right around the time all of this happened, I was also reading Richard Koch’s excellent book, Unreasonable Success and How to Achieve It.
In the book, he talks about how Otto von Bismarck used strategic opportunism to take control of the Prussian empire.
Here’s how Koch explains the concept:
- “Extreme determination on strategy, yoked together with
- Extreme flexibility on the means and timing of action, reacting to random events and grasping any opportunity they presented to advance his strategic objectives.”
Determination vs. flexibility. Sounds contradictory. But when you combine the two traits you actually gain a highly desirable edge.
When the publishing date for my next book changed, I still remained extremely determined to make the launch a success. But I was also flexible in timing.
I started working on something else. And in the process of revising Do It Today, I got a lot of new ideas for the launch of The Stoic Path to Wealth.
That gave me a LOT of inspiration and energy to work harder on the next book launch. I now have even more time to prepare everything, which is a great opportunity.
When your plans change or you experience setbacks, be happy
Looking back on my life, I unnecessarily fussed and angered myself when I experienced setbacks. When I would set out to do or accomplish something, I would get very down and sad when my plans fell through.
I could soak in my own sorrow for days or weeks.
But I’ve trained myself to view a change of plans as positive. I actually get excited when things change. I started seeing opportunities.
In the 8 years that I’ve been writing, I can’t even count the times I was forced to change my plans. And every time I changed my plans, BETTER things happened.
I attribute that to strategic opportunism.
This is something we can all adopt. It’s all in the way you view the world.
- Do you see disaster or opportunity?
- Is a setback or change of plans the end or the beginning of something?
- Will you work even harder to make sure you keep growing?
If you have strategic opportunism, you always see ways to win.
And that’s something you can be happy about!
