If you live in or near Atlanta, Georgia, please come out to meet Manchild this Saturday, August 30th, 2008 at the 3rd Annual AJC Decatur Book Festival. Manchild, whose real name is Roderick O. Solomon, is scheduled to begin reading from Steppin’ Out Of The Darkness at 3:00 p.m.
Immediately after leaving the Pavilion Stage, Solomon is also scheduled to start signing this introspective, inspirational story about “personal leadership” at 3:20 p.m. Click on Atlanta Journal Constitution for driving directions and additional information about the Decatur Book Festival 2008.
Approximately 75,000 people are expected to attend this year’s Labor Day Weekend event. If you’re an Atlanta-based blogger, please stop by and introduce yourself.
Copyright (c) 2008 by Roderick O. Solomon. All Rights Reserved.
Popularity: 26% [?]
August 25th, 2008
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“Ideas are not truly alive if they remain locked in a single mind. Our need to transfer them to others focuses us to consider why and where we want them to go, and how we want them to get there.” — Henry M. Boettinger
Are you someone who’s got a great idea, a vision, but still don’t know how to effectively present your “intellectual property” to the millions of people you hope and pray will benefit from your “Big Dream?” Are you an “introvert?” Does the thought of public speaking buckle your knees? Here’s something to think about. Why not sit down and write a book? Think about it.
C’mon Manchild! You’re kidding right? Me, write a book. I’m not qualified to write a book worth reading. I don’t have a Ph.d, nor do I have a Masters Degree. Why I didn’t even go to college. I barely graduated from high school. Besides, I don’t even know where to begin writing a book that anybody would honestly believe is worth reading.
Why not start writing your book, your daily column, your magazine article, your screen play, or your stage play today, right here, right now? Gee, why not? Writer’s block huh? Fear of Failure huh? Maybe you’re not hungry enough yet. Maybe you still don’t think you have what it takes to excel and succeed as a writer, huh? That’s okay. I’ll still love you anyway. In the meantime, here’s something to think about that, hopefully, will challenge you to overcome your Moses complex.
Remember what Moses told God when the Most High called him into a position of leadership and challenged him to confront Pharoh? How do you respond to the challenges that show up when least expected? How will you ever know what’s possible if you never try to do the impossible? Hmmmm. You have nothing to lose but your fears and inhibitions and everything to gain. Besides, who told you that you couldn’t write a book worth reading? probably the same people who told me to give up and walk away from my “Big Dream.”
Had I listened to the skeptics, cynics, and pundits who kept telling me “no, never, impossible, and can’t,” I’d still be singing the “woulda, coulda, shoulda blues.” My faith in God and myself would have never been tested. But I refused to let somebody else tie me up in “nots.” Are you still tied up in “nots” because you simple refuse to honestly believe you can achieve your “Big Dream?”
If I could beat impossible odds with God’s help and “Finish Writing The Vision” that evolved into Steppin’ Out Of The Darkness, “When Good People Become Great,” you can do the same. But you must honestly believe it’s possible to do so. Because my faith in God and myself has been severely tested over the past 10 years, I can honestly say that I can trust God absent any reservations whatsoever. I honestly believe that nothing is impossible to God. Do you?
“After The Fall,” I refused to believe “The Greatest Lie Ever Told.” After my great fall, I refused to remain hopelessly lost in a deceptive spiritual darkness so thick that it makes one too many talented people too sick to care whether they live or die. It’s what Adversity taught me, not what Success bought me, that inspired me write Steppin’ Out Of The Darnkness. The real reason why writers write is “Love.”
Love inspires writers to write the books that “choose us” because we honestly believe we do have an idea to share that will improve the human condition and make the world a better, safer place to live. God’s love inspires writers to pen the books people believe are worth reading. There’s a reason why “Talent Alone Is Not Enough” to achieve “Greatness.” Successfully writing a book that “chose me” challenged me to share in the light what I learned in the dark about “The Gift Of Greatness” has changed my life forever. Do you know what Greatness is and where it begins? How would you choose to define Greatness?
Because I believed it was possible to beat impossible odds with God’s help, I rose to my feet and chose to step out of the same spiritual darkness that has blinded many of you to the truth. If not, why haven’t so many of you chosen to “finish writing the vision” you abruptly abandoned after the great fall you survived? Why do so many of you still find yourselves stuck in the same “self-defeating” rut of your own choosing because your own betrayal of silence gives you a false sense of security? Think about it. But be honest with yourself.
Who or what is still keeping you from risin to your feet and steppin’ out of the darkness? If you choose to remain tied up in “nots” because you refuse to stop making fear-based decisions and settling for less than God’s best, the day will come when you begin to hate loving yourself. As always, the choice to rise to your feet and step out of the darkness is yours alone to make. Only you and God know the real reason why you keep choosing to let your peers’ deepest fears and your own self-imposed limitations convince you to believe it’s impossible for a “humbled beginner” like you to successfully achieve your big dream.
Are you ready and willing to do something you’ve never done to get something you’ve never had? What are you still not willing to do “for the first time” this year? Writing an inspirational story about personal leadership to share your “paradigm shifting” idea(s) may not be your Big Dream. But whatever method of communication you choose to use to inspire, encourage, and empower the millions of people you desire to reach and teach, let love, not money, be the real reason why you aspire to do what you do with excellence.
How many of you thought that “Money” was the real reason why writers write the books we read? How many of you believe there’s a difference between “authors” and “writers?” Do authors and writers share the same motivation or source of inspiration? The next time you get the opportunity, talk to someone who truly loves what they do professionally. If you’re shy, just sit and watch them have fun while they play. If you choose to do what you truly love to do with “excellence,” you will never have to work. Do you agree?
For those of you who have been consistently reading this blog since January 1, 2007, you know that blogging was an “act of faith” for an ex-perfectionist like me. You’ve endured my mistakes during my humble beginnings. You’ve watched me fail, stumble badly, and fall flat on my face. Yet and still, so many of you refused to give up on me. You became my “champions.” So many of you loved me unconditionally and encouraged me despite the many mistakes I’ve made and still make. Because of your love, I kept getting up, showing up, and challenging you to take the next step towards making our big dreams come true.
To this day, your love, your private words of encouragement, your comments still inspire me to keep blogging and doing what I love to do — write. I hope and pray that all the culturally diverse members of our galvanized community will choose to “keep loving to love one another” as we share our thoughts and ideas. So please don’t stop challenging our blended, extended family members to keep risin’ to our feet after every fall our gifted souls survive until the day we meet the greatness of God’s faithfulness.
Together, I honestly believe we really can make a difference. Do you? I hope so.
But by grace still go I.
Copyright (c) 2008 by Roderick O. Solomon. All Rights Reserved.
Popularity: 36% [?]
July 22nd, 2008
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Here’s a thumbs up from North Carolina about Steppin’ Out Of The Darkness, “When Good People Become Great.”
“It has been years since a piece of literature has evoked such thought and inspiration in me so to you…I am grateful. After completing the book, I was eager to share this with everyone I know. I let one of my family’s long term friends (a pastor) read the book. She was so moved that she decided to focus a few of her bible study and sunday school lessons around your work. This is truly a labor of love that has been well worth it.” –Ms. Dywanna Sheridan
Click Here To View Back Cover
My gratitude to all whom have already invested in their “autographed copies” is beyond words. Click on “Always Expect The Unexpected” to read the Prologue to this introspective, inspirational story about personal leadership.
** Note: This is a “Sticky Post.” Please scroll through the “Calendar” atop the sidebar on my Home page to locate all the previous posts stored in my archives.
Copyright © 2007-08 by Roderick O. Solomon. All Rights Reserved.
Popularity: 100% [?]
December 17th, 2007
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