Over the past 1.5 years I have used WeWork as my base to write my second book Be The Lion: How To Overcome Big Challenges And Make It Happen.
WeWork has been my sanctuary of inspiration at all hours of the day, I have working on it morning and night for the last 18 months straight, crafting the Be The Lion message. I have been writing from WeWork every morning before work from 6am-9am (I find this is when my head is clear and I do my best work), ideas are fresh, and I am ready to go! At weekends I also came into WeWork and go stuck into writing; it takes a while to get produce a 462-page beast!
This was me for the first 9 months of the book writing process, it felt as if Be The Lion was already formed in my head, like a message that I needed to share. Then I submitted the manuscript to my publisher for review and a few weeks later back came the edit (after many many hours of publishing wisdom).
Once I received the manuscript back from my publisher, I had to start the big review. This means going through each page line by line and addressing their comments, expanding sections, adding more details, revising paragraphs that don’t work and removing any waffle. It can be a challenging time, you being to dread the amount of work that’s in front of you. I find that just like ripping off a band aid, it’s best to get on with it as soon as possible.
Again, it was WeWork to the rescue, and I was on a deadline. Once you hit the edit stage of the process, I find it best to get through it as fast as possible.
Over Christmas of 2018 for 3 weeks I spent days on end sat in the beautiful We Work offices running through the content (as you can see from the pictures with each of the 39-chapter laid out on the tables. I did this because it was helpful for me to get a sense of the book in its entirety.
In the edit phase you need moments of quiet, you are deep in thought and it can often take an hour just to think about how to reword a sentence to get it right. With the finest espresso on tap and the calming yet joyful ambience of the WeWork meetings rooms it provided me with the right kind motivation to make this a pleasurable and memorable part of the journey.
After months of working the manuscript and multiple back and fourths during the revision process with my publisher in London, Be The Lion was ready to released to the world.
This is where the next phase of the journey begins, it’s not over yet, far from it, getting your book out there is the next challenge. As you’ll see from the photos We work again transformed into my go to hub of innovation and became my centre for producing handwritten letters and packages to be sent out to mentors, authors and inspirational figures referenced in the book. I then sent out these promo copies to the likes of Richard Branson on Necker Island, Ryan Serhant (NY real estate legend), Angela Duckworth Author of Grit and the Pamela Paul at the New York Times Book Review (a long shot be here’s hoping).
Slowly Be The Lion is making it’s way into the hands of readers around the world.
If you are looking to create new habits and thought patterns to turbo charge your productivity, then this is the book for you! The book explains my 4C’s model for overcoming challenges and how to be the lion in everything that you do.
Thank you to all at WeWork who have helped with supporting Be The Lion from launch events to conversations with members, the innovation, entrepreneurship and sense of community is what helped carry this project through in a big way. Being surrounded by others who have a passion for their own businesses definitely helped add creativity and flare to the book writing and launch process. The collective energy of the We work members is absolutely brilliant and I find myself being introduced to new ideas, having fun, and making interesting and valuable connections on a daily basis.
I also want to say a HUGE thank you to the wonderful WeWork staff who have been the most supportive and amazing friends I could ask for when launching a book. It can be a daunting and vulnerable experience to put your work out there into the world. But their support and enthusiasm for the Be The Lion really helped me to step it up a gear and enjoy the process celebrating the work that I had produced.
With gratitude,
Tim
