At the end of this month I am launching my first mini book (‘Look up: a field guide to rekindle the love for your career’), and I wanted to tell you a bit about how it came about.
For a year I committed to writing weekly on LinkedIn, mostly to gather my thoughts, ideas and hot takes about career development. I work full time as a career coach here in Amsterdam, so in some cases what I wrote came from client stories. In most cases it was a reflection of my own experiences and what I have learned the hard way. The book is a consolidation of more than fifty of those posts, but it also gave me the chance to go deeper into topics I had only scratched at in a post.
When I tested the first manuscript with clients, I noticed people were drawn to the stories far more than to the frameworks or the information they could find online or by asking AI. That confirmed what I hoped the book would be.Real and optimistic stories, chosen to encourage people to chase their dreams, say screw it let’s do it, be messy along the way, and stay open to the new directions and doors that tend to appear once you start moving.
I will admit it was a bit scary to write a first book without being an author, and with English not being my first language. I shared the manuscript with about twenty friends and clients, and they gave me the encouragement I needed to keep going. It was also scary to share personal things. Compartmentalising your professional and your personal life is difficult, so this time I allowed myself to go personal.
What I hope is that people reading it come away with some inspiration and optimism. That they try, at least. That they are bold, that they look up, and that they remember the world is huge and full of possibilities.
The book is available on Amazon for a small price, but I am happy to share a free digital copy with anyone in this community. Reach out on LinkedIn or through my website and I will send it over. And if you are curious about self publishing a first book, I am very happy to talk about how that went too.