Author offers some powerful ‘Mojo’
By Lee Schoenbart
Contributor
Fairbanks Ranch resident Marshall Goldsmith, author of more than two dozen books, lectures and coaches around the world educating people mainly about how to get the most out of life.
On a recent Sunday, Goldsmith called this newspaper from New York before flying to London to discuss his newest book, “Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back If You Lose It.”
“I hope in reading the book ‘Mojo’ that readers (will) apply it to their own life and share it with people that they love,” Goldsmith said.
“The book doesn’t just talk about work, it talks about life,” he said. “The focus of the book is: ‘How can I have a happier and a more meaningful life?’ ”
And whereas many of Goldsmith’s books appeal to entrepreneurs and executives, he thinks Mojo will have a positive impact on today’s youths.
“I think it applies especially to young people,” he said. “Young people don’t read these kinds of books enough. Young people are spending seven-and-a-half hours a day on non-school-related media, which I’m not sure how much they’re getting out of that, and then when they do go to school, they’re memorizing history tests, exams; they’re spending almost no time studying about ‘How can I have a meaningful life that can help me be happy?’
“The young people out there are going to be entering into a tough new world, so I do think it’s very important for them to think about all the things that I talk about in the book at a young age,” Goldsmith said. “I also think it’s important for retirees and people in mid-career for different reasons to think about the same topic.”
Goldsmith described his 2007 bestseller, “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful,” as a book about interpersonal relationships and “Mojo” as intrapersonal. Of the latter he said, “It’s more about the way you see yourself and the way you experience life.
“A lot of the new book is based on Buddhist philosophy,” said Goldsmith, 59, a practicing Buddhist since his mid-20s. “It’s really focused on helping people more on the inside, helping people have a better experience of happiness and meaning. The new book is very important in today’s challenging world because a lot of people out there are hurting.”
Goldsmith’s “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There” was translated into 28 languages and will soon be available in Estonian.
“Who would have guessed,” he said with a modest laugh.
People from 195 countries have visited Goldsmith’s Web site, which has logged around 4 million hits.
Goldsmith advised would-be authors wanting to get published to “face the reality of the market.”
He said, “Amazon.com has over 26 million titles and my book, in 2007 when it came out, was No. 22 of all books for the year. It’s hard. I think people don’t understand how difficult it is to write a popular book. So first is writing a book and second is writing a book that someone reads.
“By the way, San Diego has a few of the most popular nonfiction authors in history. We probably have the highest per-capita non-fiction, best-selling author population in the world,” stated Goldsmith, who mentioned Ken Blanchard and Deepak Chopra. “We’ve got a lot of people in San Diego who’ve sold a lot of books.”
Including Goldsmith.
To learn more, visit www.marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com.
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