It's Official: Every Family's Business is Launched

Yesterday on beautiful sunny day in Hamilton, Ontario about 100 people gathered for the official launch of my book Every Family's Business. Organized by two good friends, Terry Cooke, past Regional Chairman Of Hamilton Wentworth and Glen Fell, President of Fell-Fab (an extraordinary family Business), the event went off without a hitch. Okay one small hitch, on the way to the event my car caught fire on Highway 403. The books were hustled out the vehicle to the side of the road (to hell with the car the books were saved). The great news is that I sold a copy to the taxi driver who I flagged down. Made it to the book launch 15 minutes before show time...piece of cake. Many first time authors talk about selling books out of the trunk of their car...I can say that I sold mine out of the trunk of my flaming car -a very proud moment.

Cookie and Fell along with long time friend and lawyer from Burlington, Brian Heagle, did an amazing job of attracting a terrific mix of family business leaders, lawyers, accounting professionals and other family business advisors. Spoke from the heart about how great it feels to have written a book that I hope and believe will sell a million copies around the world. At the book launch one person asked why I wrote a book on "succession planning". I told her that anyone who writes a book is merely trying to convince themselves of an idea. I explained that I believe profoundly in the importance of family businesses but that I also knew that there is great suffering in these enterprises. My travels to Japan, my doctoral studies in England, my experience leading my family's multinational business convinced me that the issues are universal and that families need a method to preserve their relationships and their wealth. I have to tell you that I'm really pleased with the final product--I'm pretty sure I convinced myself of my idea.

Kudos to my editor Donna Dawson for working her magic on the manuscript and Linda Montgomery and John Nethersole for their cover design. Sheila Mahoney's inside layout of the book is first class as well.

And so now the real work begins --book promotion is vastly more difficult than writing and every day I sit in my office and fire out (bad choice of words) at least a dozen books to family business opinion makers, media, lawyers, accountants, academics anyone who I think will be inspired by the book's message. I have received and continue to receive hits on my website from all over Canada and the United States--the book has jumped the pond and made its way to the Philippines --how cool is that. And yes orders are rolling in. People are visiting my website printing off the online order form and sending checks. I can see that some of the order forms are being photocopied from the back of the book which has got me very pumped up --its telling me the book sales are growing virally and that readers are buying multiple copies after reading it (if you look carefully the order form at the back of the book is perforated). Anyway Every Family's Business is officially launched and my journey begins...I already know it's going to take me on a fascinating journey spiritually, and literally around the world --its just that kind of book.