Steven J Manning On The 5 Things You Need to Know to Become a Great Author

An Interview With Kristin Marquet

You, a writer, must understand and accept that you are engaged in a discipline that can be elegant and impactful for both or either its simplicity and complexity. Consider Dickens’ line, considered by many the most elegant, complex line of all time: “It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times…” Those 12 words of prose could have easily obviated the need to write chapters.

Some writers and authors have a knack for using language that can really move people. Some writers and authors have been able to influence millions with their words alone. What does it take to become an effective and successful author or writer?

In this interview series, called “5 Things You Need To Be A Successful Author or Writer” we are talking to successful authors and writers who can share lessons from their experience.

As part of my interview series on the five things you need to know to become a great author, I had the pleasure of interviewing Steven J. Manning.

Steve is an internationally-known business leader, author, public speaker and advisor. He is credited with the origination of prominent creative and empirical concepts, targeting data base concepts, media strategies, promotional concepts, incentive devices and channels, and decision-making predictive techniques, all widely used in the marketing world. He has generated billions of dollars in revenues during his business life.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you share a story about what brought you to this particular career path?

Allow me a digression or two, leading to and relevant to this interview.

First, another Manning-ism, relating to what I, and writers from classics to present, profound and superficial, relevant and self-indulgent “back-of-napkins” ones, need to know: “Although oxygen is indispensable to life, it is observation that enriches it.”

I fancy myself an astute observer of people and life. After millions of miles traveled, life miles and the like in those amazing flying pressurized sardine cans, wanting to read everything in print, talking to everybody who will talk to me, I express my observations as a story-teller, satirist and provocateur.

Rather than one story, there are too many — you are asking me to choose among my children — perhaps a few. Not particularly organized, yet relevant to my path.

First. I must talk about, if not wax philosophical about my fascination and respect for words.

From early childhood, my parents thought it an absolute life-choice that l speak foreign languages. To digress, I was born and raised in a Communist country, progeny of Holocaust survivors. My parents believed that the more accomplished their children become, the more world-wise, the more likely they would be spared by the next pogrom. Which, they opined, would certainly come. Not quite the Holocaust, but Communist Romania qualified.

Thus, I was multi-lingual darned near from birth. I learned the English language in my late teens, as a penniless refugee in the US. Literally one word at a time. Many words. Some flatter me by characterizing me a walking thesaurus.

Every writer, actually everybody, must understand the power of words. The power of words is astoundingly far beyond the ubiquitous cliché: the pen is mightier than the sword.

So much good, and even more importantly, bad and evil in the world started out and starts with words. People become desensitized to appendages of words, however unacceptable, even despicable, if repeated often and forcefully. Loathe to point to the prophetic words of Goebbels, however astonishingly those came to be, well, prophetic.

As people become desensitized to “words,” they elect to ignore their destructive power. Worse yet. Entire segments of the population, the electorate, simply adopt them, thus making those acceptable.

Those become accepted concepts, either widely or by relevant segments of populations. Once widely adopted, they morph into social norms.

Beyond that, you can see the natural progression to social, economic, political actions. And genuine disasters.

So… Mind your words carefully. They are much more lethal than any sword.

Apropos of your question, I spent my career — many billions of dollars of it — in a number of disciplines, most of those concurrently: advertising, marketing, business disciplines (corporate governance, conflict resolution, etc….). In the course of all those, humbly, I have authored numerous pieces of very successful advertising, in all media, for many products and services. Some of dubious value. Some that did not exist. Sort of the merchandising version of “life imitating art.”

I have been writing for fun and profit for decades. I have written a truck-load of essays, satires, white-papers. Heck, a eulogy or two. Many anecdotes. And even correspondence. Various of those have been shared around the world. And published.

With due humility, I have always harbored the desire, even compulsion, to share ideas, thoughts, knowledge, observations. Even wisdom. Mine with others. And, thankfully and certainly many others with me.

Can you share the most interesting story that occurred to you in the course of your career?

As you read in my bio and elsewhere, I fancy myself a collector of people and stories. Thankfully, there are many, many interesting stories in my career. Perhaps a kaleidoscope of those, abbreviated, in no particular order:

• My best and worst job ever: cleaning rat-cages at the research labs at Cedars, when I was 17.
• Asking my first real boss for a raise an hour after I was hired, the day before I was due to show up for my first day. That grew to a one billion dollar per year gig.
• Conducting a multi-million Euros transaction on a dock in Vladivostok, mid-winter, with the buyer, the seller, the banker and me, in our underwear.
• Selling many, many container ships full of horse manure from South America to Western Europe.
• Selling satellite traffic to telecoms — through Russian spy satellites parked over Western Europe.
• Selling brain food….
• My brilliant colleague Murray, a righteous writer, and I, for one year spoke only Russian in all (most) fine restaurants in the US where we entertained. Not one word in English, although we spoke no Russian at all.
• Having the cheekiness to title my new book PIMPS WHORES AND PATRONS OF VIRTUE. Glad to share the genesis of that.

What was the biggest challenge you faced in your journey to becoming an author? How did you overcome it? Can you share a story about that that other aspiring writers can learn from?

Let me display some shameless arrogance here. If any aspiring writer considers writing a challenge akin to being taller, better looking, being able to dunk a basketball again and all that, consider any number of other worthwhile endeavors. God made UBER for a reason.

Overcoming all manner of challenges, for me, is entirely within the realm of MY PILLARS OF SUCCESS. You can read the Cliff Notes on that on my BLOG .

Otherwise, in retrospect, I wish I focused on all that I knew, long ago! Had I done so, I would have realized how my experiences in all manner of disciplines would contribute to the publishing process.

To most authors, publishing a book presents as a really daunting trip. Not so, if you accept that publishing YOUR book, is just another marketing project. However elegant it might be!

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Do you remember a terrific song by Ray, Goodman and Brown, with one of the best titles ever: How Can Love So Right (Be So Wrong)?

There was this major publisher, I “affectionately” refer to him as a puke, who ignored and disrespected me for half a year. Parenthetic to this, by then I had done a few billion dollars of commerce, in a couple industries, on two continents. Thus, my otherwise in-check ego was getting a tad peeved.

So… One day, I sent him (literally) a cow! As the farmer tried to drag the cow thru the turnstile of the big building, the cow performed admirably. You know what I mean in regards to the theretofore clean sidewalk and lobby. The message the farmer delivered: “Mr. Manning is having a cow because you will not return his calls.”

Ahhh. How can love so right be so wrong? Funny and cool, right? Also got me declared a persona non grata at that house.

At least until they fired the dude, because, he was a boorish ox. Then, I became kinda cool there.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

Writing, writing and writing some more. And lots of public appearances related and not, on all forms and media, domestic and global. Who would have thought that my limited wisdom on, well, so much, is thought of as … wisdom?

Writing and talking on all manner of topics: social trends and realities, economics, politics, historical relevance of so much “new” stuff, and more.

Writing two new books: Explaining Bit Coin To Buddhist Monks and Thanks Oscar! As in Wilde…

Can you share the most interesting story that you shared in your book?

You are asking me to choose among my 31 children. My book is a kaleidoscope of poignant and entertaining satires, essays, anecdotes and ideologies about the human condition and spirit. The book is equal measures entertaining, funny, challenging, inspiring, anger-making. Sprinkle in a few tears as well.

I invite you to check out the reviews on Amazon and in the Praise tab on the website that services the book: stevenjmanning.com If the reviews do not motivate people to read my book, they should invest those few dollars elsewhere.

What is the main empowering lesson you want your readers to take away after finishing your book?

Without a doubt, my PRECEPTS IN LIFE. In brief:

• Life is not a dress rehearsal.
• Life without passion is not a life worth living.
• Seek knowledge and wisdom all the time, everywhere and from everyone.
• Inventory your knowledge every day. Identify the two things you have learned or knowledge that has crystalized for you, every day.

Based on your experience, what are the “5 Things You Need to Know to Become a Great Author”? Please share a story or example for each.

Write so your readers: Can “see” what you write about beyond the words you write. And “smell” and “hear” those.”

Understand that writing is absolutely not just communicating. Ahhhh. So much more!

You, a writer, must understand and accept that you are engaged in a discipline that can be elegant and impactful for both or either its simplicity and complexity. Consider Dickens’ line, considered by many the most elegant, complex line of all time: “It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times…” Those 12 words of prose could have easily obviated the need to write chapters.

On the other hand, consider the massively successful Ludlum. He, more than most, could and would take a hundred or two words to describe an essentially irrelevant location. The reader can absolutely “hear” the church bells echoing in “that” alley, chiming eleven o’clock at night. “Feel and touch” the slick moss on the old brick walls. Catch a “whiff” of the stale beer emanating from the basement of that century old bar.

Somewhat like some of us who absolutely assert we can “see” certain music!

What is the one habit you believe contributed the most to you becoming a great writer? (i.e., perseverance, discipline, play, craft study). Can you share a story or example?

One can cultivate all manner of disciplines, habits, behaviors. I emphasize again:

• Life Without Passion Is Not A Life Worth Living. If your writing lacks passion, don’t. To be clear, if it does not, write technically proficient stuff for proper compensation.
• Life Is Not A Dress Rehearsal. This is not a dress rehearsal. This IS the big show! Live it now, every day. If you are going to write — something, sometime — now is the time. The self-sabotaging “sometime, I want to, I will, planning on and more”, you end up with Swiss cheese without the cheese.
• Write as if your life depended on it. Perhaps not literally, but, certainly it does emotionally!
• You planning to “kinda” write? Get a job in a haberdashery. Otherwise, write! Forge ahead courageously and mightily!

Which literature do you draw inspiration from? Why?

Entirely too broad. But, attempt to respond I shall.

I feel about works of “literature”, as I feel about music. I listen to WWI falsetto (castrated) tenors, all R&B ever recorded, all classical music (like … the classics), 1950’s African jazz. much that has ever “hipped and hopped.”

It is an absolute that you can learn from everybody you encounter, perhaps even if some of those folks who should be institutionalized. And from so much “in print”. My last favorite piece of writing was a letter! That from an insurance broker, written to the CEO of the behemoth company he represented. The boss asked for his thoughts on the future of their business, company and their world.

Now … There is an amazing piece of writing. All what that insurance guy wrote, five pages of it, IS what we are living today. Oh … The letter was dated April 4, 1962.

Then, there is so much more to read from my FAVORITE QUOTABLES: Wilde, Shaw, MLK, Jr., Rousseau, Twain, Russell, Kierkegaard, Carlin, Krauthammer, Darrow, Menken, Churchill, Nabokov, Aristotle, Jaspers, Bruce, Williams, Brenner, Steyn, Black, Hansen, Connolley, Franklin, Maraboli, De Maupassant, Chomsky and many more … All of those for some of the same and for very differing reasons.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

That is a massive ask. And, way too presumptive of me to reduce to one thing. Yes: I have “movements” I would like to precipitate. Also, the wide dissemination, and hope, adoption of thoughts I would like to cause. However, evangelizing about most of those smacks of casual megalomania. As a writer, all you readers and writers, must agree that stamping out political correctness ranks way on top.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

I appreciate you and your readers checking out stevenjmanning.com. That website serves my book, entirely.

Thank you so much for this. This was very inspiring!

Thank you. My pleasures. entirely.