Why should every aspiring entrepreneur write a book?

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There are over 30 published authors from Georgetown University in 2017, and all of these authors are undergraduate students. Pretty impressive eh? The backstory is that all of these students were in an entrepreneurship class called Launch The Venture. However, instead of launching a company with the class, they wrote and published books.

What does writing books have to do with launching companies?

I had the same question in my mind. After going through the experience of writing a book, I realized that this might be the best exercise for any aspiring entrepreneur. During the book interviews with successful entrepreneurs, all the interviewees loved the idea of writing a book as a training in entrepreneurship. The book should be a nonfiction book that teaches people something, and it can be on anything you are passionate about. Choose a field, dig deep, interview experts, and create a book that adds value to others.

Here are some reason why you should write a book:

1. Creating best practices for starting something big without waiting for permission. Most people wait for permission to do something awesome. The permissions can be a diploma, a great job, a brilliant idea, or support from loved ones. Once we get into the permission-seeking mindset, it’s likely that we will delay starting something indefinitely. No one will give you the permission to start a company or writing a book. People may ask, “Who do you think you are?” Well, you can’t become “somebody” unless you do something cool.
2. You will feel damn good about yourself after writing a book. You will start to wonder, “What else is possible?” Finishing a book is a great way to prove to yourself that “It always seems impossible until it’s done. (Nelson Mandela)” This pride and confidence can lead you to more and more entrepreneurial ventures.
3. You won’t feel like doing it. Writing a book can’t be done overnight, and in that way, it’s just like building a business. It takes months of hard work, you’ll get plenty of practice overcoming resistance and procrastination. You won’t feel like doing the work most of the time, even though you want the final product. It takes planning, patience, discipline, resilience, and perseverance to push through and get it finished. All these are also elements necessary for building a successful company.
4. You’ll have a great opportunity to connect with more successful people. When you are writing a book about a certain subject, it’s a lot easier to get accomplished experts in that field to talk to you, even though you are still a student. This is one of the best ways to build your skill in building a relationship with accomplished people.
5. You establish expertise in whatever field you wrote about. If the book is related to your career aspiration, the book will almost guarantee a job offer.
6. Finally, having a published a book is COOL. Well, it’s more than cool. It’s cool, memorable, interesting, attention-grabbing, and it helps you stand out. Did you know there are about 20 million college students in the US alone?1 Out of the 20 million, only about 30 students publish nonfictional books each year. Do the math, 120 nonfiction book authors in four years then divide by 20 million, that’s 0.0006% of the college student populations. It’s almost impossible to build a resume that puts you in the top 0.0006% of the applicants.

Here are some action items that might help you get this book journey started:

• Identify books, websites, or programs that will guide you through the book writing process.
• Check out Signal Class for publishing resources specifically for college students.
• Post on social media to let everyone know that you are writing a book. This pressure and attention from friends will give you some extra motivation to keep going when things get tough.
• Start writing a book.