The C O L L I D E BOOK — Backstory — Delivered from an Idea
This is a Gratitude Post
Why? I was pregnant with one idea for 7 years and now I have been delivered of it.
I started writing COLLIDE in 2013 with the title PSYCHE. I was leading a youth organization with a lot of wild new ideas. It was not all good. It was not all bad. You needed fierce non-judgement and I believe I had that then as now. It was the time of the rise of the roaring millennials.
If you come from more traditional background and values which I certainly did, you will have your moment of baptism and COLLIDE with the ideas of this new world. There will be that moment when a gay or lesbian person stands in front of you seeking direction for their gender uncertainty. I had it too when young adults who had been married less than a few weeks were filing for a divorce. I met many young men and women, though confused as they were about life, could not allow or trust anyone to guide them to sanctuary. Futility, depression and mental pain was real under the “happy” veneer of youth, music and shows and drugs, alcohol and sex. The new digital economy, the start-up circuit, the job hopping, bootstrapping business, “lets make money”, “we are the new guys” and the power of the internet did not help young people either. People are human, never mind their age or generation. They were seeking for love — real love and meaning which are still rare commodities, especially when the ones who need it most cannot trust the ones who are the real deal.
When one of your protégés take their own life in an apparent suicide, it will change you. I saw trusted authority figures fall and children grow up overnight. I started to ask questions that could not be covered by my cocooned upbringing and my sheltered leadership world. I started eking out answers; huge revelations, from society, from long hours of research work, from intuition, from leadership experiences and I dare say from divine inspiration.
I ran to my bedroom each night, I wrote in a frenzy, I wrote in a maze. I woke up with a start and ran to the study. Sometimes I was crying as I wrote, at other times I was angry and agitated about the shackles that bound people. It was a roller-coaster of emotions.
Editorial Frustration
I tested these ideas with all who were around me. I remember begging a prominent editor I knew in my community to take this project for a fee who turned me down. I forced my friends who were literary to read chapter after chapter. they came back to test my ideas and further challenge my thinking. Many times, we lost hours but these ideas matured. I found an editor at a Silver Springs, Maryland book fair who charged me so much to edit my work, sadly he did a terrible job. I re-wrote the book all over again in 2015 and changed the book title to “COLLIDE: GPS for a New Generation”. This was when I was introduced to David Jowitt a British professor of literature who was then a visiting lecturer at the University of Jos, and here are his words.
“… asides indeed a few other corrections of other sorts (African Context examples), that may have so far slipped through the net. I believe that generally I have greatly improved the text for you.”
He raised the work, fact checked me and compelled me to change some ideas about world history and some of my viewing lenses.
Then came 2017, when I got the first 5 author-copies printed from Dubai by the incredible men Emeka and Victory at Free State Publishing. They developed and birthed the art direction and graphic masterpiece that this work boasts of now. I remember Dr. Glory Edozien, my then pro-bono project manager (God bless her), with whom we tried to launch the book. I felt clear instructions to hold it back; I was starting a new role; I had so much going on and I was a leader without a platform.
Birthing a New Platform
I started to build a new platform. www.CollideCentral.com. It is birthed and focused on clashing conversations in these incredible new times in the world. The first work I authored was called “Fulfilment,” quickly followed by “6 Quick Ways to Cultivate Mental Strength” which I co-authored with Oyinda Fakeye. The third work “Cool, Fly but Unwell” is pure ace. I then started writing a 4th mini-book still in the works when I felt an “all-clear” in 2020 to rewrite COLLIDE for the third time and launch it. And here we are!
It is a sigh of relief, but much more, COLLIDE is a baby full of ideas and seminars and master classes and workbooks all breathed into one masterfully crafted dossier of allegories. This is why you should not only read this book; you should stop and think after reading each chapter or section. It is a call to arms. When I Invite you to come to the Book Launch, I am certain of the amazing value that will pour out to you as you interface this world of sweat and tears.
A Wonderful Opportunity
I am thankful that COLLIDE: GPS for a New generation is ready to launch, there is no better time to bring out this book with all that is happening in the world: the COVID-19 virus pandemic and the political and economic aftermath. These new times truly require a compass.
I have organized many huge events with hundreds of staff and thousands of attendees, but the launch of collide leaves me with butterflies in my tummy. This is because it’s a 7-year pregnancy, moreso, the material is compelling and relevant.
Please sign up at https://collidecentral.com/ and attend the physical flagoff event on Monday April 5, 2021 at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Victoria Island or livestream via the Website from anywhere. It is time to kick start the conversations and remember to Pre-Order so you can immerse in the mind-shift from the get go.
Thank you.
Moses Ida-Michaels (Author)
