Interesting… a couple of weeks ago, my ChangeThis proposal pulled ahead of what was at the time a 3-dog race, and since then, the lead has steadily increased. Voting ends in a couple of days, and surely much of the uptick in recent activity is related to that. But what’s compelling to me is that I’m getting a disproportionate number of votes now. When things were more even, things tended to stay more even. Once I pulled ahead, my lead began quickly building on itself.

I wish I could take credit for this uptick as having to do with the quality of my proposal vis-a-vis the competition. Alas, I don’t think I can. Don’t get me wrong: I am grateful for each and every of the 170 people who took the time to read the proposal, think about it, and click the “Yes, I do believe I’d like to read the whole thing” button. I take none of them for granted, and I have to believe that the content I am offering is good enough to merit a second look if I’m getting any clicks at all. (I can only hope that those same 170 people will indeed read the “manifesto” itself, and forward it to about a billion more people, every one of whom will be so moved to then purchase a copy of How to Self-Destruct for themselves and 5 more copies for their friends and coworkers. A man can dream, right?)

But I think there’s more going on than the quality of the content, and that’s the human element. Being part of the ChangeThis experiment has given me a glimpse into something we all know: it’s easy to take sides when it looks like the winner has already been determined. I’m glad to be the beneficiary of this phenomenon on ChangeThis. When my book was at #845 on Amazon, I was glad to be the beneficiary of that phenomenon there, too.

Because you want to know something? Life is not only easier when you’re a winner, it’s much more fun, too.

My hat tips to everyone who is out there “running the race.” I’m ahead of a few of you, I’m way behind many of you, but I’m a long way from finished, so you had better keep pressing forward. Hard. I know I’ll be.

Posted under Personal, How to Self-Destruct