Scott Jeffrey Miller - Master Mentors Volume 2: 30 Transformative Insights from Our Greatest Minds

2022 Franklin Covey Co.

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Epub Edition July 2022 9781400238910

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With some bravado, I declared in Master Mentors Volume 1 that I would be writing Master Mentors Volume 2 and beyond. And while everyone has a right to sit down and author a book, getting it published by a reputable publisher is not a right but a privilege. It only happens if an editor and their team choose to invest in your work and have the confidence your book will be well received and actually sell (and sell a lot). Yes, you can self-publish, and I wish anyone exploring that route great success as they navigate the inevitable challenges that follow. Caveat emptor!

Publishing is a tough businessif a book doesnt sell well, the author rarely gets a second chance. The fact that youre reading the introduction to Master Mentors Volume 2 should tell you Volume 1 sold very well, but more importantly, confirmed that large numbers of readers benefited from a collection of Transformational Insights vetted through my numerous interviews on FranklinCovey On Leadership with Scott Miller podcast. Since the publishing of the first book in this series, Ive been privileged to speak to nearly a hundred live in-person or virtual audiences and found increasing validation that the power of just one Transformational Insight can be life changing, let alone thirty! Master Mentors Volume 1 has since been translated into many foreign languages, finding continued relevance to readers around the globe.

I think much of this momentum stems from the fact that our successes, personally and professionally, are often because of the mentors weve had who have helped us navigate the obstacles and opportunities that pop up along our unique life journeys. Sometimes we have a formal relationship with such mentors in which our roles are clearly defined, and theres a distinct beginning and end. More frequently, we experience mentors by what they say, the experiences they share, how they behave, and what they create. Which means the most impactful mentors are often at arms lengthan author whose book we absorb, a podcaster whose episodes we devour, a radio host, a keynote speaker, a historical figure, or someone in the public eye. However we draw upon their wisdom, we admire them and model our lives after them. It seems to me such informal mentorship is increasingly the case if we delve into those whom we strive to use as models in our lives.

It certainly is for me.

Case in point: Bruce Williams, the most influential mentor in my life. Ive never met Bruce, and he never knew me. When I was growing up in Central Florida in the eighties, talk radio was just beginning. (If youre of a certain generation, a radio is a little box with turn dials and speakers that often doubled as our clocks, alarms, and in some decadent cases, our answering machines. Mind-blowing, I know!)

Beginning in 1981, a small business entrepreneur named Bruce Williams hosted a three-hour call-in radio program originally titled Talknet, later renamed The Bruce Williams Show. I was twelve years old, and for over a decade, five nights a week for three solid hours, I would be captivated, listening to him dispense wisdom ranging from buying a home or opening a business to creating a will and investing an inheritance. Think Dave Ramsey meets Shark Tank meets Dr. Phil. Other kids my age were more likely listening to ABBA, Styx, and Devo, while yours truly absorbed fifteen hours a week of The Bruce Williams Show. Perhaps I was the inspiration for Alex P. Keaton and didnt even know it. (Google it.)

Over the years, I listened to thousands of Bruces episodes as guests shared their business/legal/family/educational challenges and Bruce advised them on their options and how he thought they should proceed. It was the single most formative educational experience of my life. Years later, I find Bruce remains the most influential mentor in my lifemore than any relative, leader, priest, or professor. I learned about incorporating a business, all the types of insurances you needed and didnt, how to secure a mortgage, when to use an attorney (and when not to), and a seemingly endless set of life scenarios, many of which, if not all, Ive come to face in the 40+ years since I first started being mentored by my friend Bruce.

I never met Bruce Williams or had a conversation with him. He passed away in 2019.

And yet he was absolutely my mentor. A Master Mentor, to be more precise.

My hope in authoring this book is to present such Master Mentors to you, and invite you to enter a similar type of relationship with any or all of the thirty individuals Ive featured (make that sixty if youve not read Volume 1). If the Transformational Insights from the people I highlight resonate with you, take another step to learn more about them. Buy and read their books. Follow their blogs or subscribe to their newsletters. Connect with them on social media and send them an email or message. I know them all, most very well, and theyd love to hear from you. Because just like you and me, they were mentored by someone, likely many, who challenged them to pay it forward in some way.

I am very proud of this volume and the mentors Ive featured here. As I mentioned earlier, the first criteria for being included in the Master Mentors series is that they needed to appear as a guest on FranklinCoveys On Leadership with Scott Miller podcast, now the worlds largest weekly leadership podcast. Second, they needed to share an insight I deemed transformational and then agree to be featured in the book. It is no small task to corral thirty famed leaders from around the world. But to each of them I am grateful for their collaboration and willingness to be featured here. Thanks to them, this volume includes some life-changing stories and insights:

• Zafar Masud, a relatable business leader from Pakistan until the commercial plane he was in crashed, killing everyone on board except him and one other. Now he teaches us to find our purpose and contribution.