The Beginning of a Book

There is a great clip of the artist Kendrick Lamar comically and self-deprecatingly sharing his 'wackest' song. As almost all musicians will share, you have to write bad songs before you write the good songs!

This clip resonated with me because I have tried to write six books. None of these books came close to being completed. This is no surprise; I'm confident they would have been pretty terrible!

I began writing my first book in 2008. It was to be a teenage version of the certified classic, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole. It highlighted my extreme limitations as a fiction writer and my lack of originality. My second book began in 2013. It aimed to present a new model for selling centred on virtues such as truthfulness, humility and integrity. But I couldn't catch the right balance between being a book of value for people in sales roles without sounding like an over-zealous activist! Next was a book about volunteering, another about humanitarian aid, followed by a biography of a renegade activist, and a sixth book that's too complicated (and stupid) even to explain.

I don't mind these failures. They helped hone my skills as a writer, albeit I have some way to go even to consider myself an amatuer writer. They have helped me reach the point when I believe I can write a book that at least some people will be interested in reading. To borrow the phrase from Susan Jeffers, I am feeling the fear but doing it anyway.

The book I am writing will tell the remarkable story of a man unknown to almost the entire world but adored by all who did. His name was Harry Hanks.

I have been blessed to have met many people who told me that Harry saved their life. As I sat with them and heard their stories, their fondness and gratitude for Harry were beyond moving. Each of their stories is unique, but they all rhymed.

Harry cared for the excluded: the people who were too traumatized to integrate with society, the people who had given up hope, who had caused great harm to themselves and/or others, many of whom were on the brink of death. They all told me that Harry was there for them at their lowest. He took responsibility for them. He showed them that their lives had meaning and value. He showed them that they were more than their past and present pain. Harry did all of this in the shadows. He never announced his good deeds with trumpets or sought adulation or acclaim. In fact, he would go out of his way to avoid it!

I hope the book inspires others to follow in his footsteps - to be a shining light in the world in service to others. All proceeds from the book will be donated to our non-profit organisation, The Shining Light Project.

If you're interested in receiving updates about the book, you can sign up for our mailing list here, where I will share early versions and snippets from the book. For now, I will leave you with a passage from an unknown source that captures the essence of who Harry was:

"There are people whose hearts are pure, in whom there is no pride, who are humble, who look upon every living being as their friend, who treat everyone equally with tenderness and love and wish to do good. It is in these people that light shines both inwards and outwards".?(Source unknown)

Thanks for reading and take care.

Benjamin

I'd like to say a huge thank you to the 902 people who have subscribed so far. It's incredibly humbling! Our mission at The Shining Light Project is to inspire people to discover where they can make the biggest positive difference in the world.