Author and Mother– Professor M.S.Rao

“Anyone who says they have only one life to live must not know how to read a book.” - Author Unknown


I requested Jim Collins to write foreword for my upcoming book titled, “Spot Your Leadership Style – Build Your Leadership Brand”. Jim Collins had the humility to respond to my mail. In his letter dated July 29, 2010, Jim Collins started with the quote of Winston Churchill who once said that writing a book goes through five phases. In phase one, it is a toy and an amusement, but by phase five, it is a tyrant ruling your life; and just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public!

Such a personal letter from Jim Collins got me excited as he is an international author with great books like Good to Great and Built to Last. And Jim Collins’ humility made me very happy. However, he denied politely writing foreword for my book due to his upcoming book. He wished me good luck for my upcoming book.


Author and Mother

An author can be compared with a mother who conceives and undergoes lot of pressure and pleasure while carrying the child in her womb. The author conceives an idea to author a book. He finds several challenges right from inception to reality. For instance, he has to sacrifice his personal time to write book. He undergoes several trials and tribulations apart from the routine challenges to complete the book. Once the book is completed he has to search for a suitable publisher who would take the book forward. And it takes lot of time especially for budding authors. The author has to look for a suitable person to write foreword and it takes time to get approval. In addition, he has to work for endorsements from experts in the field to make sure that the book gets better visibility. It again takes times. In the meanwhile there will be challenges between the publisher and the author on various issues. There will be challenges related to time deadlines to get the endorsements for incorporating in the book. The entire process is easier said than done. The author invests his knowledge and the publisher invests money for publishing the book. There has to be right understanding and chemistry between the author and publisher. Once the book is published, it is for the readers to decide whether it is properly delivered. If readers accept, the author gets elated with his efforts.

Similarly the mother feels happy when she conceives the child initially. She undergoes lot of pressure and pleasure while carrying the child and mostly lot of pressure. At the time of delivery she undergoes lot of pain and finally she delivers the baby. The moment she sees her baby she forgets the entire pain and gets excited by seeing her baby. The author also gets excited when he first sees his book on hand. He will be happy when his book delivers the goods as per the expectations of the readers. It is a great feeling indeed for both author and mother while delivering the book and the baby.

I would like to conclude that as every mother is possessive of her baby, every author is possessive of his book.



Professor M.S.Rao
Founder and Chief Consultant,
MSR Leadership Consultants, India
Blog: http://profmsr.blogspot.com
Where Knowledge is Wealth
Email: profmsr7@gmail.com



Dear readers,

I would appreciate your comments about this article.