An Eight-Year-Old Author
If you are not familiar Dillon Helbig, you should be. Dillon is eight-years-old and has become an unexpected celebrity living in Boise, ID. Why?
Dillon recently wrote an 81-page Christmas book entitled The Adventures Of Dillon Helbig’s Chrismis. A picture is shown above. The author is listed as Dillon His Self. Don’t you just love eight-year-olds!!!
Dillon’s book, which he also illustrated, is about Dillon being transported back to 1621 when his Christmas tree explodes. For the record, 1621 is when the first Thanksgiving holiday took place in the United States.
Rather than going through the traditional publishing route, he merely went down to his local library and snuck it onto a shelf. Talk about bypassing the middle man!
Dillon said in this article and to a local television station, “There was a lot of librarians that I had to sneak past, so do you know what I did? I covered up this part and covered the back with my body and just snuck it in… I always be sneaky, like how I get chocolate.”
Alex Harman, the library’s manager, said, “Dillon’s book definitely fit all the criteria that we would look for to include a book in our collection.” So they processed it accordingly and made the book part of their library’s collection.
Surprisingly, the book has gained significant traction. A waiting list as long as 56 people are in line to read Dillon’s book.
4 Leadership Lessons
Leaders Must Deeply Believe In The Work
If you don’t believe in your work, why should anyone else?
As previously mentioned, Dillon “donated” his only copy of the book to the library. The only copy. His book was not going to be on the family bookshelf or coffee table. That’s what I would do. But he was, in essence, burning the ships.
Greatness Takes Time And Effort
Can you imagine the amount of work it would take for an eight-year-old to write and fully illustrate an 81-page book? That level of focus and commitment for that age is astonishing! Even as an eight-year-old. Dillon intuitively knew he had to pay a significant price for his goal of writing a book to be realized.
The Value Of Creativity
You cannot have creativity without creation. Dillon creatively came up with a Christmas story. He also creatively illustrated his book.
Creativity is also about solving problems. Dillon creatively thought of the public library as a means for distribution. He then creatively snuck the book past the librarians and onto the shelf.
The rest is creative history.
Successful Leaders Always Find A Way
Dillon was going to get his book into as many hands as possible, no excuses! His age was not going to be an excuse. Being a first-time author was not going to be an excuse. Neither was not having a great publisher, a big budget, a slick marketing campaign, or being in a major market going to be an excuse. He had a dream to get his book into as many hands as possible and he was going to make it happen, no matter what!
If an eight-year-old can achieve his goal of being an author, you and I are without excuse when it comes to achieving our goals. Do the work, pay the price, get creative, stop making excuses, and find a way to serve as many people as possible.
The Top 75 Leadership Quotes From 2021 Part 2 is my latest ebook. For many entering a post-pandemic environment, leadership looks completely different than the pre-pandemic world. People are more broken now. They are more uncertain. Fear and anxiousness are unwelcome constant companions. Cultures are more unhealthy. Relationships are more dysfunctional. Hope seems to be in short supply. Every day seems to bring a new hacking, natural disaster, or unexpected calamity.
Therefore, the fundamentals of leadership are more important than ever. The quotes in this book deal with the basics of leadership. If you want to be the best leader you can possibly be, click HERE or on the image provided to download this FREE resource. The lessons learned from last year, if applied, will sustain you for years to come.