The self-help book... that worked!

I was twenty-eight years old and good at absolutely nothing.  I wasn't dangerously glum - yet.  But I didn't like the direction things were moving in.  And the mouse in the flat was getting more than I was.

The prelude to my lights-on moment came at a Management Training Course.  It ran across two days and was hosted by the most motivational speaker I've ever had the good fortune to meet.  Steve McDermott.  He's won a host of awards, and continues to do so.  He's a Yorkshire lad and has an almost stand-up comic aspect about him.  But by 'eck, he got through to me.

I read his book, and did so quickly.  It's short and to the point.

This funny, inspirational book became the rope out of the hole I had dug for myself.  I felt good about myself.  I quit smoking, thank God.  I moved house.  I went on a diet.  I began my first novel, which was published by Headleys a few years later.

But I have never forgotten what got me started.  Perhaps it was just a kick in the pants at the right time, but I hate to think what I would have otherwise become if I had not read that book, or if Steve had not one day sat down to write it.