Overcoming Doubt through Action - Lanny Bassham With Winning in Mind Story

Since January is all about goals and becoming we have decided to tell you how "With Winning in Mind" came to be, the struggles behind Lanny's hesitation to write and the knowledge he learned from his mentor who helped him along the pathway to his goal of being an author. Pictured above is Lanny around the time the first version of "With Winning in Mind" was written.

I wrote an essay for a class in high school and up to this point I thought I was an okay writer. For this particular project I spent extra time, put thought into the paper and was proud of what I presented. After receiving a "D" on the assignment I had worked so hard on, I asked the teacher "Why did I get such a low grade on this paper?" I don't remember the words she spoke exactly but what I heard her to say was "Lanny, you just can't write!" I allowed myself to believe that this statement was true about me. "I'm not a good writer" was my Self-Image and it stayed that way for years. That one comment lead me to believe I was not capable of success with a pen. I could talk, I could shoot but I couldn't write.

In college I dodged every writing course. I didn't want to fail so why try? I chose to major in Business because the writing workload was less than other majors I considered pursuing. In all honesty I really majored in Rifle Shooting but got a degree in Business if you know what I mean. I went to school to get out, not to learn the first time around. I didn't push myself to become a better writer. I didn't challenge myself. I accepted that I couldn't write and moved on with my life.

Advance many years to 1977 and the start of this company. Every student I would teach would ask me if I had a book they could purchase. Every time I turned around someone was wanting material they could take home....A BOOK. A Book? I couldn't even write an essay or an article much less a complete book! After a decade of dodging writing again I couldn't help myself and I told someone I was writing a book. I had a deadline, now I was stuck. I had no choice but to write!

Fortunately, I had a friend who was an editor who offered to teach me to write. He knew my fears of writing and that my Self-Image as an author was super poor. He began to meet with me weekly and help me write my book on his word processor. For those of you young folks this was more like a typewriter than a computer, no internal memory. I learned so much about myself through this process and after many months it was done. My last meeting with him was near and I was oozing with excitement! I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. He stood before me holding a floppy disc (do you remember when discs could flop? This dates me.) and he said "Lanny, this is the only copy of your book. It's right here in my hands. I'm going to do you a favor." He took the disc and threw it into the fire! True story. The only copy of my book that took months to write was burning in his fireplace. I thought he had to be kidding but he wasn't. He looked at me with complete confidence and said "Nobody's first book is ever any good, go write your book. But this time keep it short, no one wants to read more than 200 pages. And write about people you know. Write more like you talk and make it easy to read. This will help the reader better connect to your content and retain the information."

Frustrated and defeated I turned to leave. Taking his advice, I re-wrote the book and "With Winning in Mind" was born. The original version was published in 1988. I revised the book 1996 and revised it once again last year which is our new Hardcover edition.

So what did I learn through this process that may help you in the journey to obtaining your 2012 goals? I learned:

• You need good mentors to help you when pursuing new and exciting goals. Mentors provide more than just inspiration and motivation, in my case my mentor helped me to develop the skills necessary to succeed in writing my book. He helped me to believe it was doable. He gave me valuable information and guidance. But most importantly, he didn't just tell me what I wanted to hear and allow my first draft to be enough. He knew I was capable of more and pushed me to be my best.

• You need a timeline. I hadn't written a book sooner because I didn't have a date of when it had to be finished. It was just a wish. By having a deadline I forced myself to find solutions to completing the book in order to keep my word.

• Never allow someone's negative opinion of you to define you. I listened to that teacher and allowed her opinion of my writing ability to determine my belief in my ability to write keeping me from pursuing writing in college. I firmly believe that if I had challenged myself to take journalism classes in college I would have 20 books by now.

Writing "With Winning in Mind" is the best financial decision I have ever made in my life and it amazes me when I look back at how long it took me to believe being an author was even possible for me. Go for your goals this year. Find a mentor. Set a deadline. And don't let anyone's opinion matter more than yours!