Chris Voss laughed when I told him.
Then, in that late-night FM DJ voice: “I told you so.”
It started at sunrise in the Bat Cave. Coffee in hand, checking my book’s Amazon rankings.
Right under Fight Less, Win More sat a “companion workbook.”
I didn’t write it. Nobody asked.
That afternoon, Michael Ross sent a photo from Panama City. Grinning in the sun, holding the fake like a trophy. He’d paid for it because he trusted my name.
That’s the part that hurt.
Like any good Obi-Wan, Chris had warned me years earlier. Every successful book draws mosquitoes, counterfeiters who feed on an author’s work. He challenged me to build the real workbook before they did.
I parked it on my EOS Worldwide Long-Term Issues List. The back burner.
I got bitten and forgot my bug spray.
So I pulled it off the back burner. Built a team. Brought in a real publisher, Amplify Publishing Group. Funded it myself. Some days I couldn’t read the manuscript one more time. We pressed the attack anyway.
Today it’s the only authorized Fight Less, Win More Workbook.
The mosquitoes moved on to other authors.
The lesson: when your Obi-Wan tells you the mosquitoes are coming, buy the bug spray.
Who’s the Obi-Wan in your life, and what did they warn you about?
Stay Curious,
JBS