Someone removing chairs from my breakout at a conference.

Why are they removing them?

Because so few people came and another breakout was wildly more successful.

Epic fail.

So what did I do?

I took a photo. Why? Because I’m not afraid of failure.

Failure only happens to people who try to change the world.

You want to be average and ordinary? Enjoy your failure-free life.

Me? You? The people who dare to turn the impossible tomorrows into the possible days? We’re going to fail.

And we’re going to take a photo and laugh about it. Then we’re going to try again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

Don’t just fail. Fail like a boss.

WOW! That just about sums up how I feel about the incredible success we’ve had with the release of Jon Acuff’s latest book, Start. This thing debuted on the New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-seller lists and Amazon’s overall Top 10 list. It totally dominated Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and just about everything else on social media! This thing is on FIRE, and I can think of two reasons for that.

First of all, Start delivers a message that the world is hungry for. I talk to people on the radio every day who are frustrated and miserable with their careers, and they honestly think it’ll never get better. They’ve settled for average, but they dream of awesome. This is the book that can take them there.

Second—and this is the really important part—the reason Start came out of the gate so strong is because of YOU! You guys bought into the message, and you told a LOT of other people about it! Maybe you saw some things on Jon’s blog or Twitter feed, or maybe you heard us talking about it on the radio, and something just clicked. Something inside of you woke up, and you decided to START! By the time we dropped the book into the marketplace, tens of thousands of you had already pre-ordered or you lined up to buy it the day it released! That’s incredible! We’re already hearing stories from some of you about how you’re flipping the switch from average to awesome in your own lives by putting this material into practice. You guys rock! Thank you for making Start such a big success!

Of course, we’ve been doing our part to get this life-changing message out there too! Jon was locked in his office for months getting the message just right. Literally dozens of people on our team have spent the better part of a year getting the edits, design and marketing ready for Start to hit the street. We even took over Times Square with enormous billboards and a huge wrapped bus for our live launch event! And then we kept Jon on that bus for two weeks on a massive book tour to keep the momentum going.

This book release has been a pretty wild ride, and that means there are ups—and downs. The down side right now is that some of you haven’t been able to get your copy of Start yet because several stores sold out so fast. That was never the plan! We had pretty big expectations for the book, but the response has been mind-blowing. If you haven’t been able to get your copy yet, we’re sorry! Our team is working like crazy to make sure your local stores and Amazon have Start back in stock as soon as possible. And if you want it before they get it, we’ve got plenty of copies on hand in our online store at daveramsey.com. There’s little chance WE’LL run out!

Thanks again for everything you’re doing to help us get the message out there. I really believe that Start is one of the most significant books you could ever read, and I can’t wait to hear your own Start story soon!

—Dave

You’ve got a lot going on. I do too. And sometimes, when we focus on our dreams, or try to brainstorm ideas, our wives cry in the kitchen. That’s been my experience anyway.

One Tuesday during a holiday break, I spent four hours writing on a book idea. My kids were occupied with new Christmas presents and my wife was straightening up the house. At about three in the afternoon I resurfaced from our home office and talked to my wife in the kitchen.

Her words were short and quick. I asked her what was wrong and she immediately replied, “I thought we were going to spend the day together.” Then she started crying.

In that moment and many others, I failed a simple rule of dream chasing. I was selfish at the wrong time of the day with my hours. Which really weren’t mine anyway. When you’re a husband or a dad, your time doesn’t just belong to you. It’s in large part a communal property, shared by the entire house.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t be selfish with your time. Not at all. You just have to know when you can be, which is why I encourage you to be selfish at 5AM.

The mornings I get up and write from 5-7AM, you’d be surprised how little my wife tells me that I’ve been ignoring her. You’d be shocked at how little my oldest daughter wants me to watch her jump rope at 5:30AM. You’d be mystified at how few requests my youngest daughter makes to go bike riding at 5:15AM.

You can be selfish at 5AM. Or 11PM if your spouse goes to bed early and staying up an extra hour doesn’t wreck your next day. You can carve out time in your day and claim it, if you’re willing to hustle. If you’re willing to find your time at the beginning of your day or the end, chances are you can tweak your schedule a little and be a little selfish.

If you’re not married or don’t have kids, this idea still applies. Your time is still shared, especially if you have a full time job. Your company may never cry in your arms in the kitchen on the day after Christmas, that would be weird if it did, but if you’re selfish with the wrong hours it will indeed say to you, “Hey, I thought we were going to spend 8-5 together today. I thought we were going to spend Monday-Friday together all this week. Why have you been taking such long lunches and coming in late?”

We all have commitments we have to keep. In one form or another, we all have spouses with expectations that are not worth breaking. We all have dreams that need hours and hours of attention. Since time is the only commodity you can never get back and managing it can be a key to jumping from a job to a dream, I’ll keep coming back to ideas like this on this blog. But right now, let me give you permission to be selfish with your dream.

And the best part?

There’s even a new app that can help you be selfish at 5AM. Based on the “5 Club,” a monthly meeting at 5AM in Nashville that I hold, a guy named Bryan Harris built an app. (Check out his site, he builds awesome apps.)

Here’s the trailer:

My favorite parts are that it’s free and it only works 1 minute of the day. That’s right, you have from 5:00AM – 5:01AM to login and get your point for the day. After that, the app is off.

You ready to be awesome?

Get the app right here!

They are simple, they are easy, and they are not that fancy.

Whenever someone is a jerk to me, I always say, “You might be right.”

This accomplishes a few things:

1. It admits that maybe they are right. I make mistakes. Maybe I did something wrong. Could this person bring it up without being a jerk? Sure, but just because they were a jerk doesn’t mean they were wrong.

2. It ends the conversation.

3. It releases me from carrying it around all day.

It’s over. I’m done. You might be right.

Maybe you’re not, but I didn’t say, “You are right.” I said “You might be right.”

I’m just not going to give you anymore of my life to figure out if you are.

I’m out.

Starting Friday night and extending all day Saturday, we’ll have the most creative speakers, surprising surprises and helpful content.

Why should you come?

Because fear fears community.

Social media is awesome, but there’s something amazing about being in the same room with hundreds of other people who are hustling on their dreams too. You get encouragement, tips and most importantly, you get community.

On top of that, I’ve put together a dream list of speakers and they all said yes. You’ve seen their work on the cover of Time Magazine, watched their careers blow up internationally and laughed alongside them from a far. But soon, you’ll get to hang out with them, learn from them and launch your dream with them.

Plus, for the first time ever, we’re having a VIP experience. With the VIP package you’ll go to dinner with me at Mangia (I took this video myself of the chef dancing).

It’s the most amazing 3 hour Italian family dinner and dancing and Frank Sinatra awesomeness you’ve ever seen. There will also be a ton of bonus items that will be announced in the coming weeks.

Our last 5 events sold out.

That’s not hype, that’s just the truth and I hate having to tell people they missed their chance to attend.

If you attended one in the past, come to this one too because it’s new content.

If you’ve never attended one, ask someone who has if it was awesome.

Early bird sign up starts today.

Whether you’ve got a specific dream you’re working on or just know that there’s a gap between who you are and who you know you can really be.

Expect special announcements about the speakers in the weeks to come.

Don’t miss the Start Event.

Sign up today!

It’s full of photos of amazing cabins, vistas that stretch for miles, and perfect places to write a book.

It’s fun to think that I’ll write there. Maybe you have a similar fantasy. As you work on a dream, you imagine pursuing it in some fun, creative setting.

But the reality is, I write in the space in the photo below more than just about anywhere else. That’s inside an arena somewhere. I’ve found a chair to sit in as I wait to go speak at an event.

It’s not sexy.

It’s not romantic.

It’s not how I might have dreamt it.

But it’s the space I have to work with, so work I will.

I don’t know what your dream is, but I know you have to hustle on it wherever you are.

Don’t wait for a snowy cabin in the woods to start working.

Just start.

Does your view of the situations in your life make a difference?

Does your filter change things?

It does.

And I’ll let tennis legend John McEnroe sum up his career and the critical importance of perception in one quote.

Why?

Because the first chapter doesn’t tell them what they want to hear. They expect a book titled Quitter to be full of dreamy, rainbowy fluff about how you should “just go for it” or “step out in faith.” Instead, they find a first chapter titled “Don’t quit your day job.”

That’s a bit of a bummer, but it’s the best way. Ask Nicholas Sparks.

Regardless of what you think about his romance novels, there is no questioning his unbelievable success. He has sold tens of millions of books in the last ten years. But did he quit when he got his first deal?

I’ll let him tell you via a Vanity Fair interview:

Reporter:
I have never heard of an unknown author getting paid a million dollars. What was the first thing you did?

Nicholas Sparks:
I was immediately struck by disbelief. It felt like I had won the lottery, but at the same time I didn’t even know if people would buy the book, so I didn’t quit my job for another year.

Let’s recap for a quick second. Nicholas Sparks got a million dollar advance. Instead of assuming the whole planet would buy his book, he kept his day job. For a whole year.

I love it.

May we all have the patience of Nicholas Sparks and be deliberate about the cliffs we jump off on the road to chasing our dreams.

Why?

Because how fast is our culture getting? One second? Really? Is that now a product benefit? Something has to win your attention by promising you only 1 second per usage.

But I get it. Life is full right now. Life is busy right now. That’s why people have phone conversations in the bathroom. Unless you’re a heart surgeon inexplicably performing surgery via phone, you can hang up for 60 seconds. Do you know how many people have died because I don’t talk on the phone in the bathroom? None.

Slow down.

The best things in life take time, and when we don’t give it to them, they just become OK things.

During the interview, the journalist said something surprising. He said:

“I have to confess. I’m not at all familiar with your music.”

This is a subtle insult.

Why?

Because when journalists interview musicians, they research them. They listen to their music. They listen to a lot of their music. They prepare.

This journalist didn’t, though, and instead deliberately brought up that point.

How did the musician respond? Was he insulted or angry?

Nope.

He simply said, “Well, that’s quite all right. I probably haven’t read many of your articles, but this is the beauty of our business.”

That insult didn’t even have a second to land on his shoulder. He brushed it aside before it could touch down.

Let the little insults go. They tend to cause big damage if we hold on to them too tightly.

One of my favorite things about this tour has been the broad range of events where Jon has spoken. In Nashville he spoke at Kairos, a young adult worship service. In Atlanta he spoke to several thousand Kids and Youth ministry pastors, leaders and volunteers at the Orange Conference. The next day in Tampa he spoke at an event sponsored by the Center for Non-Profit Leadership that brought together leaders and influencers from the city’s non-profit and for-profit sectors. Last Saturday and Sunday he spoke at 4 services across 2 campuses at Central Christian Church in Phoenix. Monday it was a private event for the sales team, executives and clients of a radio organization in San Antonio. Tuesday was a sold-out Start Night event in Austin. Wednesday was a leadership break-out with Rachel Cruze at Catalyst and Thursday was a main stage talk at Catalyst. It’s been incredible to see him connect with such a wide array of audiences in so many different settings.

Undoubtedly one of the many highlights of the tour happened while we were at dinner Wednesday night before the Dallas book signing and got the news that START had debuted at #5 on the New York Times Best Sellers list! Minutes later, Jon was walking into Barnes & Noble and doing his first book signing as a New York Times Best-Selling author. Pretty awesome!

To celebrate the success of the launch of START and the New York Times debut, Dave Ramsey made arrangements to fly in to Dallas a day early, bringing Jon’s family from Nashville, to surprise and congratulate him following his main stage talk at Catalyst. And that’s exactly what happened.

It was such a great moment and was a shining example of how much Dave believes in and supports Jon and his message.  Dave also announced that everyone at Catalyst Dallas was receiving a free copy of START immediately following the session.

After today’s stop in Houston, the tour has 2 more stops; Albany, Georgia this Sunday the 5th and the Los Angeles area on Monday the 6th. You can get more details on those dates here.

Jon will be sharing more about the whole book release and tour experience in the coming days, but I’ve really enjoyed having the opportunity to share a bit with you from my perspective on the road with him. It’s been an amazing experience! I’ve had a blast being part of this adventure with Jon, supporting, encouraging and working alongside him as his dream became a reality and I can’t wait to start hearing stories from people whose life trajectory has been impacted by START!

On the right is Scrabble for the iPhone.

Which would you play?

The chat will take place Friday from 11am-12pm CDT right on this page.

*UPDATE: The live #StartBook Q&A was awesome! Thanks to everybody who watched and submitted questions! We’ll have to do that again soon. If you missed it, you can watch the full video below!

A few days ago I came across a video review someone had done for START.  The woman who made it is named Tracie and I actually got to meet her after speaking Saturday night in Phoenix. It’s pretty awesome and I wanted to share it with you!

See below for links to all of the various sizes and designs.

iPhone/iPad Lock Screen

• Slide to Start: iPhone 4 | iPhone 5 | iPad

Desktop Wallpaper 

• Punch Fear in the Face:
  1280 x 800 | 1440 x 900 | 1920 x 1200 | 2560 x 1440
• Do Work That Matters:
  1280 x 800 | 1440 x 900 | 1920 x 1200 | 2560 x 1440
• Average to Awesome Switch:
  1280 x 800 | 1440 x 900 | 1920 x 1200 | 2560 x 1440

Facebook Cover Images

• Escape Average
• I Am Ready to Start
• Punch Fear in the Face
• It’s Time to Start
• It’s Time to Start (with book cover)
• Average to Awesome Switch
• What Are You Starting?

Twitter/Facebook Profile Images

• Escape Average
• I’m Ready to Start
• It’s Time to Start
• What Are You Starting?

For those of you who haven’t had a chance to pick up a copy of my new book START yet, today I wanted to give you the first full chapter for FREE.

If you’re ready to escape average, do work that matters and punch fear in the face, I believe this book is for you!

START Free First Chapter Download

If you like what you read and want to purchase the full book, here’s where you can do that:

Buy it on Amazon

Buy it on DaveRamsey.com

Buy it on Barnes & Noble

Buy it on Books A Million

This interview clip is courtesy of the EntreLeadership Podcast. Check it out for great teaching on business, team building, and leadership.

I’m so excited to see this day come and to be able to share with all of you what I’ve poured into START!  I want to thank everyone for your support leading up to this day. It’s been an awesome journey, but it’s just the beginning!

Here are some places where you purchase START beginning today:

Buy it on Amazon

Buy it on DaveRamsey.com

Buy it on Barnes & Noble

Buy it on Books A Million.

Last night Dave Ramsey and I threw a huge party right in the middle of Times Square to celebrate and kick off the START Book Tour with a couple hundred friends.  It was amazing! Here’s a quick recap:

In case you missed it, here is the killer book trailer the Ramsey video team put together.

So there you go!

It’s time to START!

This is Grant and for the next few weeks I’m helping Jon with the tour. We’ve known each other for years and I was excited when he asked me to tag along! I’m looking forward to the opportunity to connect with you guys to talk a little about the START Book Tour.

As Jon tweeted yesterday, I’ll be on the START Book Tour with him, managing social media, documenting this crazy adventure on video and assisting him in general. You guys will be hearing from me via social media and periodically here on the blog over the next couple weeks.

What’s been many months worth of planning, strategizing and dreaming is now a reality!  Today, the START Tour bus is pulling out of Nashville enroute to New York City for the official START Book Tour Kick Off event in Times Square this Sunday, April 21. Wow!

Over the next 2 weeks we’ll be traveling to 11 cities where Jon will be speaking at a variety of events, doing book signings and getting to meet many of you all along the way. Here’s a listing of all the START Book Tour stops:

4/21    New York City Kick-Off Event *SOLD OUT*
4/23    Brentwood, TN – Speaking @ Kairos
4/24    Brentwood, TN – Book Signing @ Cool Springs Barnes & Noble
4/25    Atlanta, GA – Orange Conference
Lawrenceville, GA – Book Signing @ Lawrenceville Books-A-Million
4/26    Tampa, FL – Book Signing @ Brandon Books-A-Million
4/27    Phoenix, AZ – Speaking @ Central Christian Church
4/28    Phoeniz, AZ – Speaking @ Central Christian Church
4/29    San Antonio, TX – Book Signing @ Books-A-Million
4/30    Austin, TX – Book Signing @ Barnes & Noble
Austin, TX – START Night *SOLD OUT*
5/1      Dallas, TX – Speaking @ Catalyst Dallas
Dallas, TX – Book Signing @ Northwest Hwy Barnes & Noble
5/2      Dallas, TX – Lab @ Catalyst Dallas
5/3      Houston, TX – Book Signing @ Mardel’s
5/5      Albany, GA – Speaking @ Sherwood Baptist
5/6      Los Angeles, CA – Book Signing @ Santa Monica Barnes & Noble

You can get all the full details, times and addresses on the Speaking Events page here.

If we’re coming to or near your city, we’d love for you to come out to say hello. I know Jon would love to meet you, thank you for your support, give you a side hug and personally sign your copy of START!

Who knows what all kinds of awesomeness we’ll get into over the next couple weeks. Whatever it is, you won’t want to miss any of it. We’ll be doing a lot of fun stuff and it’s going to be a blast! See you on the road!

Times Square and I have been on a crash course for six months.

Ever since Dave Ramsey dared me to create an awesome kick off for my new book, New York was on my map.

The team designed a crazy event.

First, I’ll give a talk about the five lands every awesome life goes through. In a small, intimate theater, I’ll lay out some ideas.

Then, and this is where it gets crazy, we’ll all put on the amazing Start NYC shirts the team designed. They are red and loud and not at all shy.

Then, I’ll lead a few hundred of my new friends down a block into Times Square where the book tour bus is parked.

We’ll do a quick countdown, and then I’ll unveil two ridiculous surprises.

The truth is, I’m a little afraid.

I want the event to go well.

I want things to work.

I want the book to sell on the launch day.

And a lot of those things are out of my hands.

But do you know who’s hands I’m not going to put them in? Fear.

I’m not hosting fear this weekend. I’m not entertaining it or rolling around in it or giving it a huge stage in my heart to really shout from.

Fear isn’t invited to Times Square this weekend. You are and I am and lots of other people.

Instead, I’m going to make fear afraid.

And you should too.

These are dipping sauces that McDonald’s came out with in 1983.

They were easy to use, popular, and helped sell a lot of McNuggets.

This? Is the new design of ketchup.

Was it launched in 1983?

Maybe 1984?

Surely someone saw how great the design was for the dipping sauces and decided to put ketchup in that same container.

Nope?

It would be 20 years before the new ketchup packets rolled out.

Why?

Because innovation is hard. Sometimes it hides right in plain sight.

Got a problem you’re facing right now? Don’t miss the forest for the trees. Or, in this case, the ketchup for the dipping sauces.