The Realisation - Children’s Books……

To recap, we had down selected 30 ideas and trusted in the process to lead us on a path to self-fulfilment. A path where we could leave behind a legacy and be remembered for our greatest achievements; by applying our mechanical and electrical university degrees, along with 30 years combined experience building submarines to formulate a project of immense grandeur. A project that could impact society and be of benefit to our targeted end consumers in the future, and that path was of course….. writing children’s books (insert slap face emoji).

Can you imagine our faces! Actually, please pause for a second and reflect on that image. Better still, imagine your own reaction if you had spent 6 weeks planning what you intended to take forward as a project/business for years to come, and the answer was indeed to write children’s books. To some of you reading this blog it could be a dream come true for you, but for us, it could not have been more alien. Here you have three engineers who all favour Maths, cars and bikes, with English literacy trailing far behind on that list of likes and desires. However, our destiny was set and once the idea had sunk in we found ourselves ordering and consumed several more beers later that evening. Hysterical belly laughter mixed in with utter disbelief soon ended that session on a somewhat bewildered high.

Jokes aside though, the idea scored high in the matrix and was chosen for a reason. Here was a project that could fulfil our common interests being the environment, health and wellbeing and technology. If we could actually pull this off we could have a series of books that were memorable, possibly could inspire, or even educate the next generation to make change. When you look at it that way, it is quite an inspiring mission to undertake, with its core values certainly falling within the realms of service to others, rather than a service to self. This was certainly something we all agreed was the correct path for us to take. One thing is for sure, it would certainly position the three of us firmly outside of our comfort zones, which is ultimately a good thing right. We all know that growth comes from positions of discomfort; that is human nature, and we were pleased to be doing this as a trio for the much-needed support going forward.

So, getting started we mind mapped the idea to better understand a potential business structure. During the meeting, it struck us that we had an utterly blank canvas to start from, with absolutely no expectations placed on our shoulders. Not even an idea or premise of a story in mind, which we all agreed is probably the starting point for most budding children’s book authors out there. In fact, here we had an opportunity to build a brand inspired by other bestselling books already in existence and incorporate aspects from our favourite books from our childhoods. We could also aim to build a project such that the stories could encourage people to take positive action, to help our local environments/animals and link to sustainable products that we could even design in the future. We also looked at potential secondary revenue streams through diversifying content using the powers of the internet and even online education platforms and podcasts. The possibilities seemed endless.

So, we started to research top brands in detail such as ‘Dora The Explorer’ and ‘Harry Potter’, and wanted to include several aspects of their models into ours. We initially liked the idea of creating a book series for different age groups which would advance along with our reading audience as they grew up, but one step at a time. We wouldn’t want to get too carried away just yet, considering we have absolutely no ability to write a children’s book. However, one bit of advice looking back you can see at this stage no idea was off of the table and we would encourage anyone who is starting their own projects to capture these sorts of crazy ideas down. Regardless of how weird, wacky or unachievable they may seem now, you never know if they could become obtainable in the future.

Check out our first business structure plan. No joke this was it from our session. Oh how it makes us chuckle looking back at it now. However, as basic and ridiculous as it looks, that was all that was needed to pursue our ideas and furthermore, still drives us to have ambitious dreams of a cartoon or even a movie in the future. On the flip side though, coming home and showing this plan to our partners after spending 4-5hrs at the pub produced a very different sort of vibe.

However, prior to finishing this session and absolutely buzzing from several hours living with the energy found in Cloud Cuckoo-land, the mood took a drastic twist. From the increasing optimistic stance of linking all of the above ideas to each other and having a collective belief that they were all achievable over time; we each fell firmly back down to earth when Matt dropped a bombshell that had not yet been considered ………….the books had to rhyme!!

Laughter ensued again as Nick’s head dropped into his hands once more and we all started to grin in utter disbelief. Unfortunately, deep down we each knew that Matt was right. The power of rhyme for children’s learning and development is a powerful thing, and when we individually looked back at our favourite authors such as Julia Donaldson & Dr Seuss, how the hell were we going to compete. These people are top of their game. The Ronaldo’s and Messi’s of the book world, which we were about to enter into. Furthermore, these people possessed raw talent. A talent which you cannot simply acquire through a training course or through a self teach book. It’s obvious to see how this interject would swiftly stop proceedings and that was the end of the session and back to our partners. However, another thought was noted down when continuing to research the best books on the market and marvelled at their brilliance.

Thought #3 - One day we need to meet Julia Donaldson and shake her hand - undisputed queen of children’s book writing.