https://thedeliveryman.info/
The Delivery Man looks like a great book. Can you tell us a little about it?
It is a recollection of experiences I had along my
career. I didn’t want it to be a memoir but more a tool to help people figure
out what they are good at and/or to become good at achieving “reasonable"
goals. Technology can be seen as a lot of pattern repetitions, but the hardest
part is to figure out the patterns of success in the person. How can you
constantly delivery something? What do you do for it to work? For me, it was
the muscle memory from the SSOCCADD methodology added on top of common best
practices. But all these experiences supporting the overall message from the
book are grounded in my personal experience. So, the first person
conversational tone was very important so everyone can relate to one part or
the other.
How long did it take you to write The Delivery Man?
The idea for the book only came a couple of years ago.
Before, I was just putting my thoughts on blogposts or speaking at conferences.
It is during one of these conferences that the core idea for the book came. So,
for 8 years, some pieces were popping in my mind, but the cohesiveness came
together in the past year or so.
What inspired you when writing The Delivery Man?
A convergence of many elements helped me go through the
writing. First, I saw a former colleague lose his life because of the rat race
that is Silicon Valley. Then, despite what people were telling me about my
stellar career, I had the impostor syndrome on the back of my head, so I needed
to straight the record for them and for me. Lastly, the book chapters all start
with a song reference. This is also how I wrote. Blasting some music aligned
with the mood of the chapter. So, some are lifting, others a bit doomy. But
music is a great companion to words and was an important source of inspiration.
How did you come up with the title for your book?
Few years back, I was attending a Venture Capitalist /
Start-ups event with my brother-in-law Noah. As he was introducing me to few
people and mentioning what I did, one of them said “Wow, you have delivered
some great stuffs”. That’s when the delivery part was ingrained in my brain.
And of course, when you are not the big shot visionary, the next best thing is
to be their delivery man.
What will readers get out of your book?
Hopefully, they will be able to take away the human experience, the re-calibration
of life’s ambitions into an acceptable achievement. The norm in the US is to
aim to be #1, to be the next great innovator. Unfortunately, it is not a
healthy pursuit for most. I have seen it with people burnt out or depressed
going to irreversible extremes. If I can help one person being happy by finding
a true self contempt, then the purpose of the book is done.
What part of the book was the most fun to write?
This is a tough question. The one that was definitely not
fun was the one where I had to talk about negativity and failures. Revisiting
unpleasant moments was well…unpleasant. For the rest, it was very interesting
to read or listen again to old posts and conferences to extract some materials.
It allowed to see the growth of character which happened over time and helped focus
on core strengths. I guess that was the delivery man in me pushing forward. The
ultimate high was when the book was almost complete and being able to see the
overall content lining up nicely. It was a big step from the board covered of post-it. The selection of the reference songs
was also great. It is a small peek into my musical taste.
Did anything stick out as particularly challenging when
writing The Delivery Man?
Everyone who writes can relate, the challenge was to put these words on paper. I had been thinking about the book for two years writing a line there, a paragraph over there. There was a point where I had to figure out what was my mood of the day so I could write the content for the chapter the most aligned with it. Talking about being in tune with a self-mental state. The other challenging or humbling part was the editing process. The first couple of rounds were brutal. You think you have written something acceptable, and it comes back with 20 or 30 edits per page. You must recognize it makes the book much better, but it was humbling.
Can you tell us a little about your background?
I am a first-generation immigrant to the US. When I
landed in 1996 as an intern, I had all these big dreams around technology,
fantasies about Silicon Valley, etc.
My childhood was spent in the early days of computing. My family doesn’t come from a tech background, so I learnt a lot by trials and errors. It helped me by having a “hacker’s” mindset in approaching technology vs the structured way of an engineering school. My studies were in international business at the Sorbonne University in Paris and economics and math in Tours. So, nothing in tech or engineering but definitely some sciences and numbers interest.
Writing came up much later. My older brother, a teacher, is the literary type. Because of my accent when I moved to the US, I discovered that it was easier for me to clearly express ideas and comments in written vs verbally (I solved the latter issue with public speaking coaching)
In part, I had to live my American Dream. I have achieved
more than most of my friends who stayed in Europe. More responsibilities, more
money, more everything.
Where can readers find out more about your work?
It is now available in 3 formats on Amazon https://tinyurl.com/39t6688n
or you can also visit the book website at www.thedeliveryman.info