In this post, I actually give you a real set of stories from my travels… but I’m not 100% sure how to format my book.  I’d really love your feedback!

ARGH! Who knew a book was tough to write? Well, I guess everyone, ’cause not everyone does it… but once you get started, all these little details come up:

What do I want to gain out of having this book published?

What do I want the feel of this book to be?

What format should it be in?

Which ones of my stories should I include?

**As you read this, I’d really appreciate if you leave me comments below, and let me know your thoughts on what I should do with the book.  Maybe some goals for it, maybe a style, maybe your favorite adventures that I’ve had.

The questions keep coming up.  Perhaps they are a distraction. Every answer makes for a different book though!  For example, there is not much bigger of a joy for me than convincing someone to grab life by the balls, and have an adventure!  Maybe some call it living more passionately, but whatever you call it, you can see it in their eyes (or perhaps imagine that you’d be seeing it in their eyes if you were there in person, for those times you have to save someone’s life over the phone)– the pupils dilate… their brain already imagining how much more fun they’ll have.

I keep bragging about Kathryn, who before meeting me has never been drunk, and was not even going out locally with her friends.  She’s come back from a road trip from Dallas to New York – sometimes detouring intentionally from the path she should take… there was even some driving on the sidewalk — and is now in the process of selling all her stuff, as her 1-way ticket to Guatamala is for July 5th.  I’m so excited!

Another one is Chris.  He wanted fifteen minutes of my time, but I turned it into one hour and fifteen minutes. He was concerned about going to the Phillipines, as he’s never really left New York.  Isang the virtues of travel, of worldiness, of exploration, and of course… of learning.  There is no failure other than not learning from something… worst case scenario, you learned you don’t like the Phillipines.  By the time I was done, there was no fear left, and Chris said he felt like a kid in a candy store.

The other night, right before I unplugged from the world, I got a call from an old friend… we caught up for a bit, and I’ve convinced her to become a food blogger, pursuing her passion, without taking away from her duties as a mother of 3.

There is a happiness that comes from doing what we feel like…. and I take great pride in inspiring that, or devising the steps to pursue that.  It’s possible for everyone, and I’m sure you’re wondering what the damn point is… well.. I would enjoy doing motivational speeches.  Probably to a younger crowd, to save them from doing what they’re told, or are supposed to, and drive them towards doing what they want to, but may be scared to, as it’s not “What everyone else is doing.”

This goal can be achieved regardless of having a book.  However, having a book can help. So, if that’s one of the goals, then I should probably leave the drug reeferences (a typo… or is it?   ) out of there.

One of the goals I never even thought about is money.  There are many authors throughout history whose entire income was based on sales of their books.  Money was never something I tought about with this book.  Perhaps it’s the whole “Funnel” thing I’ve learned so much as a marketer– free or inexpensive item to get them interested, then something that costs some more, then something else slightly more pricy, then the expensive thing, then the grand daddy of all expensive things…..

Money would be nice, but I think for me the actual achievement of having focused long enough to write a book is a pretty big one.  Maybe my parents can then actually have something to brag about to their friends. “Why Ori?  Sure, he’s doing well.  He just published his book. Here we just happen to have an extra copy” – reach over to large pile of books, and give one away “It just got a great review in the New York Times!  What’s YOUR kid doing?”

At the time of this post, I have no clue what they tell their friends.

A friend of mine who is a fellow ENTP saw that I was unplugging, and wanted to share his wealth of knowledge on productivity for ENTPs.  This is based on his years of research and experience.  It was a great chat which I recorded. I had figured out a lot of these things myself, but never realized I was doing them as a system.  It was great validation to hear from a fellow ENTP.  I really like other ENTPs…. if you know any, send them this way!  “The Girl” was an ENTP…the 1st one I’ve ever dated… what a ride.

So, Jason (the above mentioned ENTP friend) had mentioned that to avoid a task falling into “boring” – which is the biggest enemy an ENTP can have – you need to realize your goals for the projects, think big and day dream about it.  This is a bit different than the usual “vision board” and other things that the secret tells you to do.  I love daydreaming!  I have not thought of these goals like that.. I had already thought of goals for the book, but I had not thought to actually think about them past the logic part.

Yesterday I jogged to the beach (yes, my feet are back to normal after my accidental marathon) to sit on the sand, and think of some goals for the book, and to day dream.  What a great assignment, “Daydream”

My older brother called me.  We’re polar opposites, and I often walk on eggshells.  He’s a lot more polite and proper than I am, has a normal life– though, he’s amazingly good at it- and is actually about to leave for Greece.  I didn’t want to have my thoughts ripped apart by logic (as I was on a mission to daydream)… but this call went well.  He mentioned that he sees my book as a series of unrelated (other than the fact they’re all from my journeys) stories told as chapters.

He recommended I check out David Sedaris.  One of my couches, Pope, had been the elf in Santaland Diaries.  Pope is awesome- she’s an alternative model, leads a burlesque troupe, acts, plays roller derby, is a costume designer, and leads all sorts of cool underground activities in Nebraska.  I still have an elf-hat from that show… I think that’s illegal or something, as I’m Jewish.

Barak (my older bro) said that I have  a similar style to Sedaris.  After downloading a few of his books last night, and falling asleep listening to them, I think that having a style similar to Sedaris is a wonderful wonderful compliment!  I truly am enjoying his random stories.  Each chapter in “When You Are Engulfed In Flames” is a different story.  The first one is about how paranoid of germs his sister is, and talking about his friend’s mom, and her love of helping out.  It just works.

He tells stories of a childhood baby sitter, he tells a story about going to the zoo in Australia to see a Dingo, he tells stories about clothes.  They’re all so random, and he captures moments and people. He makes me smile, he makes me sad.  I will buy his whole collection when I have time to go through more of it.

I decided — after talking to Barak, but before listening to Sedaris’ work — that I would just start calling people that know me well, and ask their opinion.  A lot of people thought that I should do it that way, or that I should take the best of blog, and fill in extra details.

My friend Jimmy wanted to hear of the places that I go to that are not necessarily on the tourist guides.  Maybe the lessons I’ve learned.  Sweet! I wanted to tell the lessons I’ve learned!  He suggested I tell them anecdotally.

Barak had said that I shouldn’t mix genres.  He sees my book as being for entertainment.  I certainly don’t see myself competing with Timothy Ferriss’ “The Four Hour Workweek” for a how-to guide!  That guy is pretty OCD, and has many many case studies. I look up to him, but I don’t see his style being my style.  He also had income coming at $70,000 per month, where as I have to improvise on a regular basis.  If my book is entertainment, then I shouldn’t make it a lessons book. His example of lessons book was “I came from Israel, became a fat kid here, and here’s the lessons I’ve learned to cope with the cross cultures.” (Which is my story actually, but not really the one I’m writing).

I had originally thought I’d just make it a big mix of the people, places, lessons, and things I’ve come to believe as true because of my travels, with a little bit of how-to, and jokes.

Barak said I don’t have to tie everything together.  I have a talent and tendency to tie things together… so… here’s an example… a few real stories from my travels.  I’d love to know what you think, as I think they tie together really well…

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I often get asked if I’ve ever had any bad experiences…. you know, couches I’ve stayed on where I”ve been freaked out, scared, abused, killed, raped, etc…   Since I often get along well with all the freaks and geeks, my answer is generally “no!”  Though… there were two couches that I left on a bad vibe.  I’m not sure what number I’m at now, I believe it to be around 170, but I’ll take the time to do an exact calculation later.  If I’m at 170, then 2 is a pretty damn low number!

Why were they bad experiences?  Well, for one, I didn’t like the way they treated their wife and kid. Both of them knew each other, and that should have been a warning, despite that one was in San Diego, and one was in Detroit.

Nick had sold his wife’s Nikon camera, bought a Canon camera for himself with it, and wouldn’t let her use it.  In my professional opinion, she is a much better photographer than him!  Nick had connected me with Dan.  Nick had also connected me with Gary Whiteside, who had let me use his studio to teach a creative photography workshop at.

I was motivated to teach the workshop because of T. Harv Ecker’s “Life Directions” workshop, which I was given for free as a bonus when I bought some of the coaching, and Guerilla Business School.  Life Directions was the event I drove out from Florida to California for in January, and Guerilla Business School was the reason I made it back to Florida by March.

I didn’t care for Life Directions, thought GBS was pretty impressive, and I’ll even go as far as “Life Changing” as that’s where I discovered internet marketing.

One thing was clear though, if you have an idea, take action!  So, I announced that 2 weeks from then I would have my workshop, and I did.  I had 20 attendees.  10 for each day.  It was very rewarding to have people who have been shooting for longer than I am alive give me money to teach them what I know, and then hearing from them that in one day with me they learned more than they learned in the past decade.

I showed them how to use a can of hairspray with a lighter as their lighting, rather than fancy studio strobes.  The image later became of a girl fighting off a 20 foot tall frog that has massive fangs, using a can of hair spray and a lighter.

Why did I mention Gary in connection to Nick, while mentioning that Nick was not a good couch? Because a year later one of my students informed me that Gary had been charged, and then later convicted of 51 counts of child mollestation!  Yuck! He seemed like such a nice old man!

The 2nd day of my workshop, I was invited by one of my students to come to a party they were having at the manor. Since I was feeling that Nick just wanted me around so he could pick my brain non-stop about Photoshop and photography, I took Mike up, and went to their party, rather than returning to Nick’s.

Mike had a large dungeon at his house.  This was a bondage type of party. The majority of the people were also runners who are part of the Hash House Harriers, “A drinking group with a serious running problem!”  I got an awesome photo of me tied up, and a dean of a prestigious university holding a knife to my throat…. but I was fatter then, and the rope really brings out my man boobs… so I’m not crazy about the pic.

One of the cool things about this party was that I got to interview Dave Cummings, the world’s oldest active professional porn star!  Yeah, this guy was 66 years old at the time, and banging 18 years old all day and night… they’re all nymphos, and would even be doing it off the clock.  He had the funniest stories about Ron Jeremy.  I still have to upload that video!

Since I was heading out east the next day whether I had a place to crash or not, I was pretty excited when Mike tried to connect me to another hasher in Arizona.  That would be a bit of a drive, but nothing too bad.  I was kind of sad to leave their house, as it was in the hills, and felt like a resort.  I had a gorgeous room.  Their whole house was just beautiful, with large gray stones, well chosen furniture, and of course, if I knew much about it, I’m sure I could compliment their lovely dungeon.

Their friend called me back and said that he can not let me stay there, as his dog is having health issues.  I said not to worry about it, as I am a dog person, and would much rather he look after his dog, than stress over a guest and a worried dog.  He was appreciative, and said he’d connect me with some people further on my drive.

Meanwhile, I had gotten a hold of Janet, whom I met at life directions.  She did say that if I was in Arizona I should look her up, so I did!  Janet showed me around Nogales-Sonora, which was a border town with Mexico. I arrived at night, and my GPS tried to take me into Mexico! In fact, I was warned to watch my Roaming signal, as I may get billed “out of country” if I get too close.

I pulled over on the side of the road to call Janet, and ask for directions.  It seemed I had gone too far.  She told me what road to go on, but the road I was on split into 4 routes.  There was a jeep approaching, and I thought I’d ask them which way to go. This was not the best idea.

The jeep belonged to border patrol… as did the 5 other jeeps and suvs that showed up to surround me!

Apparently, this area is known for drug dealers and coyotes (people smugglers), and my pulling over on the side of the road to make a call next to the border for 10 minutes, in the dark, in an suv that’s filled with stuff seemed a little odd.  In fact, I was sweating bullets, as there was a bit of weed in the car! Not enough to be considered a smuggler, or even a serious smoker… but you hear stories.

These people started asking me all sorts of questions about who I am, where I’m going, why I’m here, etc… I told them the truth, showed them my GPS, gave them my business card, and even showed them my phone’s call logs.

I’m not sure what it is about my business card, but I do love to give it to figures of authority.  So far, I must have been pulled over, and given it to probably 5 cops so far, and have always gotten out of trouble.  There may be a lesson there about having an interesting story.

They let me go, and I went on to meet Janet.  I stayed with her for a little bit.  We did go into Mexico one night for some Mexican food, and to explore the local shops.  This was no Cancun, so I was fascinated.  Janet is into the artistic things in life.  She is involved with the community and its galleries.  I went with her to see Mark Wood (a violinist who’s played with Billy Joel and Aerosmith) and Laura Kaye (a singer/songwriter who’s sang with Aretha Franklin and Lenny Kravitz) as they did their program called Electrify Your Strings– where they go around the country, and make kids in orchestras and bands feel pretty damn cool.

It was fascinating.  These kids truly were amped up!  They performed many rock songs, and had spraypainted their hair all different colors.  This was clearly out of the ordinary. I got to do a quick interview with Mark and Laura as they left.

I got to see my first Roadrunner in Arizona.  Janet took me to Tubak, an artists’ colony, and a fascinating place to photograph.  I always did like the cartoon, though I was always rooting for Wile E Coyote.  Seeing a real bird like this was odd.  He didn’t say “meep meep!” or stick his tongue out at me.  It looked more like a large chicken with freakishly long legs… and it did take off in a cloud of dust.

My next stop was in fact the connection that Mike’s friend had made for me!  The Reeders in Tombstone, Arizona!  Tombstone is a town that’s known for western films… the whole Wild West thing took place there, and the Reeders were part of the Vigilantes — the historical reenactors that make up the vast majority of the town’s economy, since it is a tourist attraction.

They performed amazingly, and I got to hang out during rehearsals, and even grab some grub at Vigilante Hall.  It really did feel like a trip into another time.  Their costumes are very authentic, for example, the little girl who’s an actress there is not allowed to do an open-mouth smile, as she has braces… which did not exist in the wild west.

An amusing thing that happened was that they tried to play a prank on me, and pretend as if I walked into the wrong bar…. except, I did walk into the wrong bar!  Some drunk girl walked up to me and started conversing with me, and introducing me to everyone there…. After a while, gut feeling set in that something was wrong, and I dialed Stacy, and watched as the drunk girl’s phone did not go off.  I went across the street to the right bar, but now the joke was in fact over by an hour or two.

As far as Dan goes… the other person I mentioned had come through Nick… he broke my Canon 1D Mark II camera, and didn’t offer to pitch in for the repair… there’s more, but that’s another story.

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So… there you have it… a bunch of stories that are tied by a unifying thread.  Too much? Keep going?  Something you’d want to read in the book?  I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

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