#529 Most replayed personal development wisdom snippets: The story of 'Chicken Soup for the Soul'

How many rejections would it take before you gave up on your dream?

Snippet of wisdom 83.

This is one of the most replayed personal development wisdom snippets.

My guest Mitzi Perdue shares the incredible journey of the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" book, which has sold over 500 million copies.

Press play now to hear how persistence can turn your biggest rejection into your greatest triumph.

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VALUABLE RESOURCES:

Listen to the full conversation with Mitzi Perdue in episode #240:

https://personaldevelopmentmasterypodcast.com/240

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Personal development interviews exploring key principles of personal development, self improvement, self mastery, personal growth, self-discipline, and personal improvement — all supporting a life of purpose and fulfilment.

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Transcript

Agi Keramidas: 0:02

Welcome to Personal Development mastery podcast, and this is another snippet of wisdom where I select my most insightful moments from previous episodes. Today's snippet is about the tenacity and persistence it took for the book chicken soup, for the soul to become the success that it is, with over 500 million copies sold. Let's dive right in.

Mitzi Perdue: 0:33

When Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield got together to write this book, they wrote it for a reason that I think applies today. They wrote the book probably 30 years ago. Don't hold me to that time frame, but when they wrote the book, they felt that the world was hurting. They felt that there was so much difficulty in the world that people would be hungry for things that would be uplifting and give them strength and courage and information. And both men, they were public speakers. Both men felt that in the course of their speaking that they had accumulated a whole lot of really inspirational stories, the kind where it gives you, you hear the story and you've got the energy and the direction to do better, to go farther, to not give up. They had all these stories. And one day mark and and Jack Canfield were just friends talking about how inspirational their stories were, and they had the idea, why not put them together in the form of a book. You know, your stories, my stories, let's put them together. Well, they, they probably spend a year or so working on this book. I mean, among among the but they really believed in it because, again, they wrote it because they felt that the world was hurting, and this was a way of encouraging people. But the the title of the book was Chicken Soup for the Soul, and Chicken Soup for the Soul. The idea came it started with with both men thinking, we need a really good title for this one that that really conveys that we're about helping people, and they just couldn't come up with a title. Then one night, they both decided to meditate on it separately. They're living 100 miles apart, and so they both meditated, you know, kind of asking, what would the best title be? And Mark got a phone call from Jack, you know, in the wee hours of the morning, maybe it was two or three in the morning, saying, Mark, I know, I know what, what the title should be. It should be chicken soup, because I think of my mother and my grandmother when things were bad, oh, they'd give us chicken soup. And Mark added to that, well, it's for the soul, not for the body. And so now they had the title. So they now had the book and they had the title. How do you sell it? Well, the title, which has been, you know, extraordinarily successful, Chicken Soup for the Soul. A lot of people didn't see it that way. Jack Canfield assistant quit because she said, this is such a Mickey Mouse, kind of foolish title. Nobody will want it, and you're you're lowering the brand. I don't want to be part of it. She quit. They hired an agent to help them find a publisher. The agent said, I hate the title. And they said, No, we really like it. He tried with 20 different publishers to sell the book. And finally, something that doesn't happen very often, the agent fired his clients, because he said, Nobody wants a book of stories written by somebody else. Nobody wants a book with this funny title. So now the two men are on their own, and they keep, I think it was for like a year and a half. They kept calling in different publishers, doing everything they possibly could. And finally, there's something called the American Booksellers Association convention. It's three days, and you know, the men Mark, Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield are just going around to all the publishers of probably 1000s of them. And over and over again, not only were they turned down, but people wouldn't even look at them because of the title of the book. Oh my gosh. Finally, the last day they met somebody who said, I'll give it a look, but I don't make any promise. Says the guy took the book, and then when he was in the airport, he did what nobody else had done, he started reading the book, and he said it was so moving that he was starting to cry, and he was feeling self conscious, because he's thinking, here I am in an airport, I'm a grown man, I've got a book in my end, and I'm crying. And he was wondering, what, what good all the people in the airport are thinking of him, but he, you know, he felt the book really had something, but he didn't wanted to commit without his partner. His partner read it, and the two partners agreed, and they they bought the book, or the rights to the book, but they said, you know, this is a little niche book. It might tell sell 20,000 mark. And Jack said, No, it's going to sell a million. And the publisher said, You guys are crazy, and oh my gosh, the first few weeks of when the book came out, who couldn't even believe this, the book bombed. Nobody would review it. The booksellers wouldn't carry it. If you're going to have a best seller, you know, it's a really good sign if you can sell 5000 the first week they sold 80, the book was bombing. So now, what do you do? Nobody likes the book. Nobody likes the title. Who could have ever even dreamed that one day it would, it would be in the Guinness Book of worlds records since, the booksellers in general wouldn't carry it, they began giving it away. And then something wonderful happened. And oh, is this ever the value of persistence and not giving up? You know, here they had gone through 144 different turndowns. And I believe it was 143 turns downs, and the 140/4 said, Yes, but then nobody's buying it. They begin giving it away. And people would be given a book, say at one of their talks that take it home and think, oh my gosh, this is, this is life changing. And they'd go buy five more, and Mark and Jack they they would accept radio interviews, sometimes five or six a night, and speaking engagements on top of that, and within a year and a half, they had sold more than a million copies. But you know, if they had given up by it seemed to have bombed at the beginning, we wouldn't have a half a billion books in print from the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. And I would like to invite our listeners just to imagine where, what resources can you call on to avoid giving up, because it might be, you know, the next step that you take that might bring the success that you wanted, don't give up too early.

Agi Keramidas: 8:11

Thank you for listening. You will find the full conversation with Midzi Perdue in episode 240 The link is in the show notes. If you have found value in this episode, consider supporting the show by visiting personal development mastery podcast.com/support you will also find the link in the episode description. I appreciate you until next time. Stand Out. Don't fit in