Third Time’s a Charm

Fifth Avenue holds fond memories for Cornelia who grew up on Long Island – frequent visits with her father as a child to view the store windows during the holidays.  So when our first book together, The Big Book of HR, was published, we were in New York for a writer’s conference and walked over Barnes & Noble on 5^th Avenue in New York City to see our book displayed on a shelf — pretty exciting for both of us. We never thought we’d tope that experience! We thought, “We can’t beat this!”

Fast forward a year and we were back in New York for the same conference and visited B&N on Fifth to discover two copies of the book were displayed, but on the lowest shelf, so getting a picture was going to be difficult. That didn’t stop Cornelia – she almost sat on the floor to do so.  At that moment, two men approached us and asked if they could help. One was the manager of the business book department who was excited to learn we were the authors of The Big Book of HR.

Turns out they were just discussing the need for more HR books. Cal turned to his assistant and instructed him to order more copies of the book. “I’m going to give your book better placement,” he exclaimed pointing to a display at the front of the store “Top Picks in Business. 

We were absolutely delighted to have met him but also to have him be so positive about our book. “We can’t beat this!”

Well, we go to the writer’s conference annually and make the trip over to see our books. Each of the but the next two years when we went, our friend Cal Hunter wasn’t there but it was still great to see multiple copies of The Big Book of HR prominently displayed.

But the third time was a charm. Cal was in the store and after thanking him for his support, he said, “Did you see the window display?” There in the window on 5^th Avenue in New York City, was The Big Book of HR in a display of “hot” business books!

We share this story for a couple of reasons. One is to thank Cal Hunter of the business book department of Barnes & Noble but the other is to serve as encouragement to you to not give up on your dreams and aspirations! 

Think about this, if Cornelia hadn’t gotten on the floor to snap a picture of our book, would we ever have had the experience of meeting Cal Hunter and having him take an interest in our book that ultimately made it to the window? I do know that not giving up was well worth it and I hope there is something in your life—either your personal life or your business life—that hasn’t happened yet. Our advice is to keep trying and never, never give up on your dreams!