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The other day when we met over coffee, Swami was in a bad mood, which isn’t surprising. But what was surprising is that he was in a bad mood because of me.
“You will never write a bestseller,” he said. “You write stories and articles and novels, that’s the problem. No one pays for stories.”
His assessment of my writing career wasn’t all that inaccurate.
“You must write something that people will pay for,” Swami added.
Jigneshbhai had a faint smile on his lips and looked up to us.
“What is it that people will pay for?” he asked.
“You are a businessman, you should know,” Swami said, breaking into a wide grin. “But I have some ideas. I have studied the bestseller lists of the past.”
He looked at me. I knew he had found a target for his ideas. Jigneshbhai was always interested in business ideas.
“And what have you found?”
“It is easy to come up with a bestseller. We have to find a problem in a niche that people are interested in,” he started. Both Jigneshbhai and I had raised our eyebrows.
“And the problem that they are most interested in is money,” Swami said. His enthusiasm for the project was evident. “So I have decided that our first bestseller will be on money.”
Jigneshbhai and I looked at each other. Swami explained the details.
“Look – Jigneshbhai knows how to make money. And you know how to write,” he explained each of our roles.
“And what will you do?” Jigneshbhai asked, not wanting to be tasked with all the work.
“Well, I will… manage the project. What about publicity, reviews, social media, and PR? There is a lot of work in a bestseller other than just ideas and writing,” Swami said.
Jigneshbhai and I looked at each other – he with his usual cynical eye and I with my blank worries. Swami had done a lot of homework on the subject.
“So I guess we are all set now!” he continued and asked us for a high-five which both of us reluctantly gave. “I have also come up with a title,” he added.
This got both me and Jigneshbhai interested.
“What is it?” both of us asked in unison.
“21 Steps to Money Nirvana: Jigneshbhai teaches Swami,” he said excitedly. He then looked at our blank faces. He did not find the same excitement. Rather he found a lot of trepidation.
“Come on guys, be a bit more enthusiastic,” Swami said this time pumping his fist. “We are going to do this. Let’s come up with an outline. We need to come up with the structure for our bestseller. 21 Steps means there have to be 21 chapters. I have studied the structure of the bestsellers.”
Swami was in a different orbit.
“I need to leave now, but next week when we meet, I want you guys ready with the chapter names of these 21 Steps to Money Nirvana,” Swami said. Then like a project manager, he left us twiddling our thumbs.
Jigneshbhai and I looked at each other and thought now that we were together, let us come up with something.
The problem is that it has been two hours since Swami left. The wealthy old man who was at the adjoining table listening to our conversation joined us too, after Swami left. But even with all the wealthy man’s experience and brains of Jigneshbhai, all we could come up with was earn well, save well, and invest well.
I don’t know how we will come up with a bestseller with just these three steps to Money Nirvana. Jigneshbhai told me that I better get back to writing stories. I nodded in agreement. I told him that I will keep writing till Swami comes up with his new formula for my bestseller. Jigneshbhai laughed aloud, and this time, even the wealthy man had a smile on his face.
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