"What About Now?"

As you know, I spent a couple of years writing BAD NEWS ON THE DOORSTEP, and it has been a couple more years that I have been introducing it to friends and visitors here.

Still, a few folks have asked me. "Joe, are you working on another project?"

I am, indeed, and I'd like to tell you a bit about it. It's a book whose main character is Joseph of Arimathea, the member of the Sanhedrin back 2000 years ago who gave his own tomb for the crucified Jesus to be buried in.

I thought that might pique your curiosity -- a teaching story about Joseph of Arimathea!

Here are some more hints.

• The name of my book is WHAT ABOUT NOW? Subtitled, "The Secrets of a Rich Man."
• It's not really a novel so much as a self-help book disguised as a mystery. The book is a manual for finding life's greatest victories by focusing on THE MOMENT WE ARE LIVING IN RIGHT NOW -- and stop beating ourselves up over the past (which is gone forever) and fretting about the future (which never quite gets here).
• The book focuses on the figure of Joseph as a kind of biblical victim of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It posits that the shock of Jesus' execution, plus other very negative events in Joseph's life, threw him into a profound depression. While all the regular disciples were allegedly visiting with the risen Christ and being filled with the Spirit of God, Joseph was unable to get out of bed.
• You will be amazed at the New Testament characters that do walk-ons in WHAT ABOUT NOW?: Mary Magdalene, Peter, Zaccheus (the little man in the sycamore tree), Martha (sister of Mary and Lazarus), Thomas (the "doubting apostle"), John, young Stephen, and even a few of less import, or so it would seem: the wife of Judas(!?); the rich, young ruler (!?); and one of the Temple guards assigned to the tomb of Jesus. Each of these visitors to Joseph's house provides him with another piece to the puzzle of fulfillment in life.

Now, first century Jerusalem in Judea is a very different terrain than the Jersey neighborhoods of BAD NEWS in the fifties. And this book is unabashedly spiritual, where BAD NEWS only hinted at the Judeo-Christian values that held its families together.

So, how did we go from a high school football game, the mob, a counterfeit ring, Sunday macaroni after church with the gravy meat, and doo wop ... to the Divine? Well the themes that emerge in the two books are not that different. And besides, I had much material to pull from.

• From my 35 years in business, I have learned from the countless men and women with whom I have worked. In the sales, marketing, and operations side of resort and residential real estate, so much was discovered from high performing professionals relative to the secrets to their successes.
• With my consulting with legendary producers in financial planning, some exposure to world renown athletes in my personal life, as well as introduction to the best in sports marketing, entertainment, and broadcasting, ... I could see the common recipes for victory in their lives.
• Being raised on the teachings of management performance garu, Ken Blanchard, a fellow Cornell devotee, I found much that was simple in crafting formulas for victory and success in our lives. Then there have been the icons of sales in my life: Larry Wilson and Zig Ziglar.
• The provocative writing of the late Oswald Chambers, English Christian Evangelist of the early 1900's, moves me to this day. And more current spritual leaders like the late Og Mandino and the current master teacher on the "power of now," Echert Tolle, simply deliver the truth, which was often hard to take.
• And you can't beat The Bible, if you're not afraid of the truth. (Remember that Jersey guy Nicholsen screaming at another Jersey guy, Cruise? "... You can't handle the truth!"). Well, get ready to hear this Jersey guy's rendition of the truth in this next project, WHAT ABOUT NOW?, "The Secrets of a Rich Man."

In the end, much you will soon find in WHAT ABOUT NOW? has been tried and tested in the crucibles of my many Sunday School classes delivered over the years, as well as with the thousands of high-powered performers who have joined me in my many Leadership, Management, and Performance Development programs.

So, I'm feeling very blessed as the book begins to grow, page by page. I believe very fervently in the message that joy exists in the moment we are in right now -- and that we get very confused when we dwell too much on what has already happened, and what has not happened yet. Finding peace in the moment is the alternative God gives us to guilt, shame, worry, and obsession -- all of which thrive outside the moment.

I will say more about WHAT ABOUT NOW? as the project develops. But I wanted to give you a heads-up early on, because -- trying to live as much as I can in the NOW -- I just couldn't wait!