Persistence

The “Chicken Soup For The Soul" series has been an unqualified success.  It has generated over eighty best-sellers.  The first book alone sold eight million copies.  The “chicken soup" trademark has been transferred to other products including greeting cards and a television show.  It was not so easy, however, to sell the first book.  Jack Canfield, co-author and co-editor of the series has recently released a book entitled The Principles of Success.  In that book he discusses how many times he and his writing partner, Mark Victor Hansen, were rejected.  The original book in the series was rejected by over thirty publishers.  Even their agent gave up and said he could not sell the book.  Jack and Mark continued to talk up the possible book at their seminars and speeches.  They even got pledges from people to buy their book when published.  Finally a small struggling publishing company, Health Communications, took a chance.  All this because Jack and Mark refused stop working on something they believed in.

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J. Michael Shannon is professor of preaching at Cincinnati Bible College in Cincinnati, OH.