What the “book written in a day” teaches us about networking

You can buy the “book written in a day” on Amazon

This summer, we released a book written by our members called the Business of Humans which is about why humans should be more important than the business they run. It immediately became an Amazon top 5 best seller. But more importantly, the story of how it was written illustrates the power of community and bringing good people together. James West explains.

Is it possible to write a book in one day? That was the intriguing question put to us by Benjamin Drury, AKA the Culture Guy. As it transpired, the answer was a resounding ‘yes’. 

How do you write a book in one day?
We started with the main topic: why humans should be more important than the businesses they run. Then we invited our members to attend a Zoom call where we looked into the themes and decided who was writing what. And then we gave our members just one hour after the call to submit their chapter.

This collective effort meant we massively streamlined what should be an arduous and even painful project into something manageable and enjoyable. The beauty of writing that quickly is it preserves the energy and vibrancy of the words that is sometimes lost through endless rounds of editing and rewrites.

The book that proves its own point
The book is about taking control of time, priorities and communication to ensure that people, their goals, purpose and relationships are more important than the business they run.  And the writing of book was a wonderful illustration of that dynamic in action. In a very short space of time, we created something valuable that raised our individual profiles and the profile of ONLE, without anyone having to make huge sacrifices.  

The Business of Humans is about our power as a collective to achieve something that is out of reach for most individuals. It’s about why it’s important to realise that the physical isolation we’ve experienced since the Covid crisis changed the world, we were already more fragmented and disparate than ever. Social media can be a force for good but all too often it feeds a climate of distrust and jealously. Human beings evolved as tribal beings but all too often, people are finding themselves alone, arguing online with people who have no interest in learning or changing their opinions. 

People want to help
At ONLE, we believe that people are fundamentally good. And it’s clear that many others share this view. Contrary to how the media and social platforms portray society, the vast majority of people want to make things better for themselves and their families. But they also want to help friends and strangers and leave the world in a better state than when they found it. And they want to socialise and work with people like them.

We’re very proud that within ONLE Networking, we’ve found those people and continue to find more just like them. We launched ONLE Networking with a simple idea: to become a network that believes people are more important than their business. And certainly more important than profit-for-profit sakes. We’re the network for people who like people and to our constant delight, this resonates with exactly the kind of people we like talking to!

We believe this book is just a starting point - our contribution to changing a hierarchy that has made business more important than people. A book cannot reverse this. But a community can.

Buy the book: Business of Humans on Amazon.