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 Darryl Rosen
Darryl Rosen Covers the Middle Miles in Business and Publishing
 I started running marathons when I was 13 years old, the same year I began working in the family business. In those days, I thought running and working were simple and easy; I didn’t know any better. After college, and a couple years of public accounting, I got a big shot of reality. My experience inspired me to write my first book, Surviving the Middle Miles: 26.2 Ways to Cross the Finish Line with Your Customers, to help readers become successful in business and life by “surviving the middle miles”.
In the early 90s, I ratcheted up my marathon running, and I tried to qualify for the Boston Marathon—26.2 miles! Boston represents the Mecca for marathon runners. It is hallowed ground, and they don’t allow just anybody to run. You have to run a qualifying time in another marathon before you gain entry into Boston, the oldest marathon in the United States. I thought it would be simple and easy. That was my first mistake!
I trained the entire summer. I was fast, fit, strong and ready; and more than a little full of myself. Listen to the experts and run a conservative pace? Not a chance, I thought, as I toed the line that October morning. “Just do it,” I told myself as I laced my shoes. The gun went off and for reasons still unclear to me many years later, I took off like I was running the 100-yard dash!
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At 10 miles I was struggling, by 12 miles I was walking and at 14 miles I was looking for a taxi! I was done. I was unable to survive the middle miles, the part of the race where the excitement of the start has faded and you can’t yet imagine the taste of the finish. As a result, I never crossed the finish line that unseasonably warm Sunday morning. I didn’t realize the real race begins in the middle miles.
My family experienced a similar phenomenon in our business. In the early 90s, our family business, Sam’s Wines & Spirits, a Chicagoland institution started by my grandfather in the 1940s, experienced exponential growth. Despite the fact that it took over 40 years to occur, it seemed to happen overnight. We weren’t operating a shop anymore, but a real business. We experienced many typical growing pains, and I realized that the only simple part was the simplicity of my prior thinking.
In the early years, customers were always cheering, much like people do at the start of a race. It seemed like everybody loved us. We were new and exciting. As we grew, we ran right into the middle miles trap, only we didn’t know it at the time. Conditions were changing all around us. Competition was fierce. We were caught between stages, transforming from shopkeepers to real business people. We looked for ways to differentiate ourselves, to stand out from the growing crowd of competitors around us. What seemed simple was far from easy. How did we do it? What was our secret? How did we build a business that won major industry awards such as the Market Watch Retailer of the Year and the Wine Enthusiast Retailer of the Year, not to mention the hearts and wallets of hundreds of thousands of happy customers each year?
We survived the middle miles. Will you ever have to survive the middle miles? Of course! Anything worth having, doing or accomplishing forces you to spend some time in the middle miles. To be successful with such endeavors, you have to get through the lean times. From my publishing experience, there are no lean times with AuthorHouse.
If you’re thinking about publishing your first book, the middle miles await you, but AuthorHouse is there for support. In the beginning, they explain the publishing process very carefully. The process of watching the book come together was undoubtedly exciting and fun. AuthorHouse stuck by me, communicating with me at every turn. They hit the right deadlines and were there at every mile marker. With other self-publishers, new authors may get frustrated, lonely and disappointed. Some stop trying. Others quit and give up their dream of writing a book, like I gave up my dream of completing the Boston Marathon. But AuthorHouse, like any good company, was there to support me during the middle miles and make sure my book was completed.
When you complete a marathon you get a medal, sore legs for a week, and a great feeling of accomplishment. When you write and publish a book your reward is equally as impressive: your voice in print for all to see! By considering AuthorHouse to publish your book, you obviously have the courage to start the race. Rest assured, you’re going about the race in the right way. I have no doubt that I’ll soon be seeing you in the finisher’s tent!
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