I LOVE teaching teenagers. I do. They are at this amazing time in life where they have begun to develop opinions about almost every subject under the sun. But they haven’t quite refined their thought process yet. So it’s often the funniest things that pop out of their mouths.

A couple of Friday’s ago, this one kid pops off with he hates rich people.

I say why?

“Because they have soooo much money.”

“And you want that money?”

“Who doesn’t?”

I manage to say, without laughing, “It is almost impossible to become that which you hate. Maybe you should try learning from them. How did they make their money? Where did they get? How can you do that?”

Drop the microphone, baby. Stunned teenagers.

But my subconscious didn’t want to drop the microphone. It started niggling me in the back of my mind.

“Hi There. Come here often? Anyone you might be hating on you could learn from?”

Aw man.

I started thinking about James Patterson in the shower the next day. (Don’t go there, when you have kid/s the shower is often your only refuge.) I refuse to read his books anymore. They aren’t his. He doesn’t write anything anymore. He suggests, someone else writes, he looks it over. I’ve been angry about that for quite some time. I liked his early books, the ones he wrote, rather a lot back in the day. But one could say, I kinda hate him.

The other side of that, he’s a household name. He’s got so much traction in readers, he can not even write his own books and they still SELL.

What can I learn from him?

He published his first book in 1976 (I was born that year, FYI). It took him ten years to publish his first five books. He releases a couple of more and then he starts a series. Popular series that lands him a couple of movie deals. He puts out a book a year in that series, while dabbling in a few other interests. Then hits on a second series.  Shortly after that he starts getting co-authors and his books per year expand exponentially.

What can I learn from that?

— It takes time. He’s been building since I was born (clock check – 42 years). I’ve been building for 3 years.

—- A series always helps.

— Don’t bite off so much I feel the need to get co-authors to keep up with publication. LOL Wouldn’t that be a nice decision to have to make?