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A group of Pleasanton residents who have had to overcome hardships such as blindness, stuttering, war and a global pandemic are now sharing their stories and tips on conquering obstacles in their new book titled “Success Beyond the Backyard: 7 Neighbors Who Dared to Dream Big and Won”.
The book was co-authored by seven residents who live in the Village at Ironwood senior neighborhood with one main goal in mind: helping others thrive in life.
“Our hope is that these stories will reach people that are facing personal obstacles, personal problems, professional problems and show them that any challenges that they have can become a stepping stone … to success,” Evan Shelan, one of the book’s co-authors, told the Weekly.
According to Shelan, the idea of writing a book almost came up spontaneously.
Shelan relocated to Pleasanton almost nine years ago, but before that he was a big name in the financial technology industry after he exchanged nearly $1 billion in foreign currency and helped lead the first blockchain payment from the U.S.
Upon moving, Shelan said he loved to talk to people so that he could get to know his neighbors better. That’s when he quickly found out his neighbors were some pretty interesting people with exemplary backgrounds and stories of how they never gave up when faced with professional and personal challenges.
“They were able to solve problems like I did, and it was intuitive,” he said. “They just knew they had to do it and quitting was never an option.”
Over some time, he began formulating an idea — a possibility — of getting all of those neighbors together to write a book, which was something he personally never thought he would do.
Then, as the synergy between the seven neighbors grew, Shelan said their stories really began to resonate with him. So much so that he asked them if they were interested in writing some of their stories down.
Some of those stories include Sharon Sacks’ journey of growing up blind and being told she would never amount to anything, only to go on to become superintendent of the California School for the Blind. Other stories include Tim Lambirth’s tale of working through his stutter to become a civil trial advocate and Lutz Henckels’ journey from being a World War II refugee who later built NASDAQ-listed companies.
“Plowing through those obstacles, becoming strategic thinkers, continuing to get more education and thinking outside the box is what got them through those obstacles and that’s what got me through my obstacles,” Shelan said.
So after getting all seven authors on the same page, Shelan said the group spent about a year and a half drafting their chapters and going over the material.
The main goal behind the book, he said, was not just to capture the amazing stories the seven residents had to tell, but it was to use those stories as a way to educate and hopefully inspire others to turn their obstacles into opportunities.
So after compiling all of the stories into a draft of the book, Shelan said he sent an email of the draft to Archway Publishing who spoke with Shelan the following day and told him they wanted to publish immediately, which further cemented his notion of having a worthwhile product.
“I knew I had something good,” Shelan said. “I knew we had something that people could learn from and we had something that could help people.”
And according to the numbers, others in the country seem to agree with that notion.
Shelan said within three days of launching the book last month, it hit No. 1 in Amazon’s newest release list. Within that week, the book also got “overall best” in several other categories related to careers and jobs.
Now, the group of authors are getting set to host their official book launch on Friday (Nov. 14), which will be held at the Village at Ironwood, where they will host a panel and a question-and-answer session.
