My background is in accounting and finance. My friend Dorothy has an MBA. And that’s how my book got a title.
I suppose, if ever interviewed for television, I could use that nebulous explanation for one of those sound-bite type responses that TV is, so I’m told, quite fond of.
And, while I wait for the swarm of breathless young news reporters to arrive, this might be a good time for me to just go ahead and offer up a more thorough telling of the book’s title.
Four odd years ago I gave seminars, traveling here and there, to explore some pretty heavy stuff about happiness, money, success and Smarties™ (during the course we played a game that saw folk buying and selling boxes of Smarties™. It was fun).
Let’s now re-introduce Dorothy (who, for the purpose of this paragraph, figures very prominently). You see, Dorothy arranged for me to bring my show to Halifax, and during my visit, she became the pluperfect hostess–going so far as to greet me at the airport, take me to lunch, and give me a walking tour of beautiful, historic Halifax. During our impromptu stroll, we began discussing those weighty meaning-of-life issues, and it was after a rant that questioned why people sacrificed their present for an idyllic future they may never see, that Dorothy stopped me cold.
“You know what you’re describing?” She said, “The Net Present Value of Life.” Then she suggested something more profound, “You should write an article about that.” Which led me to hole myself up, over the next three years, in one of my bedrooms so I could morph a 1200 word essay into a novel.
You might ask, “What’s so inspirational about that murky title?” Before answering, I’d first have to explain the concept of net present value, a term that all financial types instinctively understand. Net present value is used to calculate, in today’s dollars, the future value of money. Think of it this way, given inflation and other factors, a dollar–say ten years from now–is just not worth a dollar anymore.
Now substitute ‘life’ for ‘dollars’ and you get The Net Present Value of Life, a novel that tells how a man reframed his perception about money, career and success, and about how he used that reframing to rediscover his passion, his hunger and, of course, his life.
There you have it, The Net Present Value of Life, catchy title. I always liked it. And, just as an aside, if you’re ever looking for an inspirational spark, Halifax seems to work moderately well.
