Delivering on the Dream

The World Future Society has a theme for this year’s conference in Toronto:
DREAM, DESIGN, DEVELOP and DELIVER.
A very appropriate theme for futurists. So I’m going to jump right to the point, Deliver. Because that’s what I’ve been working on for several months. So here’s the headline:
Es TU Futuro and O SENIN Gelecegin.

Those are the titles of two new books, both translations of It’s YOUR Future… Make it a Good One!

Both books were published this month (July) and are already available in paperback at Amazon.com and will be at Barnes and Noble, Apple’s iBookstore, Google Books and most other online bookstores in much of the world. This is just the start, as I intend to publish this book in several more languages.

That’s where the “DREAM” comes in, because I feel these books about applying futures methods to individual lives make a difference. I’ve certainly seen that in my workshops and heard it in emails from readers. So my dream is to make a difference in people’s lives. The DESIGN stage took place from 2001 through 2005 when I did research and wrote a dissertation, Personal Futures: Foresight and Futures Studies for Individuals. The DEVELOP stage began in 2006 when I developed workbooks and started giving workshops and presentations about Personal Futures. That is when I originally met both Ufuk Tarhan and Guillermina Baena Paz. They both participated in a Personal Futures Workshop at the World Future Society conference in Toronto IN 2006.

The DELIVERY stage started in 2010 when I published "It’s YOUR Future, Make it a Good One!" in paperback and in eBook versions. Then about the first of this year (2012), I received a translation from Ufuk Tarhan in Istanbul. Ufuk and Fusun Kilicturgay, who had earlier translated the "Personal Futures Workbook" into Turkish, had worked together to produce this translation, titled "O SENIN Gelecegin" in Turkish, and I started preparing the manuscript for publication as an eBook. I won’t bore you with the challenges and frustrations for a beginner preparing a book for publication, but it has certainly been a learning experience. Ufuk wrote a forward for the book and it started moving toward publication.

In the meantime, I had contacted Dra. Guillermina Baena Paz in Mexico City and asked if she would be interested in translating my book. She replied “Yes” with enthusiasm, then recruited Alethia Berenice Montero to work with her on the translation of "Es TU Futuro" and soon delivered a completed manuscript, with a “Prologo” by Guillermina.

Because of my “learning curve” experiences, the Spanish book soon caught up with the Turkish book, and they ended up both being submitted to Create Space, proofed, and approved within a week of each other. Now, I have printed copies on the way and will take copies of all three books to Toronto for the WFS Book Store. I’m scheduled to be on a panel Sunday afternoon, then to sign books at 3:30 in the WFS Bookstore.

I hope you’ll stop by and say “Hello!”