So, I made a mistake

Hey friends,

I made a really simple but significant mistake this past week. Something that’s essentially irreversible. But before I get to that, I want to tell you a quick story.

Years ago, I got the dreaded, surprise “can you meet me in my office?” request from my boss. The brass door knob felt clammy against my hand after he asked me to close the door.

My mind raced as I tried to think of what the meeting could be about.

Had I done anything wrong lately?
Was there any big mistakes in recent weeks?
Why can’t I remember anything about anything right now?

My mind had gone blank.

A small voice in the back of my head perked up with some optimism—maybe this was actually good news?

It was not.

Apparently, my boss had been taking note of every single little detail that I missed for the past year. I’d been under constant review and scrutiny without knowing it. The list had no major issues or screw-ups, just several pages that detailed every single tiny mistake for a year.

Any task I forgot to follow up on. Each responsibility I’d let slide. Everything.

Just a giant list of all my little failures. Death by a thousand cuts.

I’ve often been plagued by these types of minor mistakes. My brain gets so easily distracted that I often think something is done before I finish the final step, or I get so excited about some possibility that I skip right over something important.

My brain is so loud with differing ideas and thoughts and tangents that I don’t notice that one really important piece of text in the instructions.

My mistake

I missed one of those important instructions this week. I’ve been working really hard on my book, trying to get everything ready for the launch in a couple weeks.

I logged into my Amazon account to make a small change to the book description when I missed one of those little details. A rather important one.

Rather than saving the draft for the paperback version of the book, I published it. A full two weeks too early.

Frantically, I tried to correct the mistake, but it was too late.

I contacted support, which responded quickly to tell me my only option was to wait for it to show up live on Amazon, and then “unpublish” the book. This would make it unavailable so no one would be able to order it any more. But it also meant that my official publish date in Amazon was going to be a permanent reminder of my mistake.

And it means that paperback preorders through Amazon are no longer available.

Now what?

For anyone that’s worried about their order, everything should be fine. Here’s my current understanding of things (this is Amazon only, orders from anywhere else should be unaffected):

• If you preordered the paperback: your order should still be good to go. It’s possible that you might get it early (lucky you!)

• If you preordered the ebook: these shouldn’t be affected at all, you should get access to your copy of the book on September 19th!

• If you ordered the paperback during the small window where it was available: congrats, your early copy is in the mail! You got the Ninja Edition. 🥷

In the past, I’ve really beat myself up for mistakes like this. It’s easy to get down on yourself when one more thing happens like this, and you feel like you messed up again. Especially on something that feels so simple, so silly.

But that shame and self-blame has gotten me nowhere, so I choose to focus on the positive:

I’ve officially sold the first copy of my book!

I’m going to celebrate that win. And when I see that early release date show up on Amazon, I’m not going to think of it as my mistake, but as the day I sold the first copy of my book. 🙌

Stay focused,
Jesse J. Anderson

P.S. Despite my big mistake this week, you can still preorder the Kindle version, and you can still pre-order the paperback from other sites like Barnes & Noble.

All pre-order options are available at extrafocusbook.com.

Pre-order now to get access to these pre-order bonuses:

• Discussion/Reflection Questions

• Motivation Cheat Sheet

• ADHD Strategies Reference Sheet

• ADHD Resources Guide

Extra Focus Community

Several discussions happening in the community this week on time management, dealing with talking kiosks, and managing emotional intensity.

Plus a potential NYC meetup?