Who knows best?

Greg Mortenson, co-author of Three Cups of Tea shared an interesting story when he spoke at Brigham Young University.

For his book Greg wanted the subtitle to be "One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time." The publisher said that title wouldn't be interesting enough and insisted the subtitle be "One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations...One School at a Time." To get the book published he was forced to use the other subtitle. But he told the publisher if the hard cover did not sell he want the subtitle changed back to the "Promote Peace" subtitle  for the paperback.

Well the hard cover did not sell very well and so the paperback came out with the "Promote Peace" sub-title. The book went almost immediately to the NYT best seller list and stayed there for something like 140 weeks. So, who knew best the publisher or the author? I don't think either did.

The experts know their business and what works most of the time, but the world is constantly changing. We must always be open to trying new ways of doing things. No one way will work all the time or in every situation.