Seth Kahan posted to the WorkingStories e-list of the Golden Fleece group wondering why the blog entry he posted on his Fast Company Expert Blog, Leading Change, on Feb. 12 generated a request for a book proposal, an offer of representation by a literary agent who wants to shop a book proposal around, and a ranking in the top 10 of blog posts (in terms of visitors) among February’s Expert Blogs.
Here’s a snippet from the entry, which is titled, “When on Fire, Practice Judo!:”
Philip Anschutz, the American businessman with an estimated net worth of $7.8 billion, started in the oil business drilling his own wells. His first efforts in the 60s were unsuccessful, turning up one dry hole after another. When he finally hit oil, everything looked great… for a day. A crisis followed which he called “the most important single event” in his business career. A well he owned caught fire!
Anschutz heard that Universal Studios was making a movie called Hellfighters about the legendary oil-field fire-fighter, Red Adair (who later put out the oil well fires in Kuwait during the Gulf War, 1991). Anschutz persuaded Universal to pay $100,000 to film Adair putting out his well fire for their movie. The studio cut the check. Adair put the fire out. Anschutz pocketed a profit and saved his business. The footage is in the movie.
Seth says: “Now, I did not do anything special to promote this entry — nothing I didn’t do for my other entries that month. But, clearly this post was different. Why do you think that is? I’d like to know. Can you tell me?”
How would you answer Seth?