Q&A with Bill

Enjoy these additional insights with author Bill Green about writing All In…

  1. How long did it take you to write All In? Can you tell us more about the process?

    This project did not start as a book but simply to create a personal memoir to give to my children & grandchildren.

    I organized notes and data points for two months and then took about 18 hours (split over three days) to dictate the notes. After they were transcribed it turned out to be 375 pages. I then hired an editor to help cut out things that were unimportant, politically incorrect and most importantly edit for syntax, form, grammar etc.

    It was the feedback from that initial edit that inspired me to attempt to create a book to inspire others. I started writing All In on January 1, 2016 and completed the initial manuscript on October 15th, so 9-1/2 months to complete. The next 2-1/2 months I was going through developmental edits.

  2. What inspired you to write All In?

    My dad had been diagnosed with Alzheimers, so knowing that the disease could be passed on genetically, I decided to document my career.

  3. You talk about mentors in your book. Who influenced you most in business?

    I talk in my book about having mentors for different issues and different times in your life. (See my blog post on finding mentors.)

  4. Which authors or entrepreneurs have influenced your own writing?

    None, because I didn’t’ start this as a book so I just talked and my own voice became the writing style.

  5. Which book or books have had the biggest impact on you?

    An oldy but goody. NYT best seller, How to Swim with the Sharks Without Getting Eaten Alive, which was written in the 80s. I remember the author Harvey McKay at the time ran a $60 mil company that was a manufacturer of envelopes. When I decided to start writing a commercially acceptable book I thought that if he could be a thought leader, why not me? Also, Mark McCormack’s What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School. I believe All In shares the same theme.

  6. What was your greatest challenge in building your businesses?

    I think it’s always about finding and keeping the best people as I write in my book in the section on “Building a Championship Team.”

    Also, I was insecure about not having finished college. Once my first company went public I had to overcome that insecurity. I guess after I fired a few MBA’s I overcame it…

  7. Name a book, besides All In, that you wish everyone would read.

    Dale Carnegie’s, How to Win Friends and Influence People.

  8. How would you like to be remembered?

    Now this is a great question:
    1) Honest
    2) Ability to work harder and do whatever it takes to succeed and
    3) Ability to create great companies by taking existing business ideas and simply executing better
    4) A deep desire to make my partners and employees successful.
    5) On the personal front – my family and friends knowing I was always there for them.

  9. What’s the one most important thing you’d like a start-up entrepreneur to know that you didn’t know yourself when you began this journey?

    Have the passion, the love, and the commitment. Everything else will take care of itself.