Gavin de Becker

If this story is resonant to you, if this experience from all these people that I interviewed is resonant to you, and if that works for you, then you'll find value here.

There are some practical reasons why it was a bestseller, like Oprah doing it.

I mean, everybody did it.

Time magazine, Newsweek, everybody did big things on the book.

Why at that moment did that work out?

I have a theory, which is that a lot of people in media knew me.

or knew of me, but I never had done anything public.

And it took a lot of courage to do.

And when I, for me, I talk about things that were very personal in that book and in the other books as well.

And it took a lot of courage.

In fact, I went and met with two authors beforehand who had told

really hard stories about their lives.

And I didn't know them.

I just asked for meetings.

One of them was in D.C.

And I got some encouragement.

I also remember, by the way, meeting with a group of law enforcement officials who were at my company for some reason, and I told them a couple of stories from that book, childhood stories.

And they were kind of aghast.

Everybody was like, oh, it didn't stimulate any conversation at the table.

I knew I was in a kind of territory that most people run away from.