If you’ve ever been told you’re not good enough to do something, read on.

The odds of having a #1 bestselling book are over a million to one.

Here’s how a kid who graduated last in his class from college with a 2.2 GPA accomplished this nearly impossible feat – despite having the worst timing possible.

Glenn self-published his first three books. Then in 2005, an executive editor with John Wiley & Sons in New York City sent him an email with one sentence that would change his life forever. It read:

“We want to publish your next book.”

This was like Taylor Swift calling an unknown guitar player out of the blue and saying “I want you to join my band”.

Wiley is a literary giant that published legends including Edgar Allen Poe, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, Hans Christian Andersen, and Charles Dickens in the 1800’s.

Today they’re the world’s largest publisher of medical, scientific, academic, and business books . They’ve published 490 Nobel Laureates from every Nobel Prize category; and also publish the For Dummies™ series, CliffsNotes™, Betty Crocker®, and Weight Watchers® cookbooks.

So how does a “Dumb Hillbilly” in Nashville get lucky enough to have a giant in New York City want to publish him?

Glenn always answers that question with this Thomas Jefferson quote:

“The harder I work, the more luck I have.”

Wiley was looking for a book on how to manage problem employees. They Googles “How to manage problem employees” and Glenn’s name came up more than anyone else.

How?

Because he was on the road over 200 nights a year teaching a seminar by that name.

He still had to submit a proposal to win over the publishing committee in new York City. To help with that, the editor sent him a proposal from another author he’d discovered. His name was Larry Winget and his book was Shut Up, Stop Whining, and Get a Life.

Glenn patterned his proposal after Larry’s but knew he was out of his league when it came to writing. So he added this promise to the proposal:

“I won’t be your best writing or best selling author. But I will be your hardest working, most low maintenance, and most reliable.”

That impressed the publishing committee so much that they sent him a contract the same day and mailed him his first advance the next day.

Then came the hard work.

The contract called for a 60,000 word manuscript and allowed only 4 months to get it done.

Glenn wrote from 4:00 am till 9:00 pm every day he wasn’t doing seminars. And on seminar days, he wrote from 4:00 am till 7:00 am, gave a seminar from 9:00 to 3:00, drove to the next city, and then wrote at the hotel till 9:00 pm.

His first book with Wiley was titled How to Manage Problem Employees.

It wasn’t a bestseller, but his work ethic impressed them so much that they offered him a second publishing deal.

The next book was How to Make Performance Evaluations Really Work. It also wasn’t a bestseller, but they were impressed enough that they offered him a third publishing deal – all in less than one year.

That book was How to be the Employee Your Company Can’t Live Without.

By now, Glenn’s confidence had soared and he set out to make this one a bestseller.

But his dreams were crushed when he got a piece of devastating news from his new publicist in San Francisco just weeks before his new book was to be released.

A book titled The Da Vinci Code had just been released and was being made into a movie starring Tom Hanks.

Another titled Marley and Me had just been released and was being made into a movie starring Jennifer Anniston and Owen Wilson.

Another titled Eat, Pray, Love had just been released and was being made into a movie starring Julia Roberts.

This was a disaster, because Hollywood has more money and marketing power than anyone.

To make things even worse, mega authors Stephen King and James Patterson had just released their newest books, as had mega pastor Joel Olsteen. And to rub salt in the wounds, JK Rowling’s latest Harry Potter series was out.

Glenn’s publicist told him “You have the world’s worst timing. There’s no way you’re going to beat all of them. ” 

But in a plot twist that even Steven Spielberg couldn’t have imagined, Glenn leaned on the  one thing he had going for him… 

his blue collar work ethic.

His executive editor in New York had told him to spend 25% of his time writing the book and 75% on marketing it.

And that’s what he did.

He drove to every Barnes and Noble store from Miami to Minneapolis on his own time and at his own expense, doing book signings.

He did non-stop radio interviews.

He sent an advanced manuscript to book reviewers at every major newspaper in America.

He also sent an advanced manuscript to 68 CEOs and asked them to endorse it. He never heard back from 62 of them, including Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

But the CEO of Office Depot, Staples, Cessna, Ruby Tuesday, 1-800 Flowers did respond and endorsed the book, and the momentum built from there.

Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series which has collectively sold over 100,000,000 million copies, even helped Glenn promote his book. (Mark is legendary for helping young authors because his book was originally rejected by over 140 publishers).

And when it was finally released, How to be the Employee Your Company Can’t Live Without became an instant #1 Best Seller – beating odds of over 1,000,000 to 1.

Tribune Media Services selected it as one of the best career books of the year.

It was such a phenomenal success in the U.S. that it went on to be translated into Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Korean, and Bulgarian.

Ironically, one of the chapters in the book was titled Adopt the Work Ethic Your Grandparents Had.

Glenn hadn’t intended for that to be autobiographical.

But it proved to the world that you don’t have to be smartest, most educated, or most talented person to succeed – even when you’re out of your league.

Just be the hardest working  and most persistent, and eventually success will come.