Have a Little Faith - Mitch Albom

The first time I saw Mitch Albom was in 2003 at the Ryerson Theater in Toronto he was there to promote his book The Five People You Meet in Heaven. It was his first work of fiction after writing Tuesdays With Morrie.

Of the stories he told that night the most memorable was about his first appearance on The Oprah Winfrey show just after the initial release of Tuesdays With Morrie. He told us his intention with writing the book was to raise money for his former professor’s medical expenses. The original print run was only 25,000 copies. Although it was a small print run somehow one of those books found its way to Oprah’s desk. Shortly after that he was invited to the show to talk to Oprah about the book. As he waited in the green room one of the show's producers told him he had better make sure his publisher had books ready to go as soon as the show finished. Neither he nor his publishers had any idea of what was about to happen.

Finally, the last segment arrived, and Mitch made his way onto the stage to meet Oprah. He recalls it being a time when Oprah had really big furniture on her set. He then says, “as you can see I'm not a really big guy so when I sat down my feet barely touched the ground”. He continued telling us that he was so nervous talking to Oprah, that even though he had a shirt and sports jacket on that day he sweated through both. He laughed and said, “that’s not easy to do”.

He finished the story by saying the producer was right, the demand for the book after the show exploded. To date, Tuesdays with Morrie has sold over 14 million copies. Not bad for a book that many publishers turned down before he was on the Oprah show.
 
I saw Mitch Albom on Super Soul Sunday with Oprah discussing the 20th anniversary of the Tuesdays with Morrie. I noticed he was wearing only a shirt and no sports jacket. I guess he has gotten over being nervous talking to Oprah. It also looked like his feet were planted firmly on the ground.

He has recently released his latest book called The Next Person You Meet in Heaven, which is a sequel to The Five People You Meet in Heaven. I have enjoyed all his books and look forward to reading this latest one.

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