My guest is best-selling author William Paul Young. Paul is the author of books like, ‘Lies We Believe About God,’ ‘Eve,’ and ‘Crossroads.’ He’s best known for his book, ‘The Shack.’ There's a very good chance that you've heard of it because over 23 million copies of the book are in print. It's been translated into over 50 languages. Listen To The Podcast: RESOURCES: Paul’s Website: http://wmpaulyoung.com TRANSCRIPT: Mitch Matthews: When Paul wrote the book though, he wasn't a successful author, he wasn't sitting on a big advance. In fact, he was working three jobs and barely making ends meet. Heck, he wasn't even thinking about writing a book, he was simply trying to create a gift for his kids, but out of all of that came this international bestseller. It's an incredible story, it's made a huge impact on me personally and based on the feedback from all of you, geesh, I've heard from so many of you, so many of you that it's made a huge impact on you too. So, we're going to talk about this journey of writing it, some of the things he's learned along the way and what he's up to next, so let's get to this. Paul, welcome to DREAM THINK DO, buddy. Paul Young: Hey, I'm glad to be here. It's about time. Mitch Matthews: It is about time. It's funny because before I hit record, we were talking about that the last time we officially did an interview was for before the DREAM THINK DO podcast even existed, which means it was over 4, 5 years ago which is nuts. Paul Young: Yeah, and you've grown up. Mitch Matthews: I know, right, all grow up. I got a lot more gray in the old goatee I'll tell you, my friend, since the last time, sheesh, so...And things are good? Paul Young: Things are good. We've got 12 grandbabies who are eleven years old and under and nine of them are within 15 minutes, so... Mitch Matthews: That's an aerobic program! You don't need a gym membership, my man. Paul Young: I know. Mitch Matthews: You've got the grandkids plan. Paul Young: No kidding and it's the best. It's the best. I love being a grandfather. Mitch Matthews: That's awesome. That is so awesome. So, what's going to be fun about this interview is I've put this out, a lot of time if I've got somebody that I think DREAM THINK DO listeners are really going to be interested in, I put it out to them to say, "Hey, what questions would you ask?" And we got more questions for you than I've probably have had for any other guest, which is so cool. Some of them are so fun, so profound, all of that, deep. So, we're going to go after those as I pepper in some of mine because it's my show. I get to make the call. Paul Young: There you go. Mitch Matthews: I can have some of my questions too. All right, so, let's go back to... I alluded to the creation of The Shack but I... and I want to get into some of your earlier history, as well, but let's go back to how this started because for DREAM THINK DOers so many people are working on a dream. Or maybe they're at a place where they are like, "I don't know that I even have a dream." And I don't think that you would have said a book was your dream as you're writing The Shack. Paul Young: No. Not at all. Mitch Matthews: So, yeah. So, Jodie and Alicia both ask big questions about, “What was the initial inspiration for writing the book?” “How did the idea begin?” So, let's start there. Paul Young: I was trying to do like the Bible says and submit to my wife. Mitch Matthews: Good word. You married up. You married up. So, if Kim says, you do. Right? Paul Young: Yeah, well. Mitch Matthews: Her question wasn't, "Paul write a book." What was her question? Paul Young: It wasn't. It was, "Someday," this is almost verbatim, and she said it over about four years, I just didn't feel ready until the year I turned 50 but she said, "Someday as a gift for our children, would you please write something that puts in one place how you think because you think outside the box...
