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The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World…Word by Word

The Steve Laube Agency

The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World Word by Word

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Home » Success

Success

“You Are What You Do” – A Very Dangerous Myth

By Steve Laubeon May 5, 2025
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Typically, we define work as something we “do.” Work can then be defined as the activity you do as a profession and for which you are paid. But if you are a writer, the latter half of that formula isn’t always a guaranteed proposition!

Thus, for the writer, we are left with a definition of work as being what you do. But that can be a dangerous thing because we tend to let what we do define who we are. I can speak to this firsthand.

Over 30 years ago, I lost my job. I won’t go into the gory details; suffice it to say it was a surprise and came without warning. Since I had some time on my hands, I thought I would take a night class on the Old Testament prophets at a local seminary. During the first session, the professor had us go around the room, say our names and what we did for a living. When it came my turn, I flushed with embarrassment and said, “My name is Steve Laube, and I am unencumbered by employment.” I felt so humiliated that I left the building during the first break and never returned.

Why did I react that way? Because I defined myself by my work. And since I no longer had “work,” I no longer had a purpose. A ridiculous reaction? Maybe. But it was very real at that moment.

I wrestled during those months of unemployment with my own sense of identity and purpose. Ironically, my work became the job of finding a job. Eventually, through God’s mercy, I received a phone call from Carol Johnson at Bethany House Publishers wanting to talk about me becoming an editor. And a new chapter began.

I learned some valuable lessons during those dry times. Some of them may apply to your situation.

1. I am not what I do. While it is so easy to fall into this trap, it is actually a sinkhole without a bottom. You are not a writer. I am not a literary agent. What we do is not our identity. I have to trust what God says in Philippians 3:20 and Colossians 1:13-14 and 1 Peter 2:9. If we believe in Christ, our identity is in Him.

2. Waiting is hard. Need I say more?

3. Success is impossible to define. We all struggle with this, but writers in particular. We drink up numbers and rankings and other authors’ successes like water in a parched desert. When our numbers are not what we had anticipated, we get depressed. Since writing is solitary and time-consuming, there is a desire to have some criteria by which we can judge whether the effort is “worth it.” But that definition is incredibly subjective. No two authors define success in the same way. I talked to a writer who was angry that their latest book did not sell the usual 50,000 copies, but only sold 40,000. Another author was mortified that their book sold only 1,200 copies over two years. Publishers can also define success differently. One may sell 5,000 copies and celebrate. Another publisher may sell 5,000 copies, and someone’s job is on the line.

Let’s return to number one on the list above and think about it for a moment: “You are not what you do.” Then, aren’t the other two solved by grasping the import of number one?

It is simplicity itself. Instead of searching for identity, success, and gratification, we already have everything we need.

Please don’t misread me. I’m not saying you can’t or shouldn’t identify what you “do.” I am a literary agent. This is a true statement and the answer I give when asked, “What do you do for a living?” Giving a theological answer would come across as pretentious.

Writing is something we get to do.
Writing is something we are called to do.

In that, there is purpose. In that, there is success.

However, I do not wrap up my Identity (with a capital “I”) in my job. That lesson was learned. My identity, as in who I am at the core, should not be defined by my occupation. How we act is a reflection of our inner self. “You will recognize them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16). “Faith apart from works is useless” (James 2:20). And yet at the same time, 2 Corinthians 5:17 reads, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

 

[An earlier version of this post was published in 2014. It has been reworked and updated.]

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Category: Career, Personal, TheologyTag: Career, Success

4 Conference Success Secrets

By Steve Laubeon March 3, 2025
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I have been on the faculty of nearly 200 writers conferences over the years. Some might say that is the definition of insanity… !?! But I would not be where I am today if it were not for the fine people I have met over the years at those events. I am a firm believer in the purpose behind a writers conference and what can be accomplished. After a while it became clear which writers were going to …

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Category: Career, ConferencesTag: Success, writers conferences

Publishing Success Can Be Fleeting

By Steve Laubeon July 29, 2024
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Can you name the USA national college football champion in 2019? Or name the winner of American Idol in 2022? What was the best-selling Christian novel in 2023? Or, even harder, name two of the top five top best-selling Christian nonfiction books of 2019, only five years ago. My point is that success is fleeting. On top today, forgotten tomorrow. But that depends on your definition of success, …

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Category: Book Business, CareerTag: Career, Success

Define Success

By Steve Laubeon July 15, 2024
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Success. It is a word that has a “sweet smell” for some and is the “gold ring” of achievement for others. But in order to appreciate success, we must first define it. And there is the rub. Each one of us defines success differently, especially writers. Here are some definitions I’ve heard or seen: Getting an agent My first book contract Selling 20,000 copies of my …

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Category: Book Business, Career, MoneyTag: Career, Money, Success

Success

By Dan Balowon May 5, 2021
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I am using the 20th year remembrance of the death of Clifton Hillegass as inspiration to make a larger point about the direction an author’s life can take. Clifton (pictured above is his statue in Kearney, NE) was the creator of CliffsNotes and passed away in Lincoln, Nebraska, at the age of 83 on May 5, 2001. I assume most of you reading this post are aware of CliffsNotes and also of how much …

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Category: Creativity, The Writing Life, TheologyTag: Success

How Do You Measure Success?

By Steve Laubeon December 9, 2019
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by Steve Laube

A few years ago while talking to some editors they described an author who was never satisfied (not revealing the name of course). It this author's latest book had sold 50,000 copies the author wondered why the publisher didn't sell 60,000. And if it sold 60,000 why didn't it sell 75,000? The author was constantly pushing for "more" and was incapable of celebrating any measure of …

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Category: Book Business, Career, TrendsTag: Book Business, Career, Money, Success

Thank You, Authors!

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon April 5, 2018
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Steve Laube and I were discussing recent contracts and that conversation further underscored a thought that led me to write this post. Success is not about us, but about our authors. Thank you, Authors! For laboring over your books. Each day, you must sit in front of a blank white screen and fill it with words. Good words. Words that will touch, inspire, convict, and uplift. Thank you, Authors! …

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Category: The Writing LifeTag: Authors, Success, The Writing Life

Amnesia: The Key to Success

By Dan Balowon February 28, 2017
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At some point, anyone involved in motivational or inspirational communication will touch on the necessity of leaving the past behind and moving on from a painful experience or time of life in order to grow personally or professionally. Millions of people spend billions of dollars each year on counselors helping them overcome past issues in their lives. For Christians, leaving a past behind through …

Read moreAmnesia: The Key to Success
Category: Encouragement, Faith, Inspiration, The Writing Life, TheologyTag: Failure, Inspiration, Success, The Writing Life

It’s Never One Thing

By Dan Balowon May 3, 2016
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Somewhat of a follow-up to last week’s post on the future being a complex mix of everything rather than one magic solution, today we will focus on authors and what it takes to make a successful writing career. Like everything else in life, it is never one thing. Success is always a result of a variety of things that came together to make it work. The same is true for something considered …

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Category: Book Business, CareerTag: Career, Success

A Definition of a Successful Artist

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon April 30, 2015
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Recently I witnessed an artist (not a writer) put work out to the public that I believe needed some polish. Some of my close family and I agreed that it shouldn’t have been released without being improved first. However, this artist was being cheered by intimate friends and family. I’m not positive all of these people actually like the art itself. I think many of them just want to …

Read moreA Definition of a Successful Artist
Category: Art, Awards, Craft, CreativityTag: Art, Career, Success
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