In Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time, Greg Mortensen recounts how a villager in Pakistan helps him in distress after he fails to climb K2, so he decides to build a school for the village. Starting with no money, connections, job, or place to live, he goes on to be responsible for building more than 145 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. This irresistibly inspiring book has been on the New York Times bestseller list since it was published in 2007 and led to a bestselling sequel: Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Education in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance which spent more than two years on the Times list, Barack Obama tells the remarkable story of growing up and his odyssey to Hawaii and Kenya in search of his roots. His life enlarges the sense of possibility for what someone born in about the least likely circumstances to become President can accomplish. His is one of the greatest personal triumphs in history. He followed it up with another bestseller: The Audacity of Hope.

Dreams and Three Cups are remarkable books that are changing lives. The authors prove Thoreau’s belief that the greatest advantage is to have no advantage. If Greg Mortenson can start with nothing and establish more than 145 schools, and Barack Obama can become President, what can you accomplish?

Thousands of writers have successful books every year. If they can do it, you can. It’s time for you to start fulfilling your potential. How the San Francisco Writing for Change Conference can help you is the subject of the next post.

The Third San Francisco Writing for Change Conference: Writing to Make a Difference Time / November 13-14, Hilton Financial/Chinatown / www.sfwritingforchange.org / Keynoters: Million-copy selling authors Millman (Way of the Peaceful Warrior) and John Robbins (Diet for a New America)