Transcription
I was, uh, publishing my book, "The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work," and I went to, uh, Crown, the publisher. I tried to convince them to put a lot of money into advertising this book.
I talked to their staff, and the guy who was head of marketing was very skeptical. I was just not winning this guy over. Finally, he, uh, he spoke up and he said, "Look, tell me one thing I can do in 30 seconds to improve my marriage."
I said, "Well, the book really has a lot of things, but if I was going to pick one thing, it would be honor your wife's dreams."
The guy stood up and walked out of the room. I thought, "Well, that didn't go very well." But it turned out he actually was stunned by my answer because he had didn't have a clue what his wife's dreams were.
He went home. He left the office and took a Subway to Brooklyn, where he lived, and walked in. His wife and his wife said, "Did you get fired?" You know, this guy was a really sort of strong personality. And he, he said, "No." He said, "I had this guy over there, you know, he studies marriage, and I want to know what are your dreams."
And she, she looked at him and she said, "I thought you'd never ask." And they had this great conversation, and he got behind advertising the book. [Music]