Why “The Can’t Monster?”

The Can’t Monster resulted from numerous streams of inspiration stretching across many years. The title of the book, however, was the product of a single moment in May 2016.

I spent several weeks in the spring of 2016 developing a proposal that I believed would improve the efficiency and productivity of my office. I bounced the ideas off a coworker and then shared it with my immediate supervisor, finding him quite receptive. He arranged a meeting to discuss the proposal with our entire team. The day of the meeting had arrived, and I expected the worse.

The night before, I’d mentioned to my fiancée (now wife) that I was dreading the meeting. I’d only been a part of the team for a year and a half, but that was long enough to get a feel for my coworkers and the overall power dynamic within the office. This knowledge led me to expect resistance to my proposal from one, if not more, of my colleagues.

Much to my surprise, the meeting started off quite well. All but one of my teammates were present, and all in attendance seemed amenable to my ideas. Our discussion was both amicable and productive. You could’ve knocked me over with a feather.

About forty-five minutes into the meeting, the one absent member of the team arrived. He stood in the back of the room and peered across the conference table at the large digital display on the far wall. Then he spoke. Within seconds, he’d confirmed why I’d been dreading the meeting since the moment it was scheduled.

Lacking any context for understanding what he was looking at, having missed the preceding forty-five-minute discussion, he emphatically pronounced the plan unworkable. The next ten minutes or so were a blur. The team leader, an Army officer, and a few others mounted a full-throated defense of my handiwork. I was not one of them. I knew that nothing good could come from it. I just wanted to hide under the table.

Once the meeting was over, I returned to my desk. I found an email from my fiancée inquiring about my day and, specifically, how the meeting had gone. I explained that the discussion had been unexpectedly positive, right up to the point that the latecomer arrived. After that, everything went downhill (and fast). I concluded with something very close to the following, “I really like [this coworker], but he’s the Can’t Monster.”

Her reply: “There’s your million-dollar idea.”

We’ll see about that, but she was right that I had a promising book title, and perhaps the beginnings of a book concept. After a few false starts, I finally started making headway almost five years later, in February 2021. Two long years later (and anyone who has ever published a book knows how slow the process can feel), and nearly seven years since the moment of inspiration, I’m proud to announce that The Can’t Monster is now for sale (preorder, that is).

Buy your copy today via Amazon or Barnes & Noble. FYI: the paperback measures 6.5″ square, whereas the hardcover edition is 8″ square.