At a Christmas party this weekend, I had the pleasure to talk with a writer (non-fiction) who was making the final edits on a book that will be coming out in 2007. It was an excellent discussion and I was very interested in the topic as well. The author was extremely humble about his expertise and the success of landing the publishing deal.

I’m not going to mention the author nor the topic because of a unique dilemma the author is facing.

He’s a tenure track professor.

It turns out that maybe 90 percent of this Ph.D’s day-to-day job responsibilities revolve around research that is unrelated to the topic of his book. To be clear, the book IS related to his area of expertise, but a different, niche facet.

He faces an interesting problem - to keep his head down, get tenure, and THEN work on trying to gain more exposure for the ideas in his book, or to say, “look, this is my passion, I’ve got to go after it!” and risk potentially negative consequences at his workplace - the consequences of a faculty and board who may not see the true value of this published work.

I know, I’m being a bit vague here. I don’t want to compromise his situation.

What would you do? Risk potentially losing tenure by trying to share with the world concepts that could impact lives, sharing concepts you are most passionate about? Or would you “play it safe,” not heavily promote your work, and hope for a clean path to the magic land of tenure?

I told him to tell the world about his book, to secure speaking spots at relevant conferences, and start following his passions – now.

Are you “playing it safe” in your own life?