Why This Book
(The Author's Story)

When I was a Junior in high school, I decided to run for Vice-President of the Student Council. I had no experience as a class officer or Student Council member, I wasn't popular, and the other two candidates were far more qualified than I was. One was a popular cheerleader and multiple-term class officer, the other was a top student who had held Student Council positions for years, was already the Student Council Secretary, and was widely expected to win. I was the underdog.

I decided to come up with a real "issue" that I could run with. I looked around the school and thought to myself, "What could a Student Council officer do to make this school a better place to be?" I decided that the school rule prohibiting students from ordering pizza deliveries at lunchtime was worth addressing. So I went to the principal and discussed the issue with him, and he explained to me that the rule was made years ago because students were leaving their pizza boxes all over school, creating a mess. I asked him if we could have a "trial period" where we could try allowing them again, on the condition that the school remained clean. He agreed.

I then called up the local pizza place and asked the manager if we could get a special deal for students. We worked out a cheap special, and planned to print discount coupons. I unveiled the plan in my campaign speech, as an example of the kind of thing I would do in office, not just talk about. I said it was already done, showing that I'm the kind of person who gets things done rather than just making promises.

The stodgy old Student Council advisor didn't like this one bit, and he talked the principal out of fulfilling his promise to me. (Among other things, he said that if anyone was going to sell pizza during lunchtime, it should be the Student Council's student store, not the local pizza delivery place.) Between him and the principal, they reneged on me and then made sure the entire student body knew that my campaign promise would not be kept, and that I had "lied" in my speech. They had notices to this effect read to each class during the morning announcements and they put flyers up on the walls and doors of the cafeteria. They even put signs saying this right on the doors of the voting area. It was devastating. They made me look like a liar even though I honestly had promised only what the principal assured me I could.

Despite this, how did I win?

Well, instead of turning red and crawling under a rock, or dropping out of the race, I took this as an opportunity to meet people and talk to them. I hung around the hallways and the cafeteria, and I said hello to everyone I saw and asked him or her to vote. Almost every single person asked me what had happened with the pizza, and I took the time and care to explain the whole story to each and every person who was interested. I said, "I tried. The principal promised me we could do it, and then he changed his mind. Now they've made me look like a liar. Do you really think I would have gotten up there and flat-out lied?"

I'm convinced that my "damage control" efforts in talking to everyone who would listen was what won me support. I think that on an individual, one-on-one basis, I showed a lot of students that I was friendly, genuine, caring, passionate, and down-to-earth.

And, very importantly, I asked each of them -- knowing that every vote was important -- to please be sure to vote.

I had an aggressive underdog mentality. I felt I was the candidate least likely to win, so I tried harder than my opponents.

During my speech, I was confident and enthusiastic about the pizza and my desire to do something to make the school better. It was obvious that I was talking about something I was genuinely excited about.

On the other hand, one of my opponents got mad at the audience's inattention during her speech and started demanding, "Listen to me! Listen to me!" (which only made the audience laugh at her). The other opponent tried to make her competition look bad by calling us names ("Little Miss Cheerleader here and The Pizza Man"), which was not admired by anyone.

Who could have predicted it? Each of my popular, well-qualified opponents had done something stupid, sabotaging their chances of winning, and I was out there talking to the students and trying to get one vote at a time.

In the end, even though my pizza plan didn't come through, I think I succeeded in letting everyone know that I was trying to do something good for the school, and that I was a sincere person who would do whatever I could to serve the student body.

Also -- this is crucially important -- I recognized that not everyone votes. Often, the candidate who wins is not necessarily the one with the most widespread support, but the one who gets the most people to actually go cast ballots. I did. I pleaded with people to go cast a vote, confident that if I was merely asking them nicely to "at least go make a choice" instead of pressuring them only to "vote for me," most of the people I asked would probably vote for me anyway.

It's all about people. It's NOT about being slick and political, kissing babies, and putting up posters; it's about being friendly, being genuine, being confident, and getting people to the polls.

If I could win a high school election, ANYBODY can.

If you're interested at all in doing the job, go for it! Nobody knows what you want except you, and nobody will be as sorry as you if you don't go after it. So don't stop yourself!

Your chances of winning are far better than you'd imagine.