Moments before James Patterson and Patrick Leddin took the stage, the Langford Auditorium went dark. A campus-wide power outage was the culprit, but cancelling the event wasn’t in the cards.
Instead, prolific author Patterson and associate professor Leddin used the circumstances to their advantage — they were, after all, there to talk about Disrupt Everything, their book about turning life’s disruptions into forces for good.
The outage on the evening of March 27 was a perfect example. Instead of derailing the event, it brought the audience and authors closer together for the Q&A. Speakers’ chairs were moved to the edge of the stage, and attendees filed into the front rows of the auditorium to hear the authors who were preparing to speak without microphones.
Chancellor Daniel Diermier opened the evening with a few remarks connecting the book’s lessons with Vanderbilt’s values. “We find echoes of Vanderbilt’s motto, ‘dare to grow,’ in one of the book’s central teachings,” Diermier said, “which is that the courage to leverage disruption as a positive force comes from clearly defining our core purpose and values—and from being driven by those values as we navigate uncertainty and change.”
‘MANAGE DISRUPTION OR BE MANAGED BY IT’
Then Patterson took the stage and talked about his time at Vanderbilt and how it set the trajectory for the rest of his life: English Professor Walter Sullivan told Patterson, MA’70, that he had “the stuff to write novels—and good ones. Sullivan made me a writer. Vanderbilt made me a writer.”
Patterson believes that Disrupt Everything has a lot to offer in today’s world, which is shaping up to be an age of disruption at the hands of artificial intelligence, economic uncertainty, politics and news media. “Our mission is to help you deal with unexpected disruption in your life rather than have it manage you,” Patterson said. “Manage disruption or be managed by it.”
LEARNING FROM DISRUPTION
Leddin then joined the stage with moderator and Professor of Marketing Kelly Goldsmith for a Q&A featuring previously submitted questions and impromptu ones from the audience.
The discussion centered for a while around a simple question Patterson asked Leddin’s students when he was invited to his course on managing through adversity: Are you living a good life?
“One thing I love about this book is that it challenges readers to ask themselves, ‘Am I living a good life?’” Goldsmith said.
“It’s a question that can get lost in the daily hustle. The book highlights how disruptions often push us to pause and reflect on this,” Patterson said.
Leddin then discussed the research supporting the book—a study that was done on 350 positive disrupters. These people saw disruption as an opportunity to move them back onto their path and purpose in life. “The idea was to capture their stories and through their experience teach the reader how to take moments that are disruptive and turn it into something amazing,” Leddin said.
One of their most important findings, Leddin noted, could be distilled into four fundamental facts about disruption: First, that disruptions are going to keep coming. “If you like the status quo, enjoy it. It’s going to change,” Leddin said. “But that’s okay,” he continued, because according to the second fact, “we’re wired to disrupt.” Third, relationships provide a headwind or a tailwind in our lives, pulling us forward or holding us back. And finally: “We only go around this ride once. Make it count.”
The final question of the night came from an audience member who asked the authors their very own key question: “What do you do to make sure you’re living a good life? “
The answer for both Patterson and Leddin was simple—keeping the connection with their spouses and family.
Halfway through the event, the power was restored, creating a moment of disruption for the authors and audience alike. “This is like art,” Patterson said, turning to Leddin. “We should make this happen for all of our book events!”
Disrupt Everything is available for preorder and is scheduled for release on Sept. 29.
