CONWAY — Jim Davidson of Conway, an author, nationally syndicated newspaper columnist and former nationally syndicated radio commentator, re-read a book he published in 1991 and decided it was the best work he’d ever done.
So, it’s hot off the press with a new title.
The Best of Jim Davidson contains 60 of his most-requested selections from listeners of his radio series, which started in 1980. Over the life of the program, it was carried by 300 stations. Although he doesn’t write and record the radio series anymore, five stations still rerun his recordings. The original book was called You Can Be the Best.
“Here I am, 81 years old, and I realized that’s the best work I’ve ever done. My mind was sharper,” he said.
His column, which he began in 1995, is published in 25 newspapers. At its height, the column was in 375 papers in 35 states.
Davidson founded the Bookcase for Every Child project in 2005. The project is geared toward low-income students, and every 4-year-old
Head Start student in cities that have a bookcase project receives a personalized, handmade bookcase with a few new or gently used books and a Bible. The project is under the umbrella of the all-volunteer Bookcase for Every Child organization.
Davidson, who is the author of five other books, said his compilation of radio programs is a positive book that he envisions being given as graduation gifts to high school or college seniors or used as a daily quiet-time reading.
“It’s not a devotional book because it’s not religious, but I would call it an inspirational book,” he said.
However, Davidson makes it clear that he’s a Christian, and several chapters quote the Bible or talk about belief in God.
Davidson said a woman who helped him market the book said a word he’d never used, “ruminate,” which means to think deeply about something.
“She said, ‘I can’t read it because I have to stop and ruminate on it,’” he said, laughing.
Although he’s a strong proponent of education, Davidson dropped out of college. In 1968, he took a Dale Carnegie course, and at the end of the course, “my classmates selected me to receive the Leadership Gavel as the leader of the class,” he said.
Two years later, his instructor invited him to go into business to distribute the Earl Nightingale Attitude Motivation materials on cassette tapes.
Davidson has embraced changes in technology, and he posts on Facebook and uses YouTube to market his book.
The stories in his recent book run the gamut from humorous to serious. He said his favorite story in the book is titled “And Then Some ….”
“We hear a great deal these days about ‘the secrets of success,’” he writes. “In reality, this is simply a marketing gimmick to sell many of the success programs produced today.”
Instead, it’s energy, enthusiasm and hard work that breed success, Davidson said.
The author, who spoke to 500 school faculties during the 1970s, wrote a booklet for high school students called How to Plan Your Life and presented six-hour seminars at high schools.
He met a student named Danny, who sent Davidson a three-page letter after Davidson spoke to the class.
In it, Danny told Davidson he asked a successful man how he achieved success, and the man said “And then some.” When a teacher or employer asked the man to do something, he did his job “and then some.”
Davidson, who has won many community and professional awards, said that when it comes to achieving success, the biggest mistake people make is wanting the rewards before they render the service.
“This can be compared to a man standing in front of a cold stove saying, ‘Give me some heat, and then I will put in the wood,’” Davidson said.
If someone wants results, he or she should give more than is expected, Davidson said.
He also touts writing a specific goal down on paper and thinking about it and visualizing it coming true while working toward it.
In another essay, Davidson warns against choosing the wrong “friends.” Davidson relates a story that he said happened many years ago a few miles from where he lived. A young man in college made friends with someone selling drugs, and the student began using drugs, too. One day when they were working on a drug deal, the college student was shot by his “friend” and left in the woods to die. He lived, but he was blind.
“When you get involved with drugs, you never know who your friends are,” Davidson wrote.
Other chapters in the book include titles such as, “You Can Say It Without Putting Other People Down,” “How to Tell a Winner From a Loser,” “But the Bumble Bees Can’t Fly” and “The Lincoln-Kennedy Amazing Coincidences.”
Davidson said he has high hopes for the book.
“It’s not often when we have as an individual the opportunity to make a positive difference in the lives of a great number of people — except maybe a teacher or a school superintendent — reaching, 100,000, 200,000 or maybe a million people. We need mentors in America today more than we’ve ever had them,” he said.
Bill Tsutsui, president of Hendrix College in Conway, gave the book a review on Amazon.
“As a longtime journalist and writer, Jim knows how to communicate; as a true civic leader and as the founder of the visionary Bookcase for Every Child program, he has valuable insights and advice that we all should take to heart,” Tsutsui said.
Even in his 80s, Davidson said, he is striving to be an inspiration to others — and then some.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.