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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Giving Back: James Kuehnis says he penned The 5 Gifts of Greatness because he wanted to give something back to the community. A former information technology manager, Kuehnis welcomed the challenge over the past five years of authoring his first book.
IT Manager discovers the five Fs
By Moryt Milo
A member of a Willow Glen writing club is now a published author who hopes his experience, both in life and with the writing group, will benefit others.
Jim Kuehnis believes in the five Fs--faith, family, friends, fitness and finance. He believes in them so strongly that he copyrighted his concept and added two additional Fs --failings and fulfillment--and labeled it "the arch of joy."
He then wrote and published a book, The 5 Gifts of Greatness, adapting the concept into a parable--a story with a moral--about a poor boy from India who wants to rise above his low caste position and become great.
"I learned about the five Fs and thought , 'What if a person pursued it in the reverse order of priorities,'" Kuehnis says. "In Silicon Valley pursuing finance is always first and I think it should be the other way around. People should pursue faith first."
Kuehnis, 45, was part of the high-tech industry for 21 years. He left his last employer, Cisco Systems, two years ago because he was "ready for a change." He then spent the next year working on his book.
"Suddenly I was all alone in my apartment," Kuehnis says. "After years of ongoing fast-paced interaction, just getting an email or having someone call was a big deal."
But Kuehnis wanted to give something back to the community and he had a story to tell. Since his background was in information technology management and programming, he had no experience as a writer and took writing classes through the University of California extension system. Kuehnis credits the Willow Glen Writing Group, which meets twice a month at Willow Glen Books, in helping him.
"The group members advised me to make various character and plot changes," he says. "Their input made me see that trying to be tricky and clever with the book wasn't necessarily satisfying to the reader."
The feedback he received from the group's other eight members was more than he's received from writing classes he's taken, and he acknowledged them by name at the end of his book.
Kuehnis set his in India. He selected this location because he sees India as a "land of spiritual enlightenment, and a country with a cultural caste system that lends itself to natural character conflict."
The Campbell resident researched the country and the people for months and says, " I feel like I have been there virtually."
While writing the 210-page book, Kuehnis says there were hundreds of times that he wanted to quit the project.
"So many times I wanted to do anything but be in my [house] sitting by myself." he says. "But I had faith I could do it, and what kept me going was a vision that I would someday be holding this book in my hand."
The last few weeks have seen that vision come to fruition.
He extends this same encouragement and self-belief into the classroom, as a volunteer in the Santa Clara County Schools role model program at Willow Glen Middle School and Castro Middle School.
"I think it all fits together," he says. "Learning to overcome your fears and believing you can realize your dreams."
For the children he mentors, its knowing they can go to college, and for himself it's knowing he can write a story and "make a difference in the world."
As for himself, Kuehnis says he's taking a break from writing and the writer's group, but it mulling over some ideas for possible future writing endeavors.
The book The 5 Gifts of Greatness is available at www.giftsofgreatness.com or at the Willow Glen Book Store, 1330 Lincoln Ave.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
