CHICAGO — Edward McCauley, CEO of United Hospital Services (UHS) in Indianapolis and a member of the American Laundry News editorial advisory board, has long had a dream.
With more than 35 years in the laundry business, it only makes sense that he’s nurtured a dream to succeed in the industry.
However, McCauley had another dream. Throughout his career, he’s kept journals and considered writing a memoir.
He recently made this dream come true.
The book, “The Lint in My Veins,” was released on Amazon on Sept. 30. It’s available for $9.99 as an eBook on Kindle.
American Laundry News spent some time learning about McCauley’s motivation behind the memoir and what members of the laundry industry can glean from it.
What inspired you to write this book?
I always kept my notes of the things that I did throughout my career in this business. I always dreamed I could write a book about this journey.
But it wasn’t until Azher Khan, then CEO of Calderon Textiles, told me he was writing a book. When I casually told him I had the makings of a “potential” book, he encouraged me to write it, and he would let me know if it was good or not.
So, I did. I put it all together in a matter of five to six months and presented it to him and he really liked it.
The rest is history.
What did you learn while writing it?
Writing a book is time-consuming. I was grateful that I had all my notes in good form.
The easy part of writing a memoir is that it flows well chronologically, and it can all be done in the first person.
Writing an informational book would be much harder.
That said, it would have been nice to have more eyes on it for mistakes like typos, punctuation and sentence structure.
How did you come up with the title?
I have always said that as a long-time laundry guy, I must have lint in my veins and so using this mantra as the title only made sense.
It conveys the passion I have for the business and industry. I guess the phrase is a take on “he has ice in his veins,” meaning he is unflappable.
Who in the laundry industry should read it and why?
I think everyone in the laundry industry should read it.
First of all, it is a light and airy tale of all the trials and tribulations that I came across in this business. It depicts stories about how I overcame roadblocks and was able to do things in this industry that I never would have thought possible.
There are also neat little stories about the fun and humorous things that occurred along the way and this makes the memoir easy to read and interesting for all who pick the book up whether in the industry or not.
There is something in this book for everyone.
What are some key ideas laundry operators will gain from the book?
You get a sense throughout the book that I was a problem-solver type of laundry guy.
So, you can see many instances where I was able to turn things around and become more efficient, make more money, sell more accounts or even do things outside the box that became beneficial to the company.
The steps I took throughout these fixes and ideas are all laid out for everyone to see and take note of.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].
