Aged-care leader Glickman turns author

Becoming a published author is something many aspire to but relatively few achieve, which is why Ray Glickman realised he either had to bite the bullet and go for it, or ditch the dream.

“It was a put up or shut up moment for me really; if I thought I could do it then I had to do it,” Mr Glickman told Business News of his decision to write his first novel, Reality, five years ago.

In his main role as chief executive of Amana Living, Mr Glickman had dabbled in the creative artform over the years with a preference for tongue-in-cheek writing.

Reality continues that theme and is what Mr Glickman describes as a satirical spotlight on people who deserve to be ridiculed.

The novel has just become available in stores and tells the story of a hyper-manipulative bureaucrat meddling with people’s lives – an idea that grew from the seeds of a real-life experience.

“I was connected to someone whose capacity to manipulate took my breath away and I found it astonishing that anybody could be so good at that,” Mr Glickman said.

“And then the question came to me about what would happen if those (manipulative) people engaged themselves in a really big-picture process of involving themselves in other people’s lives.”

The result is the achievement of Mr Glickman’s personal goal to become published; but he said the process also taught him a lot about being a businessman.

Managing time was the first constraint, given that he is a director of United Way and chairman of Aged and Community Services WA, in addition to his role at Amana Living.

“The time thing was really hard but the biggest thing was putting myself out there and being a nobody,” Mr Glickman said.

“It was really interesting going from a CEO that people know to being a nobody.”

But anonymity hasn’t stopped Mr Glickman, who has started work on his second novel, which will further explore modern society and personal relationships.