What’s the best investment a professional can make? Financial publications are full of them, but one that doesn’t often make the “Top Five Investment Opportunities” lists is this one: your book.

As a pro in any field (healthcare, business, athletics, politics, social betterment) you have some hard-won experience under your belt. We’re not saying how many years of experience, because quantity doesn’t matter as much as quality. You have some genuine knowledge and you feel like putting it down on paper.

Setting aside the pleasure of being a published author, here are the reasons why writing your book is one of the best investments you can make:

• The book will make your experience available to improve the lives of others.
• It will make your name more well-known to increase the size of your current practice, business, or non-profit venture, adding to the impact you can create with what you know.
• It will establish you as an opinion leader so customers, clients or associates who are new to you have greater certainty about your skill. Being a writer will tend to increase your credibility, because “writer” is among the most admired professions.
• Your book will record your expertise so it remains as your legacy if you move on, or up, to a new challenge.
• Your book can sell online or in stores, and the sales won’t hurt your income. But the published book has other value to you, too. It will make friends for you, your practice, your business, or your cause. You can sign copies for such opinion leaders as local officials, your senators and representative, your friends, business owners, etc. to create interest, allies, and funding for your message or enterprise.
• Once you are an author, you can get media exposure and set up radio and television/Internet interviews more easily, resulting in further publicity and reach for your message and your skills.

And finally, since many successful professionals have favorite charities or causes: you can stand on the platform of influence that your book has created to deliver other messages as well.