Pennie and I have criteria we use to judge the success of Wizard Academy. In a recent meeting of the board of directors, they asked us to share those criteria with them. I began by saying, “A non-profit educational organization would be foolish to judge its success by its revenues. And we would be equally […]
When you’re in “inside” sales, customers come to you. When you’re in “outside” sales, you go looking for customers. When I was a baby ad-man in outside sales, I had the good fortune to spend a day with Gene Chamberlain. He taught me three things that day that made me a lot of money. Today […]
I was bagging my groceries when the checker handed me my receipt and said, “Happy Yesterday.” Unsure of the correct response, I just smiled at him and nodded. A few moments later I realized he had said, “Happy rest-of-your-day.” But that brief exchange put my mind on an interesting track: can we choose to have […]
Vertical thinking is step-by-step, procedural, outcome-focused. It helps you get things done. Always asking, “What is the obvious next step?” vertical thinking leads to incremental evolution and refinement. It is a ratchet that maintains what you’ve accomplished, then “click,” gives you a little bit more. The Japanese call it kaizen, “continuous improvement.” Vertical knowledge is […]
Back in those days you didn’t shoot nobody unless they really needed shootin’. So when someone showed you a gun, you knew there was a reason. You didn’t always know what that reason was, so the polite thing to do was ask. “What’s with the hog leg?” “Keeps folks from takin’ the cash box.” “I […]
Amateur ad writers assume everyone makes decisions based upon the same criteria they use. This causes them to unconsciously frame their messages to reach people exactly like themselves. Professional ad writers frame their messages to speak to the felt needs of a specific consumer. People are multi-dimensional. We make decisions to purchase based on a […]
The Jewish Sabbath begins each Friday at sunset because the fifth verse of Genesis reads, “And the evening and the morning were the first day.” Every beginning starts with an ending. Thirteen colonies became 13 “united states” when our fight for freedom ended and our government under a Constitution began in 1789. This was the […]
Life is a series of unintended consequences. Things almost never turn out the way we plan. I remember this single-panel cartoon I read many years ago. Two men on a sidewalk are carrying briefcases. One of them says to the other, “Here’s an idea. Let’s buy a grocery store tabloid and bury it in the […]
My 9-year old grandson, Gideon, asked a big favor of me the other day. “Poobah, I have 11 imaginary friends who need to start staying at your house.” “Okay. Can they all sleep upstairs?” “They could, but I doubt they’ll ever all be here at the same time.” Gideon told me what I needed to […]
Have you ever seen a photographer look through a rectangle of forefingers and thumbs to “frame” a potential shot? Framing is even more important when using words to capture images. Advertising, like every other kind of storytelling, should always begin with a framing sequence. From what angle will you approach your subject? What will be […]
Have you found your identity? Do you know your purpose? Are you ready for your adventure? Identity: Who am I? Purpose: Why am I here? Adventure: What must I overcome? Identity is your self-image; a composite of your beliefs, your preferences, and your relationships. Bits and pieces of your identity will evolve with your experiences, but other bits are […]
Paul Compton and “Jackie” Floyd walked to grade school together in 1934. Their mothers, Clara and Ruby, rented rooms in the same boarding house in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Paul Compton was Princess Pennie’s father. It was Pennie’s grandmother, Clara, that answered the boarding house telephone on October 22, the night the bad news came. Paul Compton’s […]
Talent is Unconscious Competence; a superpower you were born with. People born with a superpower usually have difficulty teaching it to you. Skills are Conscious Competence; acquired excellence, learned behavior. People who acquire their skills through study and practice usually make excellent instructors. Talented people are tricky to manage. If you tell them what to do, they […]
One hundred and seventy-four years ago, America’s 11th president sent John Slidell on a secret mission to Mexico, authorizing him to pay the Mexican government up to $25 million for their territories in New Mexico and California. When Mexico refused to consider the offer of President James K. Polk, he sent 4,000 troops to occupy […]
MANLEY: I’m making things more efficient. DAVE: How? MANLEY: Abbreviations. DAVE: Give me an example. MANLEY: LOL. I text that to my plumbers to remind them to LOOK…OUT… for LEAKS. DAVE: You’re texting that? MANLEY: Yep. And sometimes the guys text back “D-K.” That means DRAIN… CLOGGED. DAVE: But clog is spelled with a C. MANLEY: Not in internet talk, Dave. Other times they text me […]
When our oldest son was an infant, I would hold a spoonful of baby food in front of his mouth, smile my most radiant smile and say, “It’s a good one.” I learned this, of course, from watching Princess Pennie. Later that spring I was sitting across from him when he pulled a lollipop from […]
The advice I give to others, I rarely take myself. I admonish persons who possess detailed knowledge to “dumb it down” so the rest of us can understand because, frankly, we are rarely interested in the mystery and wonder of the unabbreviated truth. I tell them, “Say it so plainly that you worry you have […]
Every form of communication is composed of 12 basic ideas and each of these ideas, held singularly, is a separate channel of communication in the mind. Like a jet lifting off the runway, these 12 concepts will accelerate and elevate your creative expression: speaking, writing, drawing, painting, persuading, acting, photography, sculpting, selling, singing, landscaping, interior […]
“The deer have killed the oak tree! The deer have killed the oak tree!” Forty-year-old Todd – we’ll call him Todd – came running into my office with his second crisis of the day. I expected there would be at least one more. Todd felt it was his job to bring every problem to my […]
Tinkerbell’s light gradually dims as she begins to die. Her only hope of survival is an audience that believes in fairies and demonstrates that belief through enthusiastic applause. Tinkerbell’s light has been growing brighter since 1904, when she first appeared in J.M. Barrie’s play, Peter Pan. Everyone believes in fairies enough to clap enthusiastically. The Tinkerbell […]
When a business is struggling financially, cost-cutting looks like a brilliant move. But can you shrink your way to success? From what I’ve seen, it’s easier – and healthier – to increase revenues than it is to cut costs. Cost-cutting comes at a very high cost. When I was 16 years old, General Motors was […]
I know what happens when men retire. I do not know what happens when women retire. Perhaps they are plagued by the same maladjustments, discomforts and discontentment as men, but I doubt it. As Michele Miller points out in her audiobook, The Natural Advantages of Women, females of our species are gifted with different neurological wiring […]
“It was dark inside the wolf,” is how Margaret Atwood believes the story might have opened. Emily Dickinson would agree. “Tell all the truth, but tell it slant,” was her advice to those of us who want our emails to be opened, our stories to be read, and our voices to be heard. If you […]
1. You Cannot Measure What Has Not Happened. When you ask a person about an experience that exists only in their imagination, they will give you imaginary answers. You can measure only what has already happened. In other words, you cannot measure what “would” or “would not” work. You can only measure what “did” and […]
I ate too much and it made me heavy and slow. Using too many words is like eating too much. It makes communication heavy and slow. Short sentences hit harder. Nouns and verbs are fists that deliver punches. Adjectives and adverbs are gloves that soften the blows. Unless they are unexpected. A brass-knuckled uppercut is […]
There is, to my knowledge, only one way to profitably put the power of the internet to work for you. It’s simple; just give people what they want. But first you have to know what they want. Let me help you with that. (1.) They want answers, and (2.) they want entertainment. But the answers […]
When someone says, “Figures don’t lie,” know this: Figures lie, and liars figure. Never trust a weasel with a calculator. Do you remember the mortgage meltdown of 2008 and The Big Short, the movie that was made about it? There is a scene in that movie where investors Mark Baum and Vinnie Daniel go to visit […]
The average person is afraid of criticism. But the person who has no fear of criticism is more likely to succeed. This lack of fear is what keeps them from being average. The average business owner is afraid their ads will be criticized. Do you want to kill a great ad? Show it to the […]
Ad writers hear it every day, whistling toward them like a bullet: “We need more traffic, that’s what we need; more sales opportunities!” I spent the early part of my radio career stepping up to the plate and knocking that fastball out of the park. If your back was against the wall, I was the […]
Few people remember it because it was too long ago. April, 1962– America tries to overthrow Fidel Castro of Cuba in the “Bay of Pigs” invasion. July, 1962– Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev reaches a secret agreement with Fidel Castro to place Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba to deter any future invasion attempt. October 14, 1962– An American U–2 […]
Throughout my career as an ad writer, I’ve noticed that the easiest companies to skyrocket are those with a healthy and happy corporate culture. You know it’s a great company when everyone wants to get a job there and no one wants to leave. Let’s talk about culture. Definition One: In biology, a culture is […]
I’m reading Hemingway’s novel, Death in the Afternoon, and I like it. It is a detailed explanation of bullfighting. Not a story about a bullfighter. Bullfighting. I have no interest in bullfighting. None. The book has no character arc because it has no characters. It has narrative, but no narrative arc. No plot, no moments […]
1967 – A little boy leaned on his elbows in front of a black-and-white TV in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, unaware that Walt Disney was dead. How could he be dead? I was watching him on TV. Looking right into my eyes, Walt told me about his purchase of 43 square miles of Central Florida, an […]
Two brothers were locked out of their home, so they climbed onto the roof and entered the house through the chimney. When they crawled out of the fireplace, one of them had soot on his face, the other did not. The clean-faced brother immediately went into the bathroom and washed his face. The brother with […]
Indy Beagle posted a T-shirt in the rabbit hole that said, “If life gives you melons, you might be dyslexic.” Princess Pennie laughed when she read it. If that T-shirt had said, “If life gives you oranges, you might be dyslexic,” would she – or anyone else – have laughed? Pleasant surprise is the foundation […]
Day after day, business owners tell ad writers, “We just need more sales opportunities. It’s a numbers game. If you double our traffic, we’ll double our sales. Now show me what you can do.” These business owners don’t understand that today’s close rate dictates tomorrow’s sales opportunities. Some businesses will run customers off faster than a […]
Is your bandwidth keeping you from fulfilling your purpose? Do you have too much to do and too little time? Your bandwidth is limited by: 1. the number of hours in a day. 2. your physical stamina and capacity. 3. your mental and emotional limits as a human being. 4. your inability to juggle the […]
Ten days ago, at the annual meeting of the most innovative and successful small business owners in America,* I was handed a series of questions to answer during the problem-solving session. Most of the questions had to do with recurrent frustrations in business. When I saw the group excitedly taking notes, I was a little […]
Responsibility limits your Freedom, and freedom is a good thing. So is responsibility wrong and evil? Sigh. The only hard choice in life is the choice between two good things. Justice and Mercy are at opposite ends of a teeter-totter. Honesty and Loyalty wrestle in your heart, do they not? Opportunity and Security are inversely proportionate. […]
“Facts tell, stories sell,” is a principle known to every top-tier ad writer. Stories change people while statistics give them something to argue about. People remember stories long after bullet-points are forgotten. Tom Robbins said, “I mean we are all, as human beings, caught up in a web of narration, this great narrative web, and […]
Seek the teacher who is a mentor to apprentices. She will give you expert advice and examples, then evaluate your ability to do as she has taught. Her name is Wisdom and you should always listen to her voice. But Wisdom’s teacher allowed young Wisdom to follow any path she chose! Wisdom learned her lessons […]
Competition can be entertaining, but I do not consider it to be “play.” Is than un-American of me? Play, for me, can have no objective; no element of strategy or combat or debate. Writing for The New Yorker on Nov.14, 2011, John McPhee shares an anecdote about George Hartzog, a man who understood my kind […]
The strangeness of our world is demonstrated by the things we take for granted. I bought a used book. The previous owner’s name was Mary Lou. I know this because she used the stub of her boarding pass as a book marker. A few years ago, Mary Lou took United Airlines flight 5409 from San […]
The feminine ideal was different a hundred years ago. Less sex, more charm. It was her charm that attracted us to young Anastasia Romanov, the daughter of Czar Nicholas II of Russia. This is why we refused to believe it when she was murdered in 1918 following the Bolshevik Revolution. For the next 50 years […]
Do you have favorite books and movies? Are there songs you love and stories that captivate you? Is there art that speaks to your heart? Paintings and plays, movies and music, stories and sculptures: art is valuable to the degree that it triggers emotion. But it isn’t always the art, itself, that triggers the emotion. Sometimes […]
You walk out the door. A person raises a forefinger and says, “Quick question.” And then they tie you up for the next 30 minutes. Have you ever been ambushed this way? Quick questions don’t always have quick answers and you can’t give 30 minutes to every person who raises a forefinger, so the next […]
“He knew how to lead by listening and teaching.” – Erwin C. Hargrove, a professor of political science at Vanderbilt University, writing in 1998 about a leader he much admired. I, too, have known brilliant leaders like that; men and women who lead by listening and teaching. Brian Scudamore, Lori Barr, Richard Kessler, Cathy Thorpe, Erik […]
Dewey Jenkins says, “If your employees don’t look forward to company meetings, then you’re not doing it right.” Dewey has grown his company to nearly 100 times the size it was when he bought it, so I tend to listen to what he says. Dewey taught me to celebrate, not just the touchdowns, but the […]
Reading that Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Christian anarchist, I had an unexpected thought, so I asked Google, “What is the difference between an anarchist and a libertarian?” Six-tenths of a second later, The Goog told me – in a highly visible block at the top of the Search Engine Results Page: “An anarchist is an extreme […]
The pivotal moments in our lives are rarely announced with trumpets and fanfare. But wouldn’t it be great if they were? “Hello, this is God speaking. You’re at an inflection point in your life and although you don’t suspect it, the wisdom you’re about to receive from that old man over there is going to […]
The Random Quotes database at MondayMorningMemo.com currently contains 4,376 quotes. About a third of these are quotes you can easily find online. Nearly half are delightful passages I’ve transcribed from books, movies, or TV shows, and archived for future reference. Five percent are witty and wonderful statements made by friends during lunch or in casually written […]
When you have nothing to say, be careful that you don’t pay money to say it. “What do you mean?” Have you ever paid a premium to target the right audience and then made an offer that failed to move them? “Everyone has paid for ads that didn’t work.” Did you realize that your message […]
They told you it was called, “reading between the lines.” But what they didn’t tell you was that the writer put it there – between the lines – for you to figure out on your own. Speak the truth and people will doubt you. But if you can tempt those people to follow you to where […]
Listen, my young apprentice, and I will release you from your chains. Every door of opportunity begins as a window in the mind. Look through that window of imagination and glimpse a world that could be, should be, ought to be someday. Keep looking… and watch it grow into a door of Opportunity through which […]
Every few months, I remind my partners of something that took me way too long to learn. I say, “When a person believes in what they’re doing – even if it’s an imperfect plan – let them keep doing it. Give them advice and try to open their eyes, but don’t fight them too hard, […]
I’ve often wondered what happened to him. Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, 1979: Pennie and I had just moved into our first house. It… was built before Oklahoma became a state, had never had a mortgage on it, had been expanded 3 different times, and was now barely 800 sq. ft., had sat vacant for more than […]
Dear Radio, I’ve loved you all my life. In fact, I have more confidence in you than you have in yourself. But you have a blind spot, and it’s killing you: radio advertisers are reaching 100% of the city and convincing them 10% of the way, when they should be reaching 10% of the city […]
Is established information or new information more likely to be true? Which is more effective, planning or improvisation? Are people essentially good, or essentially selfish? Which is more important, individual rights or collective rights? Will the future of America be better than its past? Are low-income people less intelligent than high-income people? Is the Bible […]
A lawyer and a rabbi are arguing about what it means to be kind. It is an ancient argument. The lawyer thinks a “kind” person is always polite and considerate. The rabbi thinks “politeness” is superficial, and “considerate” simply means to consider the consequences before taking any action, but that true kindness comes at a […]
I began losing my hair when I was 19. By the time I was 21, I looked like I was 30. Best thing that ever happened to me. People take you seriously when you look like a grown-up, and I needed people to take me seriously. I sold advertising for the smallest radio station in […]
A thing cannot exist without its opposite. This is why a positive statement – without its corresponding negative – is usually a platitude.1 Every proton has its electron. Every summer has its winter. Every Yin has its Yang. Every up, its down. Every inside, its outside. Every justice, its mercy. “The opposite of a correct statement […]
Doubtless, they will someday say, “Inspired by Roycroft and Bohemian Grove, Pennie and Roy Williams built Wizard Academy…” But they will be wrong. Yes, the Princess and I – with the help of hundreds of good friends around the world – began constructing the Wizard Academy campus in 2004. The “wrong” part is that we […]
Trouble happens to everyone. “Nobody, as long as he moves about among the chaotic currents of life, is without trouble.” – Carl Jung But don’t worry about it. “Worry is the interest paid by those who borrow trouble.” – George Washington Really. Don’t worry about it. “Don’t worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day […]
“Radio is dying.” “Radio is dead.” “My friends and I don’t listen to the radio. We (blah, blah, blah) instead.” “No one listens to the radio anymore, especially in high-tech places like San Francisco, in the heart of Silicon Valley. That’s right, isn’t it?” Isn’t it? A few paragraphs from now, I’m going to tell […]
1. When you need someone to faithfully implement your time-tested policies and procedures, hire a straight-A student. This is what we know about them: A. They bought into the educational system, believed its promises, and played by its rules. B. They have demonstrated obedience, compliance, and conformity. C. They have obvious respect for authority. And […]
When you need people to respond to your ad immediately, you need to think like a reporter. These are the first two things they teach news reporters: “When a dog bites a man, that is not news, because it happens so often. But if a man bites a dog, that is news.” “You never read about […]
Technically, you don’t take a trip. It takes you. If you could take a trip, you could also put it back when you were done with it. But you can’t. Now that we’ve cleared that up, let’s talk about Robert and Chris and the trip they took. It was a 1968 trip from Minneapolis to […]
We connect with people who interest us. We have fun with people who know how to have fun. We bond with people who believe what we believe. But our deepest relationships are with people who have shared our pain. Think of the people you can count on – always – to have your back. Chances are, […]
The traditional aristocracy of inherited wealth, position and influence is a false one, in my mind. You were born into an influential family. You went to the right kindergarten, the right grade school, the right college, and you party with the right people. You invented the phrase and the wink, “It’s not what you know, […]
CHAPTER ONE: (97 words) “Circumstances” are where you are right now. “Choices” are what you will make. “Consequences” are what will happen as a result. Sometimes your circumstances are the consequence of your choices. But not always. The circumstances of your birth and your childhood, such as your nationality and your ethnicity, and whether or […]
Life-changing decisions often seem small on the day we make them. 1978 – Everyone had gone home. I was in the warehouse alone, waiting for Pennie to come and pick me up. I had been installing guttering on houses all day. The job paid $5 an hour. We had just one car. Bored, I looked […]
People don’t Paint-by-Number as often as they did 50 years ago. My personal theory is that we came to our senses and realized Paint-by-Number paintings are perfectly awful. But we still see and hear a lot of Advertise-by-Number and Sales-by-Number. I blame the colleges. Paint-by-number paintings employ a template. I’m not against templates. I’ve created […]
We experience wonder when we realize our true size. On clear nights, we ride a speck of dust as it circles an 11,000-degree fireball shooting through a limitless vacuum at 52 times the speed of a rifle bullet. And that fireball is one of billions of fireballs in our galaxy. And our galaxy is one […]
Balance is not compromise. It is a universe born when gravity meets antigravity, matter meets antimatter, Yin meets Yang, and Lennon meets McCartney. Balance is not the average between two extremes. It is the precarious midpoint between rising and falling. It is the last breath of an old man answered by the first cry of […]
“The data is conclusive,” he told me, “our close rate is much higher when customers call us on the telephone instead of going to our website. Therefore, you need to write ads that drive customers to the telephone.” “I agree that the data is conclusive,” I told him, “and it says you need to fix […]
The name Wizard Academy causes a lot of people to scorn our school without knowing anything about us. And that, my friend, is the primary reason we chose the name. 🙂 We don’t want uptight people coming here. When the right people – people like you – are confronted with the name Wizard Academy, they […]
Didn’t Coca-Cola used to have the most wonderful TV ads? But when’s the last time you saw one on TV? Have you heard of Vitaminwater? Coke bought it for $4.1bn. Traditional soft drinks are now less than 2/3 of Coke’s business, and that percentage is likely to decline. The problem, I think, is that we […]
We settle for sex when we cannot find love. Likewise, we settle for the excitement of energy – adrenaline – when we cannot find oxytocin – that quiet but satisfying excitement of knowing we belong. Adrenaline and oxytocin are the neurotransmitters that make us feel our most important feelings. POW! The release of adrenaline is […]
Wizard Academy began with an itch and an image. I got the itch in Tulsa in 1978 when I was 20 years old. I saw the image online in 1994 when I was 36. The itch was to help little businesses succeed. The image was of a boy sitting beneath the stars with an open […]
2018 is looking to be a good year for small business. My personal definition of “a small business” is an owner-operator doing between $1M and $75M a year. I do not pretend to know the trends outside this group. The following are the small business trends that seem to be emerging in 2018: 1: Small […]
I am, by profession, an ad writer. I tell stories about people and products and services. You do, too. But because I get paid for it, I spend a lot of time considering – and measuring – the impact of stories. Some of the stories I’ve told have made people an enormous amount of money. […]
A pleasant surprise is the beginning of delight. You surprise and delight your family by listening to them. You surprise and delight your friends by being interested in what they say. You surprise and delight your customers by giving them your full attention. That’s why everyone likes you. Ray Bard is the ringmaster of untamed quotes, captured […]
Indy Beagle brought me an electric fan and a hammer. The fan is to blow away the smoke. The hammer is to shatter the mirrors. You hear a lot of talk these days about transparency and engagement and the Zero Moment of Truth. My friend Dewey Jenkins says the most dangerous statement a stock broker […]
Fifty years ago, an 18-year old songwriter named Laura Nyro asked, “Can you surry? Can you picnic?” Laura Nyro didn’t tell us HOW to surry. She just asked if we could do it. Then she instructed us to, “Surry down to the stoned soul picnic. There’ll be lots of time and wine, red-yellow honey, sassafras […]
I was worried Thanksgiving dinner wouldn’t be the same this year without Uncle Alfred. Every year for as long as I can remember, when the time came for each of us to name something we were thankful for, Uncle Alfred would tell his famous Story of the Shoes. “Your mother was six and I was […]
The world of online marketing was rocked so hard this summer that it almost fell to its knees. Some really big names in online marketing had the courage to announce that online customers are more likely to buy your products if they’ve heard of your company and feel good about it. Dumbfounded, I spoke to […]
We are alert to danger because our survival depends upon it. But there is more to life than danger. There is singing. And looking at the sky. And chewing on a blade of grass. Have you done any of those things recently? They call to you from beyond your window. Walk outside. Sing a song. […]
In 2018, I will continue to fade from sight. By the end of 2019, I hope to be completely transparent. This has been my goal since May of 2000. If the founder of an organization remains vitally involved until the day they are no longer viable, the organization they founded will cease to exist within […]
Dale Earnhardt, Jr will make 21.4 million dollars this year. He is the world’s one hundredth most highly paid athlete.1 But don’t assume pro athletes make a lot of money. The sad truth is that the top 10 percent – the star athletes – receive more than 90 percent of all the money paid to athletes. If […]
Your body doesn’t have a single immune system; it has a bundle of them. And the most powerful of these systems is the one that rejects foreign tissue. This is why doctors do everything they can to suppress it during transplant surgery. That suppression doesn’t always work. When the cells of your body detect an […]
Characters in books and movies and TV shows are magical. They make us laugh and cry and hold our breath as they take us to a vivid elsewhere. Conflicted, exaggerated, accelerated characters live in a world more interesting than our own. And it is a world we like to visit, even if it’s only 30 […]
The object of conformity and compliance is to bring the best of the past forward. A person can achieve expert results by following in the footsteps of an expert. The old ways are often the best ways. But you, my strong-willed friend, are a nonconformist; a renegade, a rebel, a misfit. One of “those” people. […]
“I was told that repartee heightens the attention of an audience.” “Is this going to be like that time you told me about ambergris?” “What do you mean?” “There I was, minding my own business, when you started telling me how the most expensive perfume in the world comes from whale puke. Like I needed […]
(1.) Adrenaline is a neurotransmitter that increases blood flow to the muscles during times of excitement and creates involuntary recall of events. When there is adrenaline in the blood, you are more likely to remember the moment. This is why advertisers try to make their ads sound exciting. (2.) Oxytocin is a neurotransmitter that produces […]
Real experts in online marketing rarely use the phrase “going viral,” because it has no agreed-upon definition. Instead, they talk about “Discovery Content” and “Community Content.” To understand Discovery Content, just look at anything posted by BuzzFeed or any of the other organizations whose principal income is generated by the companies who sponsor their clickbait.1 But […]
Whittington said it. Eisenberg endorsed it. The waitress distracted us with a question of her own. I somehow knew to capture that moment with a photo. Our conversation never made it back to Daniel’s idea that every life has a theme song, but later that day I carried his wandering thought to the Worthless Bastards […]
Everyone agrees that Henry Leverseege would have become much more famous had he lived beyond 29. But even though he died young, his paintings hang in museums across England. There is only one of them in private hands. Mine. 🙂 Henry was born in 1803, the year that Thomas Jefferson famously negotiated the Louisiana Purchase […]
I consider myself to be the luckiest person on earth. And I can tell you of several specific moments in my life that would convince you of it. Being lucky is a choice I made. Because the truth is that I could just as easily tell you of other moments in my life that would […]
Ivan and Alvina are in their early 20s. Ivan was born and raised in Bulgaria. Alvina, in Siberia. When Alvina sees Ivan playing keyboards in a café on the Black Sea, they become pen pals. And then they fall in love. And then they get married. They dream of moving to the west. Canada says […]
The door to immediate action is easily kicked open by the steel-toed boot of urgency. If you want people to take immediate action, you’re going to need a credible shortage. A shortage of product. “Only 11 remain!” A shortage of time. “Sale ends Saturday at 6PM!” A shortage of capacity. “Only 128 seats are available!” […]
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