457 BC – In the 7th chapter of the Old Testament Book of Ezra, King Artaxerxes of Persia issues a decree to rebuild Jerusalem which results in the rebuilding of that city under Nehemiah. Go west from Jerusalem across the Mediterranean, west across the Atlantic, then halfway across the landmass of North America and you’re in Central Texas. […]
Every Wall Street investor walks tip-toe on the ice above an ocean of data. Some of them will tell you they are ice-skating on that data, but don’t let them fool you. Misinterpretation of the data is the ever-present danger facing investors AND marketers. Every business owner is a marketer. Misinterpreted data creates a faulty […]
I lived in Muskogee, Oklahoma for 3 years before Merle Haggard released his hit song, “I’m Proud to be an Okie from Muskogee.” Even though I was only 12 at the time, I realized Brother Haggard’s song contained more corn than the whole state of Iowa. I laugh about being an Okie, but in truth, […]
When it is time to write an ad, and there is no felt need in the heart of the customer to which you can speak, make a paper cigar. Teddy Roosevelt was a man of improvisation. He knew his paper cigars. This allowed him to explain the process of making them in the fewest possible […]
The generation of male Okies to which I belong has the inexplicable tradition of mercilessly teasing their friends. It’s a dumb tradition, I know, but these are the rules: We tease only our closest friends. To say to strangers the sorts of things that we say to our friends would be to invite a fistfight. […]
When James Madison drafted the First Amendment, “the press” referred to the newspapers of our nation, such as the Pennsylvania Gazette owned by Benjamin Franklin, the most popular paper in the 13 colonies. Things rocked along swimmingly for about 200 years, then one day we walked outside to get the newspaper, sat down to read it, and […]
Two weeks ago, I appeared onscreen during a business symposium in Montreal to answer a series of questions about, “How to Advertise Effectively.” Toward the end of my hour with them, a person in the audience asked, “What do you consider to be the top 3 books about Advertising?” The moderator smiled and said, “I […]
You’ve heard it all your life: “Anything worth doing, is worth doing well.” This seems to be a worthy admonition on the surface. But let’s not stop at the surface. Let’s look into the heart of it. Those seven words, “Anything worth doing, is worth doing well,” assume that one has the ability to do […]
The junkyard dogs of the business community are those misfits and mavericks, renegades and rebels, innovators and improvisors who know that traditional wisdom is often more tradition than wisdom. Lee Iacocca was a junkyard dog. The son of an immigrant hot-dog vendor, Iacocca was the visionary who gave us the Ford Mustang. He was later […]
The beagle who lives in the right hemisphere of your brain has an entirely different set of skills than the nerd who lives next door. The beagle in my brain is named Indy. What is the name of the beagle in yours? Your beagle gives you impulsive intuition and instinctive insight. Your beagle gives you romping recklessness, […]
Three friends, who have never met each other, all sent me the same advice last week. What makes this convergence particularly interesting is that there was no common trigger. Each of the three messages I received was prompted by something different. The essence of those messages? You’ve got to leave things out. Genius is rarely […]
Jaguars and leopards are classified as “Big Cats” (Pantherinae) because they have a U-shaped hyoid apparatus in their throats which gives them the ability to roar. Cheetahs and pumas are just as big as jaguars and leopards, but they are classified as “Small Cats” (Felinae) because their ossified hyoid bones prohibit them from roaring. Among cats, […]
Q: What do Jesus and the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus have in common? A: Grown-ups told us stories about them when we were children. And then one day we realized the grown-ups had been lying. Yes, they did it because they loved us and they wanted us to be happy, but […]
Admiral Boulevard is the margin of the page in Tulsa. It is that place where a person can do well while doing no good. It is where discipline encounters temptation and good fortune meets bad luck. Admiral Boulevard is the margin Johnny Cash sings about in “I Walk the Line.” The Outsiders – both the […]
In recent days, you and I have spent more time at home than usual. Bart Giamatti was a professor of English Renaissance literature, the president of Yale University, and the Commissioner of Major League Baseball. In less than 3 minutes, Giamatti caused me to understand “home” in a new way. I believe his thoughts on the subject are […]
A few years ago, Yvon Chouinard was asked, “How do you know if you’re making the right move? He said, “It’s a lot of gut instinct. If you study something to death, if you wait for the customer to tell you what he wants, you’re going to be too late, especially for an entrepreneurial company. That […]
Meats and vegetables are ordinary, but put them on a stick and it’s Shish Kabob. Frozen Kool-Aid is frozen Kool-Aid; put it on a stick and it’s a popsicle. A marshmallow is one thing, but a marshmallow on a stick means a campfire. A frankfurter is a weenie, but a frankfurter on a stick is […]
Before we examine the blind spot, let’s stare into the face of the truth for a moment: People don’t bond with a company. People bond with a personality. Apple didn’t wait until they were category-dominant to develop a personality. They had personality in 1984 when they aired their famous SuperBowl ad. They had personality in […]
The content of your heart is what your heart contains. Are you content? Same spelling, different meaning. We distinguish these words only by the syllable we stress. Words are amazing, don’t you think? If you are content, (satisfied, happy, at peace,) it is because of the content of your heart. If the content of your […]
We shall pass through this time of uncertainty and emerge as happier people. We will enjoy a renewed sense of the importance of relationships. Our priorities will be altered. Optimism is about staying focused on positive outcomes. I don’t know Andy Bounds but he’s a good friend of Doug Burdon and Doug is a friend […]
NOTE FROM INDY BEAGLE – After the wizard recorded today’s MMMemo, he recorded a video called Advertising in a Time of Crisis. You should watch it. Now here is today’s memo… One of my heroes, John Steinbeck, twice followed in the footsteps of another of my heroes, Robert Louis Stevenson. Travels with a Donkey in […]
Perhaps you’ve noticed that fewer couples are choosing to get married. This decline in the marriage rate has been slow, but it is a cultural shift that makes me uneasy. The first reason for my uneasiness is that I believe marriage is more than a piece of paper. Something wonderful happens when a couple embraces […]
A contrast of opposites is the foundation of effective communication. A thing cannot exist without its opposite. But opposites aren’t always easy to detect. As an example, the opposite of “freedom” isn’t really “slavery,” because slavery no longer exists in our society like it did 160 years ago. We need to contrast freedom with something […]
Twenty-one years ago I got a phone call from my publisher, Ray Bard. “Roy, a man in Denver just bought 350 copies of your book from a bookstore in Denver and then faxed the receipt to my office with a question scribbled on it.” “What was the question?” I asked. “He wrote, ‘Is this enough […]
Richard Kessler built one of the most famous stores in America. You might remember his name from the Monday Morning Memo about origin stories published on March 20, 2017. Here is Kessler’s origin story in a 60-second radio ad: My Dad was a house painter. He taught me to sand and scrape paint until my fingers […]
My friend has been important to me for 6 or 7 years. I had no idea that he had any money until about 3 years ago. My friend is a professional gambler. No, he doesn’t gamble on green felt tables with cards or dice. He gambles on NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange. “Oh, […]
The first obelisk was a stone pillar with a tapered top created by the ancient Egyptians to honor the sun god. It is a finger, pointing to the sky. The Roman army carried Egyptian obelisks back to Rome as a sign of their power over that nation. The Vatican uncovered a buried Egyptian obelisk five hundred years […]
It takes four people to make a world. One person wants acceptance. They hope to save the relationship. Under pressure, they acquiesce. One person wants accuracy. They hope to save face. Under pressure, they avoid. One person wants applause. They hope to save effort. Under pressure, they attack. One person wants accomplishment. They hope to […]
Thomas Mann, the winner of the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature, said, “A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” I agree with Thomas Mann. Having logged more than 39,000 hours of writing during the past 30 years, I can say with confidence that no sane person […]
Good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from bad decisions. Bad decisions aren’t made because a person is stupid. Bad decisions are often the result of logic. The first thing experience will teach you is, “Not everything logical is true.” Logic among advertising professionals says, “Always target the right customer.” But if you embrace that […]
My most successful ads in 2019 were the ones where I refrained from using logic, but chose instead to speak to the unconscious mind. Advertise your product to the conscious mind of a customer and you will likely be met with doubt, disinterest, and suspicion. But the unconscious mind greets you with none of these. […]
Just click the link below and download the PDF if you know how. (I only know how to do it on my own computer.) There is a single, blank page following the cover. Don’t panic. The book isn’t blank. 🙂 This is the 2020 PDF of the 2012 book, Pendulum: How Past Generations Shape Our […]
1: You are the product of your genetic code, hardwired to behave in certain ways. 2: You are the product of your environment, the sum total of your influences. 3: You are the product of your choices. It is your preferences, not your surroundings, that define you. I believe it is a mistake to cling too […]
I want you to be in Austin on May 2nd if you can. The Princess has chosen the perfect location for The House of Bilbo Baggins, and there’s a chance we may have something for you to see when you get here. We have also begun construction on The Village of the Lost Boys and […]
When you begin to write, the words and phrases that leap into your mind will be the ones you hear most often. Go ahead and write them down. The best writers begin by just blurting it out. A willingness to write badly is the key to writing well. After winning the Pulitzer prize for fiction, […]
An unhappy person who talks about “the way things ought to” be has a decision to make. They need to take action, or They need to shut up and get on with their life. I’m sorry if that sounded cold and harsh. Allow me to explain. “The Way Things Ought to Be” is a fantasy […]
What is the canvas of your artistic expression? “Pen and ink,” says the writer. “Wet clay” says a sculptor, “Wood” says another, “Stone” says a third. And then the painters chime in, singing, “Oils,” “Pencils,” “Charcoal,” and “Acrylic” in 4-part harmony. “Film” shouts a cinematographer, “Pixels” shouts another, and the photographers beat a steady rhythm […]
My business partners meet twice a year to spend a few days together. A transcription of their discussions during these meetings could easily become a bestselling book. A number of my partners have grown far beyond anything I ever taught them, which makes answering their questions a lot easier for me. I employ a mildly […]
People need your encouragement more than they need your advice. A little encouragement at a pivotal time makes all the difference. I am giving you a Christmas gift: When you have opened it, you will become the right person, doing the right thing, at the right time, in the right way. To open your gift, […]
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are used for measuring departmental performance within a company. The goal of KPIs is continual improvement. The subtle danger of KPIs is that they can lead us to prioritize efficiency over effectiveness, and short-term objectives over long-term. A Police Chief told his officers to prioritize burglaries of multiple-occupancy households because the system […]
Symbolic thought is commonly expressed through similes, metaphors, and music, allowing us to communicate the unknown and unfamiliar by relating it to the known and familiar. Symbols happen when one thing stands for another. Symbolism plays a role in identity reinforcement. Brands, hobbies, artistic expressions, event attendance, and social connections are symbolic ways of saying, […]
“The word ‘artist’ is not applied to writers as readily as to musicians or sculptors or painters, because the medium in which they work – our language – is used by everyone without any particular thought or regard for economy or form. Language is the common drudge of every sort of experience and it does […]
“The rest of my life has passed quite suddenly. Around ten or twelve I fell into the inevitable logarithms of time. It seems to go faster and faster. I wonder now why we have to have Christmas so often.” – Kary Mullis Our friend Kary Mullis died on Aug. 7, 2019, at the age of […]
Each of us creates our own reality from our interpretations of the things we observe. A systematic pattern of interpretations is called a cognitive bias. This is how a cognitive bias works: If you believe that elves cause rain, then every occurrence of rain is proof of elves. Cognitive biases can be miniscule or massive. […]
Karl Marx famously said, “Religion is the opiate of the masses.” No, let’s be more accurate. What he actually said was, “Die religion ist das opium des volkes.” Before I continue, let me say that my belief in God is a choice not based on argument or evidence. I freely admit that I choose to believe. […]
(A.) “It was hot outside.” (B.) “The angry sun glared down at me.” Which of those sentences do you feel was more interesting? Personification is a technique used by writers and speakers to excite the imaginations of their readers and listeners. Personification gives human attributes to non-human things. Twenty-five years ago I wrote, “As Edmund Hillary surveyed […]
I grew up believing that everyone had equal opportunity, and what we made of that opportunity was up to us. I believed I was the product of my choices, and you were the product of yours. People struggled only because they made bad choices. I continue to believe in the vital importance of individual choice. […]
We are feeling unsettled again. And when I say we, I don’t mean me, I mean all of us. Unsettled feelings are ominous. We are acting as though we have heard the four notes of the Dies irae, that ominous musical phrase* that has signaled impending tragedy for the past 800 years. Being thus unsettled, […]
“You train them, remind them, and incentivize them, but they still don’t do what you trained them to do.” This is what business owners say to each other about employees. Can you relate to it? Frances Frei is a famous professor at Harvard Business School who advises senior executives who are embarking on large-scale change […]
I’ve had a special relationship with California since 1992. The basis of our relationship is this: I keep not deserving parking tickets and California keeps giving them to me anyway. One of my goals during last week’s excursion with my grandson was to return from California – for the first time ever – without a […]
Twenty-five years ago, I did three important things. The second-most-important of these was the launching of the Monday Morning Memo, even though no one can remember what it’s called. “I’ve been reading your Monday thing for more than 10 years,” is the opening line to my favorite song. I never get tired of hearing it. […]
Sometimes we buy online to save time. Other times we buy online to save money. So what, exactly, is the “one big thing,” the unique selling proposition of online business? When we can’t wait the day or two for Amazon Prime, we buy from brick-and-mortar companies to save time. And when those stores are having […]
Most non-fiction books are written as reputation builders. We write them because we want to be seen as experts. We want more speaking opportunities, more customers, more recognition. These “how to” books appear to be about the subject matter, but they are really about the author. This sort of reputation-building was the motive behind my Wizard […]
In about 650 B.C. the Greek poet Archilochus wrote, “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” The renaissance scholar Erasmus quoted Archilochus in 1500 in his famous Adagia, saying, “Multa novit vulpes, verum echinus unum magnum.” In 1953, the philosopher Isaiah Berlin expanded on Archilochus and Erasmus in his often-quoted essay, The […]
Have you ever casually started down a path and then the journey got a life of its own? The White Rabbit appears in chapter one, inexplicably wearing a waistcoat. So what does Alice do? She follows him down the rabbit hole. There’s just no turning back after a decision like that. The journey is alive and […]
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 […]
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