“I have now established myself in a most enviable manner. Those who require something of me must seek me out – I remain apart. I work for no one unless he is a high-ranking personality or a friend.” – Francisco Goya, Born Mar. 30, 1746. Once you are already well known for what you do, […]
Counterintuitively, The Ultimate Positioning is Being Unobtainable Read More »
“A leading authority is anyone who has guessed right more than once.” – Frank A. Clark, Born Mar. 28, 1860. Frank here probably meant it as an admonishment for trusting self-described authorities. But you know me, I never let appropriate context get in the way of making the point I want to make… If you
Guessing Right Makes You a “Guru” (And So Does Guessing Wrong…) Read More »
“Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time.” – Viktor E. Frankl, Born Mar. 26, 1905. Vic was giving advice on how to live a fulfilling and satisfying life. It’s a neat avenue of thought. But this isn’t the Cult of Philosophical Warm Snugglies.
Positioning for Preeminence the Proper Way… Read More »
“If there be anything that can be called genius, it consists chiefly in ability to give that attention to a subject which keeps it steadily in the mind, till we have surveyed it accurately on all sides.” – Robert Quillen, Born Mar. 25, 1887. If you look at anything long enough, you’re going to notice
The Secret of Acquiring (And Portraying) Mastery Read More »
“If you have men who will only come if they know there is a good road, I don’t want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all.” – David Livingstone, Born Mar. 19, 1813. A lot of freelancers have experience with low-level, shitty kinds of clients. Those clients don’t
These Are the Only Good Clients to Keep – All the Rest Are Expendable… Read More »
“Technique is what you fall back on when you run out of inspiration.” – Rudolf Nureyev, Born Mar. 17, 1938. “I don’t have a good idea.” Shut up. Write anyway. “I don’t have anything to say.” Stop it. Write something anyway. “It didn’t come out the way I wanted.” Fuck you, publish it anyway. We
Discipline and Foundations are What You Build On (Because You Can’t Build On Nothing) Read More »
“For imagination sets the goal picture which our automatic mechanism works on. We act, or fail to act, not because of will, as is so commonly believed, but because of imagination.” – Maxwell Maltz, Born Mar. 10, 1899. The vast majority of people possess withered and disused imaginations. Having to deal with the real world
Paint a Pretty Picture and Prospects Become Purchasers Read More »
“The public doesn’t particularly care for advertisements.” – John C. Malone, Born Mar. 7, 1941. They don’t. It’s true. Unless it’s the Super Bowl, normal people don’t really want to be subjected to ads. For some marketers, they try to solve this problem by having a certain ratio of content to ads. 22 minutes of
“In journalism just one fact that is false prejudices the entire work. In contrast, in fiction one single fact that is true gives legitimacy to the entire work. That’s the only difference, and it lies in the commitment of the writer. A novelist can do anything he wants so long as he makes people believe
To Persuade, Concern Yourself with Emotional Truth Rather Than Cold, Hard Fact Read More »
“Most successful pundits are selected for being opinionated, because it’s interesting, and the penalties for incorrect predictions are negligible. You can make predictions, and a year later people won’t remember them.” – Daniel Kahneman, Born Mar. 5, 1934. Gurus need to make a lot of predictions. That’s really why people follow us at all. People
