“The greatest sin for a writer is to be boring.” – Carl Hiaasen, Born Mar. 12, 1953. If you can manage to keep yourself free of this sin, the world can be yours. It doesn’t matter if you’re not so convincing, or so poetic, or so informative. Your readers will forgive you for that. Just […]
The Cure for Boredom and Being Boring: How to Be Interesting All the Time Read More »
“The questions don’t do the damage. Only the answers do.” – Sam Donaldson, Born Mar. 11, 1934. In Sam’s field of journalism, that can be true. A probing question that gets an answer from a prominent figure is often revealing in a way the answerer may not have meant. And often, it can be damaging
Know the Answers Your Reader Won’t Think to Ask For 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 »
“Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it’s a letdown, they won’t buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book.” – Mickey Spillane, Born Mar. 9, 1918. Spillane never wrote “literature” like the kind professors value. Unless
The Profitable Cliffhanger – How to Serialize Your Selling Read More »
“Action makes more fortune than caution.” – Charlotte Whitton, Born Mar. 8, 1896. Fortune can mean money. As in, he made a fortune in business. And it can mean luck. As in, he was fortunate to get into that business when he did. And it can mean your future or destiny. As in, let me
The “Big Problem” Is Almost Always Exercising Caution Over Taking Action. 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
“I’ve found that prayers work best when you have big players.” – Knute Rockne, Born Mar. 4, 1888. Let me teach you how to never lose again. Let me teach you how to always come out ahead. It’s called “contingency” and it’s this lazy man’s road to riches. Every single thing you do successfully CAN
Contingency Plans Multiply Your Profits (With No Extra Work) Read More »
“The most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion.” – Alexander Graham Bell, Born Mar. 3, 1847. This is important. Like LEGO bricks. Like Voltron. Your stuff needs to combine and stack and scale. Too many chase the next client or the next job or the next
Brick by Brick, You Must Build Your Own Destiny, According to the Designs You’ve Dreamed Read More »
