Wizard of Ads Monday Morning Memo

Having Arrived at the Endand Forgotten to Live2005 was an amazingly bad year for Pennie and me. Her mother died, my father died, and then we were brought horribly low by a financial surprise with two commas to the left of the decimal point. There was a period of weeks when it looked like all would be lost. The business, the school, our home, the cars, everything. For days at a time my eyes wouldn't focus. I walked around wanting to fall to my knees and throw up.But a strange scrap of paper kept everything in perspective. I found it on my father's kitchen table after the police told me he had been found dead in his recliner. In his unique handwriting, it read, “All the little things in life add up to your life. If you don't get it right then nothing else matters. It gets lonely in the promised land by yourself.”That was it. Nothing else.Things are fine now. God rescued Pennie and me from the belly of the fish. But that scrap of paper floated in front of blurry eyes again last week.During the construction of Chapel Dulcinea I took several photos of her small crew at work. Daniel Denny had carefully selected these young men to help him accomplish the impossible. The five of them built Tuscan Hall and The House of Ten Doors and Chapel Dulcinea and the first half of Engelbrecht House in less time than is humanly possible. They did what can't be done.I was far too busy with emergencies and tragedies and the needs of my clients to take photos in 2005 but “All the little things in life add up to your life,” so I took the photos anyway, thinking, “Someday these will be important.”A few weeks ago Ed Valdez translated for us what 22 year-old Alberto was saying. “I have been sending all my money home to buy young cattle during my time in America and now my parents tell me that I must return and take care of my cows.” He smiled. “My herd now numbers more than 40.” Alberto had quietly refused to learn English during his time in America, saying, “I will remain here only long enough to buy young cattle, then I will return to Mexico and marry a beautiful girl and be a rancher.” Every day Alberto's softness and simplicity reminded me of Mr. Rogers from Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.David Mendieta called a few days ago to tell us that his little brother Alberto had been stabbed and killed by a nut. I fell to my knees and threw up.But then I remembered the photographs.They cannot patch the hole punched into the heart of Alberto's mother by the knife that killed her son. But I sent her seven photos that show her boy working happily during his last days on earth, building a thing that will bring joy to the lives of thousands of young couples for decades and centuries to come.“All the little things in life add up to your life. If you don't get it right then nothing else matters.”Alberto Mendieta got all the little things right. Nothing else matters.Roy H. Williams

Can you be in Austin on Saturday, April 22?SEMINAR: We're planning a writer's seminar in palatial Tuscan Hall featuring Chris Maddock, the rarely seen teacher of Advanced Wordsmithing, and Jeff Sexton, the instructor of that always sold-out curriculum, How to Write Powerfully and Clearly. Also joining us will be David Freeman, teacher of Beyond Structure, L.A.'s most popular screenwriting and fiction workshop. (It would be worth ten times the price of this conference just to hear David Freeman talk about character diamonds. We're going to hear him for 2 full hours, PLUS he's staying for the party. Woo-hoo!) I was also able to convince Ray Bard – America's most successful publisher of business books – to give you some fast track insights into publishing your own first book. This is going to be one incredible day.Lunch and Dinner will be provided.I can't promise you any instructors beyond those four and me, but I do plan to ask my multimillion bestselling book-friends Keith Miller and Russell Friedman if they might grant us a few words of instruction and encouragement as well.Considering that he recently bought the house directly across the street from the entrance to the Academy, I'm fairly certain I can get Wizard Acadgrad Michael Drew to give us some tips about what it takes to make a serious run at the bestseller lists. Michael is the young miracle worker who helped Jeffrey and Bryan Eisenberg put their first Wizard Academy Press hardback, Call to Action,on the bestseller lists of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. Michael worked with me on my bestselling Wizard of Ads trilogy back when he was barely 20 years old.PARTY: The principal reason for this writer's seminar and party is to celebrate the release of a fat new book from Wizard Academy Press called People Stories: Inside the Outside. Each of the contributing authors is being granted a full-tuition scholarship to the event, but the rest of us are going to have to pay $350 each. (AcadGrads get 50 percent off, as always.)Each attendee will be given a first-edition copy of People Stories: Inside the Outside, allowing them to get the signatures of each of the contributing authors on their respective pages. Pretty cool, huh? The authors will be easy to spot because they'll be wearing special name badges with their page numbers prominently emblazed.The seminar is going to be unforgettable. The party is going to be front-page news. Seating is limited to only 200 (and 143 of those precious seats are reserved for the contributing authors.) I'd register quickly if I were you. There will be no free passes given other than the ones extended to the contributing authors.CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Want to get in on the next big Wizard Academy Press project? Poor Writer's Almanac will be a priceless compendium of methods, tips and secrets from hundreds of authors whose lives spanned hundreds of years. Our plan is to publish it in hardback since we believe it will become a highly regarded reference book in literary circles around the world. (I know that last part sounded like bigtalk, but I sincerely believe it's what's going to happen.) We've collected some truly amazing stuff for the guts of this book and we're soliciting submissions from AcadGrads and Monday Memo readers as well. Dr. Kevin Ryan, are you reading this?If you have a writing method, tip or secret that might be valuable to other writers, send it to JeffSexton@WizardofAds.com. Short is good. The fewer the words, the better, but make it as long as it needs to be. If your submission is included in Poor Writer's Almanac, your name will be published beneath the tip. No other compensation is offered. Please don't send quotes from any source other than yourself. We're looking for your own tips in your own words. If selected for inclusion, your name will appear among the great ones.Submissions deadline is March 17, 2006, at midnight Central Time. Multiple submissions are encouraged.Ciao for Niao,Roy H. Williams

How often are you conscious of the fact that Earth, only Earth, is buried beneath an ocean of air?We, the fleas that dance on the skin of Mother Earth, live in this dry ocean. We use it to hold our airplanes off the ground. We blow out candles with it. We suck it in and out of our lungs like a fish pulls water through its gills.And we almost never think about it.Akintunde, my friend from botanical green Nigeria, tells me his first impression of America was that everything here smelled burnt. He spent his first few days turning this way and that, ever looking for the fire. Finally he realized it was only the hydrocarbons of a hundred million cars.Things don't smell burnt to Akintunde any more. He's become acclimated.Things familiar often grow invisible. And that's bad news for business owners.There are identifiable elements in successful ads. Don't let these elements become invisible:1. SALIENCE. To persuade, we must speak to the customer about something the customer cares about. Our message must have relevance. Cognitive neuroscientists call this salience. Most ads have too little salience to be remembered just 5 minutes later. How many of the ads from this morning's paper do you recall? Name the ads that appeared in the last TV show you watched. The last radio station you heard? What were the last 3 banner ads that appeared on your computer monitor?     a. Targeting: One way of increasing salience is to find people who are already interested, people who are currently, consciously in the market for what you're trying to sell: BOOM. Yellow pages. Search Engine optimization. Direct mail. Reaching people who are currently, consciously in the market is the fundamental idea behind Targeting. But it's dangerous to wait until your customer is known to be in the market. You'll likely be just another face in an anxious crowd. One among many. Good luck.     b. Copy: Focused copy is the best way to increase salience. Long copy is better only when it has to be that long because you have so many good things to say. Abundant words wrapped around a small idea won't work. A thick layer of words obscures the salience of a message. The cognoscenti call these Black Words.2. REPETITION is the only cure for insufficient salience. How much repetition will be required to drive your message into memory is determined primarily by the salience of the message.     a. Sleep is the enemy of advertising. It erases the noise of yesterday, especially the sights and sounds of selling. Therefore, when you desire a person to take quick action, the challenge is to reach them with maximum repetition, allowing minimal sleep between hits. This calls for vertical, rather than horizontal, ad scheduling.     b. Branding is essentially involuntary, automatic recall, a product of salience x repetition. A shortage on one side of the “x” can be supplemented by a surplus on the other side. Low salience requires high repetition. High salience requires low repetition. When using mass media, an opportunity exists to implant your brand as an associative memory in the minds of persons not currently in the market, so that your name becomes the first remembered – and the one the customer feels best about – when they finally need what you sell. Will your message have sufficient salience and repetition? Branding requires horizontal scheduling, repetition over time.Salience is determined by the Central Executive of Working Memory, located in the dorsolateral prefrontal association area of the brain. Working Memory is conscious awareness, imagination, the attention of your customer, and all Creation is shouting for it. Your competition isn't limited to your business category. Every stimulus under the sun is demanding your customer's attention. Every sight, sound, smell, taste and memory are screaming for the spotlight. Your prospect will pay attention to your message only as long as it's the most interesting thing happening in their world. Attention will switch the moment something more interesting peeks over the horizon. The spotlight will then move off you. Whether or not you'll be remembered in the future is determined by salience x repetition.But salience and repetition assume your message has successfully entered Working Memory. Most messages never get there. They fail because they were predictable. Want to lose a person's attention in a hurry? Just say and do what they expect you to say and do.Predictability is the silent assassin of advertising, the quiet cancer that pulls you under.“We often imagine our memories faithfully storing everything we do. But there is no mechanism in our heads that stores sensory perceptions as a permanent, unchangeable form. Instead, our minds use a complex system to convert a small percentage of what we experience into nothing more than a pattern of connections between nerve cells. Human memory is not at all like videotape.” – Matt Crenson, science writer for The Associated Press, Dec. 10, 2000Surprise carries its own salience and is the foundation of delight.Most ads never arrive at the Emerald City of Working Memory because they were dragged under by the poppy field of Broca's Area. Remember that field of poppies in The Wizard of Oz? After a long journey, Dorothy and her friends finally catch a glimpse of their desination. The Emerald City is in view. They need only to cross a field of flowers and then they'll enter the city and meet the mighty Wizard. But the poppies cause them to fall asleep halfway across the field.The Emerald City is Working Memory, conscious awareness. If we do not reach it, we cannot speak to the wizard.The Wizard is the prefrontal cortex of your customer's brain, that center of decision-making, planning and judgment.Dorothy and her entourage are your message.The Poppy Field is Broca's Area of the brain, ignoring – subduing – erasing every sensory stimuli that was predictable.The Snow that re-invigorates your message is any element of the elegant unexpected… the chilling delight of surprise… particle conflict… elemental dissonance… incongruence… It's the last thing Broca would ever suspect…And the last thing most advertisers would ever consider.Are you beginning to understand why effective advertising is so rare?Roy H. Williams

Do you remember when America watched awards shows?If you were somehow unplugged and didn't receive the newsflash, the combined strength of Paul McCartney, Madonna, U2, Mariah Carey, Coldplay, Faith Hill and Jay-Z wasn't enough to swing the hammer and ring the bell during this year's Grammy Awards. A frail 17 million watched these legends read their cue cards while a muscular 28.3 million cheered hopeful, nameless kids singing their hearts out on American Idol.It was just one more indication of how we're moving away from the vertical hero-worship of Idealism to establish the horizontal links that mark an emerging Civic generation.Grandpa Jagger during halftime at the Superbowl, surrounded by people doing their best to act like cheering fans… I'm sorry, but that was just sad.I'm not trying to be catty, I'm trying to make a point: Plastic posing bores us. We have no desire to hear another Miss America contestant talk about her dream of world peace. Just once, wouldn't you like to hear the interviewer say, “And how is walking around in high heels and a swimsuit going to help bring about world peace?”Unfiltered authenticity is the new cool. And volunteerism is on the rise.We don't listen to big talkers anymore. Our collective silence toward them is our way of saying, “Talk is cheap. Now get off your idealistic ass and do something.”Tom Hanks is the new John Wayne. Remember Hanks' portrayal of the dutiful but reluctant English-teacher-turned-soldier in Saving Private Ryan? He was just a regular guy, doing the best he could, trying to make the best of a bad situation. Kind of like you and me.Struggling, flawed, tormented Jason Bourne is the new James Bond.Lost in Translation is the new Love Story.I'm not trying to depress you. I'm just trying to open your eyes to the realities of the new marketplace.Hype is dead.In 2004 – the first year following the shift away from Idealism – the Grammys scored a respectable 26.3 million viewers. The next year they fell to just 18.8 million. So this year's 17 million should have come as no surprise.Anyone taking bets on next year's audience?If you're a business owner needing advice about marketing in the new millennia, here's all you really need to know:Say it straight. Say it real. You'll do fine.Roy H. Williams

This week I didn't feel like writing about advertising or business or leadership or anything else an ambitious soul might find useful. So if you're in a vibrating hurry with far too much to do, right here would be the place to stop reading. The DELETE button is sitting there, twitching, anxious for you to bang it. There's nothing in today's note that would do a busy person like you any good.Unless, of course, you're in a major, world-class bigtime really extreme hurry. Then you should by all means keep reading.Would you like to have a secret retreat from the buzzing noise of daily life in the 21st century? Are you prepared to take a journey that will move your mind to another place, another time? Today I'm going to tell you about four non-fiction books and not one of them has a plot.But don't let that fool you.Sea Room, by Adam Nicolson.True to my custom, I opened this book to a random page (141) and began to read: ” …Something of the sense of holiness on islands comes, I think, from this strange, elastic geography. Islands are made larger, paradoxically, by the scale of the sea that surrounds them. The element which might reduce them, which might be thought to besiege them, has the opposite effect. The sea elevates these few acres into something they would never be if hidden in the mass of the mainland. The sea makes islands significant.” Impressed, I turned to chapter one where I was greeted, “For the last twenty years I have owned some islands. They are called the Shiants: one definite, softened syllable, 'the Shant Isles', like a sea shanty but with the 'y' trimmed away. The rest of the world thinks there is nothing much to them. Even on a map of the Hebrides the tip of your little finger would blot them out…” I bought hard-to-find copies for several of my friends.The Island at the Center of the World, by Russell Shorto.My partner Jeffrey Eisenberg shares my taste in books, so when I told him this book was “the epic story of Dutch Manhattan and the forgotten colony that shaped America,” he wasn't worried. Read it anyway. Later Jeff called me to say, “I think it may be one of the most interesting books I've ever read. Definitely the best-written history book. Almost reads like a novel.” But then again Jeff is strange. Might there be a chance that you, too, are Jeff's and my brand of crazy?Travels with Charley, by John Steinbeck.In 1961, a year prior to winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, John Steinbeck bought a camper and set out with his dog, Charley, to see America through the windshield of a pickup truck. This book is the story of that 3-month journey. Most people associate Steinbeck with Cannery Row, Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, or East of Eden. Worthy books, to be sure. But this, his odd collection of experiences and observations is, I think, my favorite Steinbeck of them all. Travels with Charley is a celebration of the Ordinary, the disjointed thoughts and notes of a highly accomplished man looking quietly at the world around him. It is perhaps the most underlined, dog-eared, footnoted book I own.In tribute to Steinbeck's Travels with Charley, we're going to publish – in a 380-page book – all the essays we received in response to the challenge I issued 5 weeks ago. This book will have an ISBN number and a barcode and will be registered with the Library of Congress – the works. It will be called People Stories: Inside the Outside, and a free copy of it will be the special “gift of initiation” I promised to send everyone who dared to join our bleary-eyed fraternity. When the book arrives from the printer, (hopefully by late April,) it will be released with considerable fanfare during a huge party at Wizard Academy's Tuscan Hall. Following the party, it will be made available for sale at major online booksellers. Details when we know them. Stay tuned.This Noble Land, by James Michener.On October 8, 1996, just a year before he died at the age of 90, this giant of literature chose to publish his highest thoughts and deepest fears about our nation. Steinbeck took us on a physical journey down roads of asphalt, but Michener takes us down paths of memory. You'll love it or hate it.I have no way of knowing which.Be well.Roy H. Williams

It's no secret that stronger ads generate faster growth. But with each higher level of awareness comes an increase in complaints:“I'm sick of hearing your ads.”TRANSLATION: “It makes me mad that I can't ignore you.”“Your ads don't sound professional. They're not polished and smooth.”TRANSLATION: “It makes me mad that your ads stand out.”“I'm offended by your ads and I'll never do business with you.”TRANSLATION: “Complaining is what I do to make me feel important.”Over the past two decades, my fastest-growing clients have always been the ones willing to run my ads exactly as I've written them. Clients who 'tweak' my ads to make them softer typically grow at a softer pace.If people complain about an ad, does that mean it isn't working?If people love an ad and compliment you on it, does that mean it's generating traffic and profits? “Yo Quiero Taco Bell.”Pepsico spent a couple hundred million dollars promoting that dog's endorsement and it didn't increase taco sales a dime. Seriously. But we all loved that little chihuahua, didn't we? If Pepsico's goal was to entertain America; mission accomplished. But if part of their plan was to increase the sale of tacos, well, that part didn't work out.You've got to decide once and for all how you're going to measure success. It doesn't matter what you consider to be success. It matters only that you have an objective way of measuring it, (and in the process, the effectiveness of your advertising.)Do you want people to say they love your ads? No problem, I can make that happen. Do you want to measure units sold and dollars collected? I can make the mercury rise on that thermometer, too. Just not on both.A professional ad writer is a person who has spent millions of dollars of other people's money to learn what doesn't work. Hang on to your hat: the worst ideas always make the most sense. Breakthrough ideas are always counter-intuitive.“If the big ad agencies are doing all the wrong things, is it because they're stupid?” I was asked that question last week by Karen Jonson, a magazine writer. My impulse was to answer fliply, “Yes,” but I choked it down, slowed my internal RPM, and listened to my heart. “No,” I told her, “the problem big agencies face is that they're never able to sit across the table from someone with unconditional authority to say 'absolutely yes.' When a creative person knows they must gain the approval of a group, he or she will instinctively play it safe and give the group what they want, rather than what they need.”Most ads aren't written to move anyone. They're written not to offend.The next time you're watching a really good TV show or listening to a funny comedian, ask yourself, “How much would this show be changed if a group of people were allowed to strip away everything in it that might offend?”No committee will ever approve a great ad, they'll castrate it. But in their minds they're merely “tweaking it, softening it, taking off the offensive edge.” Subject a talented ad writer to a lot of second-guessing and he or she will reward you with ads that all your friends and family are guaranteed to like.Congratulations. Now you've got ads that sound exactly like everyone else's.Roy H. Williams

The American DreamAmerica is a democracy and we believe in free enterprise.Let's look at that for a moment: Democracy is majority rule. Groupthink. “United we stand, divided we fall.” But the key to business – free enterprise – is to have an absolute dictator.In America's system of free enterprise, the person whose money is at risk is the person who gets to decide. Wrong or right, foolish or wise, whoever has the gold makes the rules. And that's the way it should be.So while America's social system is a democracy, individualized financial dictatorship is the foundation of our economy.Apply democratic principles to a business economy and what do you get? Socialism, if you do it softly. Do it for real and you've got Communism, the biggest economic disaster of the 20th century.Strange, isn't it? A democracy will have an economic system based on Darwinian survival-of-the-fittest, “It's a dog eat dog world and I'm about to wolf your poodle, pal.” But a society ruled by a dictator will usually have an economic system of financial democracy, “Everyone will work for the good of all and everyone will share alike.”Strange, isn't it? Social democracies have financial dictators and social dictators have financial democracies.The American Dream requires that businesses be controlled by two financial dictators. One of these dictators is the business owner. The other is the customer.Employees: If you don't like the rules of your dictator, you can go to work for someone else. Heck, you can even go to work for yourself. But if you're an unwise financial dictator, the bank and the IRS will come and haul away your stuff. Welcome to America.Customers: If you don't prefer the person you bought from yesterday, buy from someone else tomorrow. God Bless America: Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.I share these untidy and discomforting thoughts with you only as a warning: Don't introduce democratic principles into your business. I've seen it done too many times to count, and always by the kindest and best of my clients. And it has always ended badly.A strong business requires a strong dictator.Hey, don't get mad. I don't have a social or political agenda here, I'm just sharing an observation that's been tumbling through my head.“The American Dream” isn't the dream of a great society. It's the dream of personal wealth.I'm not saying that's the way it should be.Roy H. Williams

America has been flattered by advertising (“Because you deserve it”), misled by ads (“Lowest prices anywhere”), hyped by ads (“While supplies last”), and lied to repeatedly (“Guaranteed!”). The result of all this misinformation is a growing numbness to ad-speak. We're becoming deaf and blind to it. With effortless ease we shut it out of our minds.Why are advertisers happy when their ads sound like ads?Once-effective phrases become clichés when overused. Remember the 70s? Guys with long, pointed collars and blow-dried hair used the standard pick-up line, “Do you come here often?” They did it because it worked. They quit only when the ladies began laughing at them.But advertising still wears that ridiculous collar and blow-dried hair because its rejection was never face-to-face. We don't laugh at ads. We quietly ignore them.When demand is high and supply is low, your ads need only tell the world, “We've got it!” But how often do you actually get to do this?Advertising – when you're building a brand – is merely a relationship deepener. Its job is to cause the public to like you and trust you. Accomplish this and they'll remember you when they, or any of their circle, need what you sell.Good news: A seductive new voice in advertising is softening the hearts and winning the wallets of our nation at a record pace. This new future of advertising is known as “non ads” – consumer messages written in the vulnerable, candid style of a conversation between close friends. Their language isn't aggressive and egocentric like advertising, but unguarded, playful and real. Non-ads admit weaknesses, confess fears, and never try to impress. They speak to the customer in the language of a friend, rather than a pitchman. Does it surprise you that the natural response of the customer is to give you their trust? But here's the bigger question: Do you have the courage to be a friend, tell the truth, and worry more about your customer's happiness than your own?My strong suggestion is that you adopt it sooner rather than later. The following examples of two real non-ads I've encountered lately should help you better understand this new concept and begin implementing it today.Example #1You're seated in 12-B, reading an in-flight magazine. The following words appear in white letters against a medium olive background, no photograph or graphic:Isn't it amazing how people will read anything at 36,000 ft? You, for instance, are reading this. And even though it's quite obviously an ad, and you're skeptical of advertising, you'll continue reading it. See, here you are, still reading. C'mon, don't try to deny it. And why are you still reading? Not because you find it particularly captivating, but because it's here. And you're here. And you've already exhausted your mandatory, meaningless airplane chit-chat time with your neighbor. So right about now you're probably asking yourself, 'Why am I still reading this?' Perhaps you're even pretending you're not reading it anymore. You're going to close this magazine up right now and slip it back into that pocket up there. But wait, you're still reading it, aren't you? You can't help yourself. It's here. You're here. And you still can't use your cell phone until you reach the tarmac. By the way, we know a really good bookstore around here.At the bottom of the page is the logo for Verizon and in larger letters, “Superpages.com, We know around here.”Like you and trust you. That's the goal.Example #2Walk into the men's room at Robbins Bros., The World's Biggest Engagement Ring Store, and here's what you'll see covering the wall of the toilet stall:Here's your chance. Get out now while you can. Quick, look for a window. Or the ventilation shaft. Okay, remove your clothes. Skivvies, too. Lube your entire body with that hand soap over there. Now take a penny and unscrew the corner of the duct. Now get to struggling. Conviction is important at this point. You do not want to get stuck. Imagine your bride-to-be coming in and seeing your nude lower torso poking out like some sort of modern art installation. That's an image for the mantel, isn't it? So squirm like the wind. Once free, secure some clothing and start a new life somewhere with complicated extradition laws. And then back to bachelorhood. Yes, the singularly most forlorn, emotionally vacant time of your life. Come on, is there anything more overrated than bachelorhood? If you're like most bachelors, you go to bed every night wishing you weren't one. Let's look at the sacred, time-tested bachelor traditions you'll be missing out on. Well, of course, there's being a slob. As well as extended periods of not bathing and otherwise lapsed personal hygiene. And hanging out with your unattached friends. A group of guys who with each passing year are starting to get, frankly, a little creepy. Your future is out there. Your best friend is out there. Besides, that liquid soap itches like crazy.Vision and audacity allowed these companies to leap to the top of their respective categories. And the same characteristics caused them to be among the first in America to embrace the intimate and irreverent voice of “non ads” as the advertising voice of the future. By the time the rest of the nation catches on to what they're doing, they will likely have moved on to something else.How about you? Will you change with the times?Roy H. Williams

It takes 1,800 electrons to equal the mass of a single proton.Protons and their cousins – neutrons – make up 99.95 percent of the mass in the universe. Yet it's the electrical charges of the seemingly insignificant 0.05 percent – those tiny orbiting electrons – that hold our universe together.Commitment. Purpose. Focus. Passion. These are the electrons of Happiness. Orbiting our actions. Binding us together. Keeping us from flying apart.Shift gears, new subject: Is commitment a manifestation of passion, or the cause of it? In other words, are we committed because we have a purpose? Or do we have a purpose because we chose to commit? (Please don't make me tell you the answer. I'm begging you to see it for yourself…)Ah. You see it now. I'm relieved.I'm alarmed at the number of people who act as though purpose is somehow inherent, tied to destiny, a thing mysteriously willed to a chosen few by the gods. They moan, “I don't have a purpose. I don't have a passion. I'm not happy.”Frankly, it's all I can do to keep from slapping them.Let me say this plainly: Your life's purpose will be chosen by you. It's a decision you will make. If you're waiting for your purpose to drop mysteriously from the sky, you're wasting what could have been a wonderful life.Passion comes from having a focus.Focus comes from having a purpose.Purpose comes from having made a commitment.To whom or what will you choose to commit?Shift again, third subject: The world stands knee-deep in unrewarded talent because most people are unable to survive the death of their dream.Every dream of the future is a seed. But until your dream falls into the ground and dies, it cannot burst from the ground and deliver the harvest you seek.Is your commitment strong enough to survive the death of your dream? Will you be found still hanging on when hope has fled, the room is dark and everyone believes you a fool?Believe it or not, this is usually the key to the miracles that follow.Roy H. Williams

It hit me. “I've become an eavesdropper, listening to the conversations of strangers.”It's 5:00AM and I'm sitting at the bar of an all-night café on the wrong side of town eating a three-dollar breakfast, listening to the smelly, funny stories of downtrodden people who know each other well. Their sparkling banter gives me a glimpse into problems I'll never touch, victories I'll never celebrate, a life I'll never have. These are they who will never have internet access, a credit card or cable TV.But they seem happy.I've come here to learn what it means to be an outsider in America.People tell me they want to write. I respond, “You can't find a pencil?” In truth, few want to write. Most want only to have written. People tell me they want to travel, have adventures, meet interesting people and learn about different cultures. They want to expand their world. I'm betting you can guess my answer to that one… “If you will expand your world, you must crawl on your hands and knees, get on your belly and squirm under the fence that surrounds your insulated life.”For most people, travel means being pampered by accommodating servants in exotic places. But interesting people, strange cultures and high adventure don't await you on the other side of the world. They await you on the other side of town.Are you willing to get on your belly and crawl under that fence? Will you invest an hour to enlarge your world? If you will actually do it, not just think about it, but really do it, and write to me about it, I will send you a special gift of initiation. These are the rules:1. You must arrive and be seated in a 24-hour eating establishment between 1:30AM and 5:30AM in a part of town where you rarely go. Or perhaps a truckstop beyond town's edge. The further outside your comfort zone, the better.2. If a man, you must go alone. If a woman and concerned for your safety, you can take one other person with you. But make sure your friend understands the goal isn't to chat with each other, but to glimpse a whole other world that exists side-by-side with the one you know.3. While you're eating and listening and absorbing this strange new reality, think of what these people need most and how you might help them get it. While you're at it, you might also think a little about what they have that you don't. There is a rich sense of community among the outcast.4. Write the details of your excursion within 24 hours of your meal and email them to Corrine@wizardacademy.org Be sure to provide a mailing address where we can send your special Gift of Initiation. I don't yet know what it will be.Want to hear something that will shock you? I'm fairly confident that fewer than 12 readers from among my 31,000 subscribers will actually do what I've just described, and more than half of these will be Canadian. We Americans are unlikely to discomfort ourselves except for purposes of recreation.How accurate are my predictions? A few weeks ago when I offered to send readers a free copy of my favorite book, I accurately predicted for the shipping department – within seven – the precise number of people who would respond to that offer. (Yes, that number was deep into the hundreds.)Will you join this strange new fraternity? Your gift of initiation awaits.Roy H. Williams