Wizard of Ads Monday Morning Memo

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 parking ticket.I almost made it home.My transgression was that I drove through an empty space in the parking lot at Seal Beach so that I could be poised “nose out” in the space beyond. In Texas, Pennie and I call this “going for the poise.”Yeah, that’s illegal in California.As I was sitting in the rental car reading my ticket, a man knocked on my window and shouted, “Turn your car around! Turn your car around! If you don’t, they’ll give you a $64 ticket!” And then he held up his ticket to prove it. I smiled and showed him mine, thinking we’d have a laugh together. But no, this was a man on a mission. He was off like a rocket to warn the next person.I watched him for the next few minutes. Every time a car pulled though a space to go for the poise, he would run up to that car, tap on the window, and warn the driver of his or her impending doom. God bless that guy. He may still be there, even now.The idea that something regarded as common sense in one state is illegal in another reminds me that we Americans are a haphazard people. We name our months after Roman gods. We count our years from the birth of Jesus. We print ‘In God We Trust’ on all our money. But when someone publicly mentions God, we think that person to be a naively superstitious rube.Every time I mention him, I get a look that makes me feel the listener wants to pat me on my head like I’m four years old.I think the current, politically correct name for God is “the universe,” as in, “the universe is telling me to take this job,” or, “the universe is telling me to quit eating red meat.”One young man in California mentioned God to me just before we drove to the airport, and it turned out to be one of the brightest moments of a delightful trip. We had checked out of our hotel and presented the claim check for our car to the valet stand attendant who handed it to a slender young man who took off running toward the parking garage.Throughout my life, I’ve harbored the secret belief that you can brighten the day of waiters, waitresses, hotel maids, and parking valets by giving them unexpectedly generous tips. The only evidence I’ve had that my secret belief might be correct are the bright faces and happy smiles of waiters and waitresses when they see Pennie and me walk through their door.Yes, I am encouraging you to continue being generous to the people who bring you food, clean your room, and park your car.Anyway, when the slender young valet arrived with our car, he handed me the keys and I handed him a twenty. He looked down at it, then back up at me. Then down at it again, then back up to me. “God bless you sir! I’ve never gotten one of these! They told me there was a guy here that was tippin’ twenties, and I said, ‘Please, God, let me bring that guy’s car to him!’ And here you are! Thank you, sir. Thank you.”No one has ever said anything like that to me before, but I like to believe that I’ve brightened the days of thousands of strangers by letting them know they are recognized and appreciated.Many years ago, an old gentleman named Percy Ross was a client of mine. He’s gone now, and I miss him dearly. His newspaper column, “Thanks a Million,” appeared in more than 800 newspapers across America and I helped him syndicate his daily radio show across more than 400 radio stations.One day after lunch, Percy left our waitress a startling amount of money, then winked at me and said, “He who gives while he lives, knows where it goes.”He entrusted that bit of wisdom to me 34 years ago.And now I’m entrusting it to you.Roy H. Williams

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.The third-most-important thing I did in 1994 was fall asleep on a motorcycle and then get run over by a car as I lay unconscious in the middle of the road. “Induced hypothermia” is the medical name for involuntarily falling asleep due to your body temperature plummeting quickly.It was the first Wednesday after Thanksgiving – November 30 – and every retailer on my client list needed reassurance that Santa had not been kidnapped and Christmas had not been cancelled. My day started with ad writing at 2AM and ended with me climbing onto my 1000cc BMW at 10PM to ride home from the office.The sun had fallen far below the horizon and a cold front had swept the warm air away. Jacketless, I shivered as I climbed onto my bike, “Four miles, no stoplights, no traffic. I’ll make it home in record time.”An hour and a half later, I woke up in the emergency room with lots of broken bones, none of which could be set. They kept me overnight – about 12 hours – to make sure I had no internal injuries, then I was back at work at 10:30AM. Christmas and retailers cannot be delayed.I typed with one hand – my uncoordinated left – for more than a year. When my right arm ached, I would reach over with my left hand to pick it up and lay it on the table. But that motorcycle wreck was the least consequential of the 3 things to happen that year and the creation of the Monday Morning Memo was number two, even though the first 100 of those memos would soon become the first book in the Wizard of Ads trilogy.The most important event of 1994 – by far – was that Pennie and I told our sons that each of them could choose any city in the world and I would take them there for a week while the other brother stayed at home with their mom.Rex was 13 that summer. Jake was 11.A week alone in a strange city with your Dad is a fascinating rite-of-passage. It is probably the smartest and best thing I’ve ever done.Allow your son or daughter, grandson or granddaughter, friend or neighbor, to choose their city with no guidance, no hints, no suggestions of any kind. They must make the decision all on their own and then announce it.I am amazed at the cities people choose and for the reasons behind their choices.Rex decided he wanted to spend 3 days in Las Vegas, then fly on a tiny airplane to the Grand Canyon where we would spend another 3 days in a series of misadventures.Jacob chose Juneau, Alaska where we went deep-sea fishing, ocean kayaking, panned for gold, landed in a helicopter on the Mendenhall glacier and then wandered dangerously around on the slippery ice as melting water gathered and gushed into infinitely-deep holes big enough for a human to fall into. We spent a week wandering around in that beautiful Alaskan town accessible only by air, water, and rail. Juneau has just 27 miles of pavement and a big part of those miles are the road to the airport. But more than 150 miles of gold mining tunnels hide in the mountains.Rex’s son, Hollister, turned 13 this summer. He chose Long Beach, California. If you’re reading this on Monday, August 19, 2019, Hollister and I are still here. Indy Beagle promised he would post photos of us in the rabbit hole.Hollister’s brother, Gideon, will choose a city two summers from now. Their little sister, Edie, will choose her city in 2029 and Jacob’s son, Vance, will choose his in 2030.Jewish boys look forward to a bar mitzvah when they turn 13, and their sisters look forward to a bat mitzvah at 12 or 13, depending on the tradition of their family.Our family tradition didn’t have a name when Rex and Jake chose their cities 25 years ago, but Princess Pennie and the older grandkids refer to this event as the Poobah Mitzvah.Some men are known by Grandad or Grandpa or some other term of endearment. I am Poobah.A Poobah Mitzvah is like the Monday Morning Memo; it doesn’t matter what you call it. The only thing that matters is whether you do it.No, it isn’t too late. The people in your life are never too old to have an adventure with you and the city you visit together doesn’t have to be far away.But there can only be two of you. This is one of those rare experiences where three is a crowd.If you decide to do this with someone you love, send a paragraph or two with photos to your favorite beagle, indy@WizardOfAds.comI suspect he’ll put them in the rabbit hole.I almost forgot; Indy says Aroo.Roy H. Williams

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 a price-driven event, we buy from them to save money. So what is the “one big thing,” the unique selling proposition of brick-and-mortar?When we have no chosen provider in a product or service category, we look for reasons to have confidence in one company above the others. We’re hoping to find a provider we feel won’t let us down.Did you notice that phrase, “When we have no chosen provider…?”The goal of advertising is to become a person’s chosen provider. They need what you sell. They think of you. They buy from you. The end.During the 25 years I’ve been writing these Monday Morning Memos, I’ve discovered that most of the time my readers agree with me. My writings confirm their suspicions and give voice to their long-held beliefs. But when I play the role of myth-buster, I get an altogether different reaction. I played the role of myth-buster 2 weeks ago.Will you give me a second chance to make myself clear?I profoundly disagree with the belief that Hedgehog Thinking – focusing all your efforts on “one big thing” – is the key to category dominance.But I do agree that singleness of vision, “one big thing,” gives you focus and clarity.Focus and clarity give you energy, enthusiasm, optimism, creativity, problem-solving ability, and stamina. When you lack focus and clarity, you drift aimlessly in the darkness. Jesus spoke of this principle in his famous Sermon on the Mount in the good news of Matthew chapter 6: “When your eye (vision) is single (focused,) your body is full of light. But when your eye is clouded (unclear) your body is full of darkness. And if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”When Jesus spoke about “one big thing,” he wasn’t talking about category dominance. He was talking about the joy of having a purpose, and the passion that follows.Your passion motivates you.But your passion does not motivate your customers. They have passions and motives of their own.Never let an ad writer convince you that customers will choose you because you are passionate about “one big thing.” It simply isn’t true.We don’t fall in love because of “one big thing.” We fall in love because of “many little things.”Customers will choose you because they like you. And there are many little things that can make them like you. This is why storytelling – advertising – should always come from the “many little things” perspective of the fox.Translated into the language of the ad writer, “many little things” is called benefit stacking. “Many little things” also form the narrative arc of storytelling. And telling stories is how you create customer engagement through advertising. It is how you become the chosen provider.Let your customers see a reflection of themselves in you and they will choose you every time. Your passion is priceless. It is golden. It gives you a sense of purpose. Your passion comes from having an eye that is “single” – focused on one big thing. Your passion is what drives you.Your passion does not drive your customer.Category dominance is rarely determined by passion, or even by quality. You can easily name ten product and service categories whose leaders are not the most passionate companies in their categories, or even the best. Category leaders dominate because customers choose them. They dominate because they connect with more people and make more sales.Do you want to be happy? Live like a hedgehog.Do you want to be wealthy? Advertise like a fox.Roy H. Williams

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 of Ads trilogy.There is a second, less-populated category of non-fiction books whose authors have a different motive. These books appear to be about the author, but look closely and you’ll see they are about the reader.Memoirs, when well-written, reveal the brokenness, the triumphs, and the tragedies of the author. They describe an event-filled journey.Memoirs inspire us and make us believe that we can make a difference. They encourage us, showing us how someone else passed through this dark forest and how we can pass through it, too.We laugh at the silly mistakes, cherish the faithful companions, cry at the suffering and loss, cheer the little victories, and feel that we know the author.Memoirs are not written as reputation builders, but as relationship deepeners.If you want to write a good memoir, you must make yourself vulnerable, revealing all your fears and flaws and secrets. If you don’t, you will be guilty of the sin of Margot Asquith:“The affair between Margot Asquith and Margot Asquith will live as one of the prettiest love stories in all literature.”Dorothy Parker, in her 1925 New Yorker book reviewof The Autobiography of Margot Asquith.Even worse, they might say of you,“He is a self-made man and he worships his creator.”Vulnerability is the price of intimacy. Confession is the price of trust.Never trust the advice of a man who doesn’t limp.It is our belief systems and our scars that make us who we are.Do you want to build a strong culture in the company you founded? Write your memoirs.Do you want your customers to feel like they know you? Write your memoirs.Do you want to cast your bread upon the waters, pay it forward, help thousands of people you will never meet? Write your memoirs.Do you want your descendants to know who you were, the clay from which they were formed? Write your memoirs.Other people will be faced with the fears you have faced.Other people will make the mistakes you have made.Other people need to know the lessons you have learned.Do you have the humility – the vulnerability – to tell us how you got your limp?Roy H. Williams

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 Hedgehog and the Fox.In 2017, University of Pennsylvania psychologist Philip Tetlock completed a 20-year study that contrasted the abilities of the one-big-thing “hedgehog” experts against the many-little-things “fox” non-experts to make accurate predictions about geopolitical events.Does it surprise you to learn that the “fox” non-experts outperformed the “hedgehog” experts by an overwhelming margin?What Tetlock discovered will help you tell the story of your company in a way that will cause customers to feel like they truly know you.American businesspeople tend to believe that every successful business is built on a single big idea, “one big thing.” But sadly, that bit of traditional wisdom is more tradition than wisdom.“One big thing” is hedgehog thinking. But foxes roam freely, listen carefully and consume omnivorously. Foxes know “many little things.”Customers will love the “many little things” story of your company told from the perspective of a fox. The story you need to be telling is the real one, a fascinating tale of hopes and dreams and failures and successes and realizations and refinements.Don’t worry, we’re going to help you write it.In 2011, the fox-like director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor, used 100 objects in his museum as prisms through which he told the entire story of our world. That book, A History of the World in 100 Objects, became a wildly popular radio series and a blockbuster New York Times bestseller. The Wall Street Journal called it, “An enthralling and profoundly humane book that every civilized person should read.”The fascinating, riveting, highly-engaging story of your company is hidden in 10 objects that lie within your grasp.Bring those objects with you to Wizard Academy. It is time for “Show and Tell.”Dr. Richard D. Grant is a founding board member of Wizard Academy. Chris Maddock has been a Wizard of Ads writing instructor for 22 years. Tom Wanek is a Wizard of Ads partner with a particular talent for helping people discover wonderful stories that have been hiding in plain sight. These three masters will help you unleash the pivotal moments captured in your photographs, artifacts, and documents, and turn them into the fascinating story of your company’s origin and evolution.This wonderful adventure through time and imagination will happen November 5-6.We’ve only got room for 18 people.Roy H. Williams

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 it’s bigger than you.At twenty, I followed a White Rabbit and became an ad writer.At forty, I wrote The Wizard of Ads and it became Business Book of the Year.At sixty, I announced I was going to create The Ad Writers Masters Class for The American Small Business Institute and that its graduates would be qualified for admission into The Ad Writer’s Guild.The journey got a life of its own.Becoming an AdMaster will be like becoming a Black Belt in the art of ad writing.I expressed my biggest fear about that 52-week online class in last week’s Monday Morning Memo. Did you read it?“I sometimes worry that we have an instant-gratification attitude regarding education. We believe that when we have learned from an expert how a thing is done, we now have the ability to do that thing expertly. But there is a long and winding road to be traveled from Information to Proficiency. And then there is a second long and winding road from Proficiency to Authority.”My partner Jeff Sexton read that and immediately sent me a video featuring Ira Glass, the producer and host of the award-winning public radio program This American Life.“Nobody tells people who are beginners – I really wish somebody had told this to me – is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But for the first couple of years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good. Okay? It’s not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s not quite good. But, your taste – the thing that got you into the game – your taste is still killer. And your taste is good enough that you can tell what you’re making is a disappointment to you.”“A lot of people never get past that phase. They quit. The thing that I would say to you with all my heart is that most everybody I know who does interesting, creative work, went through a phase of years where they could tell that what they were making wasn’t as good as they wanted it to be. They knew it fell short.”“Everyone goes through that, and if you’re going through it right now, you’ve got to know it’s totally normal, and the most important possible thing you could do is do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week, or every month, you know you’re going to finish one story. Because it’s only by actually going through a volume of work that you’re actually going to catch up and close that gap. The work you’re making will be as good as your ambitions.”“It’s going to take you a while. It’s normal to take a while, and you just have to fight your way through that. Okay?”When I followed up on that idea of becoming a black belt, I learned that it was a far more accurate comparison than I had realized. WIKIPEDIA says,“In Japanese martial arts; the shodan black belt is not the end of training, but rather a beginning to advanced learning: the individual now ‘knows how to walk’ and may thus begin the ‘journey.'”When The Ad Writers Masters Class is finally announced, I hope you’ll consider it. And if you decide to pursue your black belt in ad writing, I hope you’ll remember that there’s a long and winding road from Information to Proficiency.In the meantime, you can learn How to Become a YouTube Influencer. Not that it’s any easier. But that class is fully polished and coming up in September.Indy said to tell you “Aroo,” and that he’ll see you in the rabbit hole.You know the way.Roy H. Williams

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 foolish to judge our success by the number of people who attend classes. When we complete The House of the Lost Boys, we’ll be able to accommodate 24 students per class. But we have just 40 classes per year. Nine hundred and sixty students per year is our self-imposed maximum and we’ve been hovering at that number for a long time. The goal is the high-touch sharing of valuable insights, processes, formulas, tips and lessons with self-selected insiders who had to pass through a lot of filters to even hear about this place and then cross a lot of barriers to get here.”“So how, exactly, do you measure success?” asked one of the board members.“Three things, ” I answered.“Number one is how often we hear reports from students saying they went home and implemented the things they learned and it made a gigantic difference.”“Number two is how often they return for additional classes. Because this tells us they had a great experience the first time.”“Number three is the number of newcomers who were told to come by someone who had already been here.”“Results, Returns, and Referrals,” echoed 38-year-old Ryan Deiss as he nodded his head in affirmation.“I thought I made those criteria up!” I said. “Are you telling me they’re a known thing?”“They’re not widely known, but all the better schools use those criteria,” he said.Manley Miller is another 38-year-old that the board has asked to fill the position of a member who has been serving for 20 years and has announced he will be retiring next year.In Manley’s not-yet-published book, he writes,“When you have a talent for something, you have an aptitude. But when you become a master of it, you have proficiency.”“When you have something to say that is worth hearing, you have wisdom. But when people are willing to listen to you, you have authority.”Manley says he learned that from reading the Bible. “Jesus spoke with wisdom in the Temple when he was 12 years old, but when he was 30, he spoke with authority. You’ve got to add a lot of experience to your wisdom before you can speak with authority.”A few days later, Rex Williams, another 38-year-old board member said,“We judge ourselves by our intentions, but we judge others by their actions. Likewise, we judge the value of our thoughts and opinions by the depth of our feelings, but others judge the value of our thoughts and opinions by our words.”Rex went on to say,“Millions of people are involved in social media, podcasting, video blogging, ad writing, book writing, speech writing. Everyone wants to be heard, but few learn how to be heard.”Listening to these 38-year-olds, I had a revelation.Let’s say you have an aptitude for communication, (because you probably do.)You’re still going to need:Information, which becomesKnowledge, which leads toExperience, which leads toProficiency, which gives youWisdom, which gives youDeeper Experience, which gives youAuthorityI sometimes worry that we have an instant-gratification attitude regarding education. We believe that when we have learned from an expert how a thing is done, we now have the ability to do that thing expertly.But there is a long and winding road to be traveled from Information to Proficiency.And then there is a second long and winding road from Proficiency to Authority.I believe this is a message every high school and college graduate needs to hear. Because when we fail to tell them, we condemn them to learn these things the hard way.Indy says Aroo.Roy H. Williams

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’m going to teach those things to you.A: When You’re in Outside Sales, You’ve Got to Prune Your Account List.There are only 24 hours in the day and no way to get any more. Outside salespeople run out of time long before they run out of opportunity.If you’re in outside sales, this is how to prune your account list:Look at your total billing for the past 12 months.Divide that dollar amount by the number of accounts on your list.This will give you an “average annual yield” per account.Give away every account that spent less than that amount with you last year.Sell no new accounts that are going to spend less than that amount with you this year.When you run out of time again, repeat this exercise.Follow these steps and you’ll see your sales volume spiral higher and higher.B: Always Add, “Which Means…”No matter how well we understand features and benefits, we too often name a feature and assume our prospective customer knows the benefits. What I’m about to teach you will increase the impact of your sales presentations and the effectiveness of your ad copy, even when your customer does already understand the benefits of the feature you named.Always add “which means…” after every feature you name. You can add these words verbally, or you can add them silently, but this habit will bridge you into language the customer can see in their mind.“This blade is made of Maxamet steel which means you’ll never have to sharpen it.”“This is a 52-week schedule which means your name will become the one people think of immediately and feel the best about.”“I’m going to write your campaign in a conversational style which means the customer will categorize you in their mind as a friend.”C: When Asked, “How much?” the First Digit of a Number Should Always be the First Syllable Out of Your Mouth.I was one of only a few advertising people in the room on that fateful day I met with Gene Chamberlain. He said, “When a customer says the word ‘How’ followed by the word ‘much,’ there is only one intelligent way to answer that question: Take a breath and name a number and then – without pausing – name everything that is included in that price at no extra charge.”Most of the crowd sold mobile homes, so Gene used their industry in his example.“A man wants to buy a mobile home, so he drives up and down mobile home row, then back to his office. He saw two mobile homes he liked, never realizing it was the same model on two different lots.”“So he calls the first mobile home dealer and asks, ‘How much is the mobile home next to the road?’ The first dealer said, “Sir, you have an eye for quality! That’s a Northwind mobile home. Those are made in Minnesota where it gets really cold, so they’re extremely energy efficient. That mobile home is made with 2 by 6 lumber instead of 2 by 4s, and it comes fully furnished and fully carpeted and with all your major appliances…” Gene stopped in mid-sentence and said, “The customer was no longer listening, he just wanted off the phone. He was thinking, ‘That mobile home is overpriced and the salesman knows it.'”Gene looked at us for several seconds before he continued,“So the man calls the second dealership and asks, ‘How much is the mobile home next to the road?’ ‘Thirty-four thousand two hundred and seventy dollars,’ the second salesman answered, ‘which includes at no extra charge, vaulted ceilings and a wood-burning fireplace in an open-concept floorplan, every room furnished with your choice of Bassett or Broyhill furniture, granite countertops in the kitchen and bathrooms, Kohler fixtures, mini-blinds and draperies on every window and we also deliver it, set it up, and tie it down at no extra charge, then we build a 20 by 30-foot redwood deck outside your back door along with a two-car carport for you to park under. And that’s just the beginning. Would you like to hear everything else you get for just thirty-four, two-seventy, or would you like to come down and walk through it first?”The more things you list that are “included at no extra charge,” the cheaper the price becomes. But only if you name the price first.Gene Chamberlain is gone now, but I honor his memory by passing along the best advice on selling I was ever given. My only regret is that I didn’t tell him ‘Thank you’ before I left the room.Roy H. Williams

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 a happy yesterday?Strangely, we can. According to a number of studies published since 2012, we don’t really remember the events in our lives. We remember only our last memory of those events. Events in our memories alter and morph with each retrieval until, finally, we are “remembering” things that never really happened.The first of these studies was conducted at Northwestern University and published in the Journal of Neuroscience.On September 19, 2012, journalist Marla Paul wrote,“Remember the telephone game where people take turns whispering a message into the ear of the next person in line? By the time the last person speaks it out loud, the message has radically changed. It’s been altered with each retelling.”“Turns out your memory is a lot like the telephone game, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study. Every time you remember an event from the past, your brain networks change in ways that can alter the later recall of the event. Thus, the next time you remember it, you recall not the original event but what you remembered the previous time.”“‘A memory is not simply an image produced by time-traveling back to the original event,'” says Donna Bridge, a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and lead author of the paper on the study recently published in the Journal of Neuroscience. ‘Your memory of an event can grow less precise even to the point of being totally false with each retrieval.’”In a subsequent article in Psychology Today, we read,“Not only are our memories faulty, our memories change each time they are recalled. What we recall is only a facsimile of things gone by. Memories are malleable constructs that are reconstructed with each recall. What we remember changes each time we recall the event. The slightly changed memory is now embedded as ‘real,’ only to be reconstructed with the next recall. Memory isn’t like a file in our brain, but more like a story that is edited every time we tell it. We attach emotional details with each re-telling. Not only do we alter the story, we alter our feelings about it.”We unconsciously choose to alter these emotional details and feelings for better, or for worse. To make ourselves happier, or more miserable.I vote for remembering happiness. “Have a happy yesterday.”“But Roy,” I can hear you say, “you’re saying that we should lie to ourselves.”No, I’m simply saying that you’re already lying to yourself when you believe that you recall past events accurately.The simple, scientific truth is that you colorize events each time you recall them. I’m merely suggesting that you consider the colors you are choosing.Will they be dark, sad, angry colors? Or will they be warm and happy ones?Roy H. Williams

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 narrow and deep. Specialized. Expert. Orderly.Horizontal thinking is boundless and broad. It is a searchlight that spots anomalies in a sea of similarities. It is the network of intersections in a map of metaphors. It is a detective that solves puzzles by seeing patterns, connections and relationships.Intuitive and instinctive, horizontal thinking leads to innovations by asking, “What doesn’t belong, and why?” It is a magnet that pulls the needle from the haystack. Linguists call this the Aha! moment or the eureka moment, that common human experience of suddenly understanding a previously incomprehensible problem or concept.Horizontal knowledge knows a little bit about everything. It is chaotic, pattern-seeking, creative.Every healthy person thinks vertically and horizontally, though most of us tend to prefer one or the other.The most effective partnerships have one partner who prefers to think vertically and another who prefers to think horizontally. These partners are the makers of miracles when they’re not driving each other crazy.Do you have a strong preference for one type of thinking? The first major milestone on your journey to success will be to find a partner who is your opposite. A person who brings the Willy to your Wonka.But that’s the easy part. That hard part is to respect that person’s opinion and take action on it, even when your instinct is to dismiss it out-of-hand as “irrelevant.”Chances are, you’ve got that person in your life already. Probably more than one. So here’s a suggestion: the next time they offer an opinion, or a possible solution, look at it as a valuable gift that needs to be opened and examined.You’re going to be surprised at the difference it makes.Roy H. Williams