Wizard of Ads Monday Morning Memo

Time and Money are interchangeable.We can always save one by spending more of the other.Time and Money are interchangeable.We prize the one we feel to be in short supply.Time and Money are interchangeable.We burn them both like the wax of a candle.What is patience if not the quiet, dark burning of time?What is entertainment if not the dazzling, bright burning of time?What is play if not the warm, happy burning of time?What is freedom if not the ability to burn time in any way we choose?Do you want to attract influential people to your business?Patiently offer them entertainment, play and freedom.They will be attracted to your lightand come back with their friends.This is why an innovative marketing school teaches people how to become whiskey sommeliers.*Influential people are obligated to make money.Money, for them, is a representative product of work.What they seek is freedom, entertainment and play.What they seek is a pleasant way to spend time.Aristotle Onassis understood this.Ari was a 17 year-old Greek refugee who fled to Buenos Aires where he began working as a telephone operator in 1923. He would soon become one of the wealthiest men in the world. This, in his own words, was his secret:Make sure you are tanned, live in expensive buildings, even if you have to stay in the cellar, go out to expensive restaurants, even if you can only afford one drink.”Ari spent the money he made as a telephone operator on quality clothes, a tanning lamp and a single drink each night in the swankiest bar in Buenos Aires. Within a few months, he had become friends with all the important people of that city. And with their help, he began a tobacco importing business that made him, and them, a fortune.That’s when he began buying ships.Having learned that the Canadian National Steamship Company wanted to sell 2 ships at scrap metal prices, Ari left immediately for Canada and convinced that company to sell him not just 2, but 6 ships for $20,000 each. Within a few years Ari had amassed the world’s largest privately owned shipping fleet and became one of the world’s richest and most famous men.Seventeen year-old Aristotle Onassis instinctively knew that freedom, entertainment and play were the only things that influential people really desire. He connected with them, not through work, but through play.Ari became successful, not because he knew how to spend money, but because he knew how to spend time when time was his only asset.If you don’t have all the money you desire, I have but a single question for you:How are you spending your time?Roy H. Williams

Most people associate The Power of Myth with the 1988 PBS television series with Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell, or with the accompanying book of that name. But it was John F. Kennedy who spoke of the power of myth with the greatest clarity and insight. The occasion was his 1962 Commencement Address to the graduates of Yale University.As every past generation has had to disenthrall itself from an inheritance of truisms and stereotypes, so in our own time we must move on from the reassuring repetition of stale phrases to a new, difficult, but essential confrontation with reality. For the great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie—deliberate, contrived, and dishonest—but the myth—persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the clichés of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”Erroneous preconceptions are the dangerous downside of myths.But heroes are their dangerous upside.Larger than life, highly exaggerated and always positioned in the most favorable light, a hero is a beautiful lie.We have historic heroes, folk heroes and comic book heroes. We have heroes in books and songs and movies and sport. We have heroes of morality, leadership, kindness and excellence. And nothing is so devastating to our sense of wellbeing as a badly fallen hero. Yes, heroes are dangerous things to have.The only thing more dangerous is not to have them.Heroes raise the bar we jump and hold high the standards we live by. They are ever-present tattoos on our psyche, the embodiment of all we’re striving to be.We create our heroes from our hopes and dreams. And then they attempt to create us in their own image.The saying, “The sun never sets on the British Empire” was true as recently as 1937 when tiny England did, in fact, still have possessions in each of the world’s 24 time zones.It’s widely known that the British explored, conquered and ruled much of the world for a number of years, but what isn’t widely known is what made them believe they could do it.For the first 1000 years after Christ, Greece and Rome were the only nations telling stories of heroes and champions. England was just a dreary little island of rejects, castoffs and losers.So who inspired tiny, foggy England to rise up and take over the world?A simple Welsh monk named Geoffrey – hoping to instill in his countrymen a sense of pride – assembled a history of England that gave his people a grand and glorious pedigree. Published in 1136, Geoffrey’s “History of the Kings of Britain,” was a detailed, written account of the deeds of the English people for each of the 17 centuries prior to 689 AD… and not a single word of it was true. Yet in creating heroes like King Arthur, Guinevere, Merlyn and the Knights of the Round Table from the fabric of his imagination, Geoffrey of Monmouth convinced a sad little island of rejects, castoffs and losers to begin seeing themselves as a just and magnificent nation.And not long after they began to see themselves that way in their minds, they began seeing themselves that way in the mirror.Most people assume that stories of heroes are the byproducts of great civilizations, but I’m convinced they are the cause of them. Magnificent civilizations have always been the ones with stories of heroes; larger-than-life role models that inspired ordinary citizens to rise up and do the impossible.I love imaginary heroes like King Arthur and Don Quixote.I love civilian heroes like Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King.I love political heroes like Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt.But what happens when your hero is a fool?I pray we never find out.Roy H. Williams

Memories of PercyAugust 1, 2016ListenAHis gifts didn’t prove that he was rich. His gifts proved that he cared. And the smallness of his gifts proved that I could afford to care, too.My long friendship with Percy began exactly 30 years ago when I saw him on the cover of a magazine as it lay on a coffee table in a friend’s house. He was a smiling gentleman sitting on a desk stacked with bags of money. The headline read, “Why is Percy Ross Giving Away $20,000,000?”In the feature story, author Steven Kaplan explained how Percy Ross employed a small team of people to read the 4,000 letters he received each week asking him for financial help. A few of these letters got published each week – along with his response – in the 800+ newspapers that carried his syndicated column, “Thanks a Million.”Paragraph 38 quoted Percy as saying that he had engaged two large advertising firms to help him turn his column into a radio show only to be told by each of them that it wasn’t feasible.The week after I read that story, his readers had to plow through 4,001 letters because I decided to add my own letter to the pile.Mr. Ross, I don’t want or need any of your money, but I read in Robb Report magazine that you wanted to syndicate a daily radio feature. I’ve done this 4 times already, so I’m familiar with the problems your people ran into and I know the ways around all those problems. Give me a call at your convenience and I’ll tell you everything you need to know. I look forward to hearing you on the radio!”I received a phone call and a plane ticket to Minneapolis. Percy picked me up at the airport, and as we were walking shoulder-to-shoulder toward his car I said,Mr. Ross, in about an hour and a half you’re going to know absolutely everything you need to know to get “Thanks a Million” on several hundred radio stations for free. As a matter of fact, you should be able to make a few tens of thousands of dollars a month from it. What I need you to understand is that I’m fully aware that I’m about to make myself obsolete. Not only will you not need to hire me to help you, you won’t need to hire anyone else, either.“Why would you do that?” he asked.“If this was the only valuable idea that I was ever going to have, I’d do my best to monetize it. But it seems to me that each of us will encounter more valuable opportunities in a single day than we could possibly pursue in a lifetime. But today isn’t work. Today I’m just helping you help others.”Five, six, seven, eight, nine steps and still Percy hadn’t said anything. So I looked to my left.And he wasn’t there.Spinning around I saw him standing quietly in the parking lot, staring at me. He had stopped in his tracks while I was talking. We stood looking at each other a few moments, then he said,How old are you, son?”“Twenty-eight, sir.”“I was fifty years old before I figured that out.”About 90 minutes later Percy said with a smile,Roy, I’m really glad you told me what you did in the parking lot of the airport because if you hadn’t, right now I’d be thinking you were the most naive and careless young man who had ever lived. You were right! I don’t need anyone’s help to do this. Not even yours. You have given me something I tried to buy and could not. And that doesn’t happen to me very often.”Within 6 months, Percy was on 584 radio stations for free, including WNBC in New York city, a station whose ads sold for $1,000 apiece 30 years ago.When Percy died on November 10, 2001, his Los Angeles Times obituary began with these words,Percy Ross, the Minnesota junk dealer’s son who made and lost 3 fortunes but found his greatest joy in doling out silver dollars from the money he kept while smiling for the cameras, has died. He was 84.Ross, author of the syndicated advice and cash giveaway column “Thanks a Million” from 1983 to 1999 and host of a companion radio show, died of natural causes Nov. 10 at his home in Minneapolis.Often delivering checks personally, Ross gave $200 or $300 to fix a leaky roof, replace a stolen artificial arm or buy new lingerie for an elderly woman embarrassed to die in her worn-out underwear. He freely handed a silver dollar to anybody who interviewed or photographed him and to many who wrote.But he minced no words in rejecting requests that he pay rent, medical or utility bills or credit card debts–all something he believed the debtor should pay himself.“You know my motto, don’t you?” he told a Times interviewer in 1987. “He who gives while he lives knows where it goes. . . . I’m having a ball, the time of my life.”My favorite Percy moment was his response to a woman who spoke of her impoverished old mother who had nine adult children, all of whom were as poor as she was.Mama’s only pleasure is growing flowers but she can’t grow them in the winter. Right now the lumber yard has a greenhouse kit for just $400 and my brothers could build it in her backyard if you would only buy it for her.”Percy’s response was priceless.Yes! Your mother deserves that greenhouse and I want her to have it! I’m going to pretend that she had 10 kids and I’m number 10. I definitely want Mom to have that greenhouse but I’ve never in my life met anyone in America who couldn’t come up with 40 dollars for Mama. My 40 is enclosed. Please tell the others that we’ll be able to buy Mama’s greenhouse as soon as they contribute 40 dollars each.”Percy has been gone for 15 years but there’s rarely a week when I don’t think of him and smile.What Percy taught me is that each of us – no matter how little cash we have – is able to bring joy and comfort to others, if only we take time to care.Shine your light into the darkness.Roy H. Williams

The reason people write poorly is because they read too many blogs, tweets, news stories and Facebook posts.As you read, so will you write.Maxwell Rotbart. the son of roving reporter Rotbart, asked me to name 10 books he should read. When I asked the purpose of this reading, Maxwell said, “I just want to know what great writing sounds like.”“Do you want to read the best stories or do you want to read the best writing?”“I want to read the best writing.”I quickly named 7 books before I began to struggle. Dozens of others were flickering through my mind, but they were mostly examples of great storytelling, employing marvelous narrative arcs and character arcs. But my list was to be about great writing: sentence construction, word selection, vivid description and an intriguing sequencing of mental images. Every style of great writing I could think of was already represented on my list.Indiana Beagle saved me. “Wizard,” he said, “let me ask the rabbit hole tribe to name the last 3 books.”“So let it be written,” I said, “So let it be done.”Indy snickered in that way he does when he knows I’m being pompous.Anyway, here’s my list:Travels with Charley – John SteinbeckEast of Eden is a better story, but Charley will teach you more about writing. Let Steinbeck show you how to unveil a mental image from an interesting perspective, restrain yourself from saying too much, and delight your reader with unexpected observations and connections. A second example of a well written book-without-a-plot is Steinbeck: A Life in Letters, the personal letters written by John Steinbeck to his friends between 1923 and 1968.The Poetry of Robert FrostFrost communicates bigger ideas in fewer words than any other writer I have ever read. Let him teach you the power of metaphor, the magic of meter (rhythm,) and the use of the perfect word.At his simplest, his most rhythmical and cryptic, Frost is a remarkable poet. He is surely that. In other words, if you were chopping wood, that chore had some kind of universal significance to Frost. If you were picking apples, this has a general conclusive principle somewhere involved in it, or with it, in some way. This localizing way of getting generalities to reveal themselves, like universal design, original sin, love, death, fate: Frost found a way to do this, to make anything that has ever concerned mankind relate to a New England farm.”– James Dickey, Classes on Modern Poets and The Art of Poetry, p. 126One Summer: America, 1927 – Bill BrysonSome of the best advice I offer writers is this: “Take your inspiration from wherever you find it, no matter how ridiculous.” Bill Bryson is the world’s best example of this. It is impossible not to be devastated by his fascinating choices of subject matter, his deep research, obvious restraint and amazing phrasing.The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest HemingwayThis very short book put Hemingway over the top to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Let Ernest teach you how simple observations, clearly stated, have impact.Hawaii – James MichenerMichener will teach you patience and attention to detail. If objective reality and clarity are your goals as a writer, Michener and Hemingway are the voices you want echoing in your mind as you write.One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia MarquezMagical Realism isn’t fantasy or science fiction. It is the straight-faced, deadpan inclusion of magical or unreal elements in an otherwise realistic or mundane environment. And no one does it better than Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This is the opening line.Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to see ice.”Still Life with Woodpecker – Tom RobbinsOn the third day of the Magical Worlds Communications Workshop, we teach chaotic writing. No one explains it better than Tom Robbins.Everything in the universe is connected, of course. It’s just a matter of using imagination to discover the links, and language to expand and enliven them… I always start with three or four completely unrelated big ideas, and maybe a character or two who have ostensible connections neither to each other nor to any of the big ideas… I never begin with more than the vaguest idea of the plot. To pull that off with an acceptable degree of artistry, one must write very, very slowly … and be able to hold a great many things in one’s mind.”“It went ‘whoosh’ as it shot by, a sleek panatela of frozen light, pulsating with polka dots of every color, traveling, a mere thousand feet or so above the water, at incredible speed and mopping up the last of the sunset as if it were a bar rag from outer space.”– Tom Robbins, describing a UFO in Still Life With WoodpeckerAre you surprised that Don Quixote was not on my list? Pop into the rabbit hole and Indy will tell you why.Want to become a better writer?You’ve got some reading to do.Roy H. Williams

She stood silently on the cracked asphalt, her summer dress billowing in the breeze, the calm at the center of the storm that was spreading across the country. Around her swirled police officers and demonstrators that had blocked Airline Highway in Baton Rouge to denounce the death of Alton Sterling, shot by police outside a convenience store. Many protesters carried signs. Some shouted into bullhorns. ‘She just stood there and made her stand,’ said photographer Jonathan Bachman to Buzzfeed News. ‘I was just happy to be able to capture something like that.'” – Michael E. MillerIeshia Evans is a 28 year-old mother with a 5 year-old boy.She wanted to look her son in the eyes to tell him she fought for his freedom and rights,” says Alex Haynes, her best friend since the age of eight.This is not an unemployed troublemaker.This is an accomplished woman, a successful LPN.And this was her first protest.But young black men are dying when they should not.And her son is a young black man.When Ieshia Evans was 3 years old, Disney released a children’s movie called Beauty and the Beast.AThat movie is about a girl named Belle, the non-conforming daughter of an eccentric inventor. Belle is ostracized by her peers due to her intelligence and love of books. But when her father is imprisoned by a cold-hearted beast, Belle offers the beast her own freedom in exchange for her father’s.Does that story sound familiar? Belle was not a new character. Disney has been holding up strong, young women as role models since 1950, when Cinderella ran an entire household by herself, prepared the meals, did the laundry and fed all the livestock until she was encouraged by an older woman – her fairy godmother – to rise above her circumstances and all the haters who were trying to hold her down.Cinderella lived happily ever after as a princess in a castle.Admittedly, the vehicle of Cinderella’s escape was Prince Charming.But that was 1950.bIn 1953, Disney gave us Tinker Bell, a loyal, brave and determined pixie forever trailed by glittering pixie dust that can help humans fly if they think happy thoughts. Tinker Bell became one of Disney’s most important icons.r1964  Mary Poppins is an independent woman who knows her own worth. She demands respect at her job and stands up to her boss from the get-go.i1977 In The Rescuers, Penny is a tough little orphan girl who is kidnapped and held prisoner in Devil’s Bayou, where she faces down a pair of trained crocodiles, Brutus and Nero, and thwarts her captors entirely with the help two little mice.Thirteen years ago I wrote the following in the Monday Morning Memo for February 17, 2003.Heroes are dangerous things. Bigger than life, highly exaggerated and always positioned in the most favorable light, a hero is a beautiful lie.We have historic heroes, folk heroes and comic book heroes. We have heroes in books and songs and movies and sport. We have heroes of morality, leadership, kindness and excellence. And nothing is so devastating to our sense of wellbeing as is a badly fallen hero. Yes, heroes are dangerous things to have.The only thing more dangerous is not to have them.Heroes raise the bar we jump and hold high the standards we live by. They are ever-present tattoos on our psyche, the embodiment of all we are striving to be.We create our heroes from our hopes and dreams. And then they attempt to create us in their own image.”Through their skillful crafting of heroes for children, Disney has been telling women to rise up and be free for the past 63 years.e1989 Ariel, The Little Mermaid, is curious and bold, quite unlike anyone else under the sea. Her thirst for knowledge makes her special.f1995  Pocahontas is a wise and courageous girl who breaks with tradition to follow the beat of a different drummer. She creates peace between two civilizations and saves a lot of lives. 1998 In Mulan, a young Chinese girl saves her father from a burden he cannot bear, keeps up with all the boys in the army, climbs a pole with heavy cinderblocks attached to her hands and saves the city from attack. The emperor, along with thousands upon thousands of people, bow to her. Evidently, it’s okay to want to be on the front lines instead of waiting around for Prince Charming.s2009  In The Princess and the Frog, Tiana is the “anti-princess” princess, a hardworking girl who would rather fulfill her own goals than pin her hopes on the actions of other people. Tiana wants to own her own business. She is also notable as Disney’s first African-American princess.u2012 In Brave, Merida is a rambunctious and strong-willed warrior girl, a force to be reckoned with. She learns from her mistakes, gains compassion, and comes to understand what’s truly important in life.mAnd that brings us to Elsa in Frozen.* Pennie and I have two sons, Rex and Jacob, and two grandsons, Hollister and Gideon.We’ll have our first granddaughter in September.I plan to watch these movies with her.Roy H. Williams

Like most men, I’ve long been fascinated with women.But if we look beyond the physical differences, what is it that defines “woman”? Research reveals a series of definitions so conflicted that I believe anyone who attempts to define “woman” is certain to be criticized.But when has that ever been an impediment to a curious mind?Our examination of the mystery and magic of the feminine begins with 7 quotes that reveal a being so perfect that she can exist only in the imagination of a man. Psychologist Carl Jung calls her the anima.“The lace on a woman’s wrist is an entirely different thing from lace in a shop. In the shop it is a piece of workmanship, on her it is the accentuation of her gentleness of character and refinement.”– Robert Henri, The Art Spirit“The girls in body-form slacks wander the High Street with locked hands while small transistor radios sit on their shoulders and whine love songs in their ears. The younger boys, bleeding with sap, sit on the stools of Tanger’s Drugstore ingesting future pimples through straws. They watch the girls with level goat-eyes and make disparaging remarks to one another while their insides whimper with longing.”– John Steinbeck“What do we know about the goddesses, those elusive female figures, stronger than human males, more dangerous than male deities, who represent not real women but the dreams of real men?”– Alice Bach, Women in the Hebrew Bible, p. 17“I think the idealization of women is indigenous to men. There are various ways of idealizing women, especially sexually, based in almost every case on their inaccessibility. When a woman functions as an unobtainable love object, then she takes on a mythical quality. You can see this principle functioning as a sales device in advertising and in places like Playboy magazine. Almost every movie you see has this quality, because you can’t embrace the image on the screen. Thousands of novels use this principle, because you can’t embrace a printed image on a page.”– James Dickey, Self Interviews, p. 153Gypsy Maiden: One day I will go to your lands and I will dance as a European.Marco Polo: They will love you.Gypsy Maiden: Will I love Venice?Marco Polo: It is magnificent, the city of bridges. Instead of roads we travel on canals in wooden boats.Gypsy Maiden: That’s absurd.Marco Polo: You wouldn’t think that if you saw it.Gypsy Maiden: If it is so magnificent, why are you here and not there?Marco Polo: You must have summoned me.Gypsy Maiden: I did no such thing.  [He tries to kiss her and she turns away.] I’m afraid.Marco Polo: Don’t be.Gypsy Maiden: I’m afraid you will fall in love with me.  All men fall in love with me because I always leave. And there is nothing men love more than the thing they cannot have.– Marco Polo, season two“Her name is Dulcinea, her kingdom, Toboso, which is in La Mancha, her condition must be that of princess, at the very least, for she is my queen and lady, and her beauty is supernatural, for in it one finds the reality of all the impossible.” – Don Quixote, (1605)“Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.”– Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s OwnOur journey will continue in the rabbit hole of Indiana Beagle, where we will examine two additional perspectives that reflect two additional definitions of “woman,” each of which disallows the idea we have just examined.They also disallow each other.I call the second perspective, “Women are Mortal – Sort of.”And third perspective is, “Women are Just Like Men. But Different.”To enter Indiana Beagle’s rabbit hole, click the image of imaginary Freda at the top of this page. Each click of an image thereafter will take you to the next page.It is a journey you will not soon forget.Roy H. Williams

People have been asking me to explain symbols lately.Symbols are a language of the unconscious mind. This is why our dreams are full of them.A person sits alone in a rowboat on the ocean at night, looking up at the stars.That symbol – whether expressed visually or in words – speaks to us of spirituality and practicality; deep thoughts and big challenges.But how? Nowhere among those 17 words is any reference to thoughts or challenges. We are given only a person, a rowboat, water, darkness and stars.The scene is awesome, majestic and lonely.“Oh God, thy sea is so great and my boat is so small.”President John F. Kennedy, deeply aware of the awesomeness of his responsibilities and the majesty of his position and the loneliness that comes with both, kept those 13 words forever before him as a plaque on his desk in the oval office.Ernest Hemingway animated this symbol in his novella, The Old Man and the Sea. Alone and far from shore, Santiago faces the task of landing a fish bigger than his boat and then defending it from a mob of sharks. Looking up at the stars and down into the water and fighting with all his strength for 3 days and 3 nights, Santiago’s soul-searching self-talk won Hemingway the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature.Forty-seven years later, Yann Martel conjured this same image to sell more than 10,000,000 copies of The Life of Pi. In the opening line of its summary, Wikipedia says the book “explores issues of spirituality and practicality.” Go figure.I often begin the second day of the Magical Worlds Communications Workshop by asking the students,“Did any of you have an interesting dream last night?”I do this because the first day of that class is filled with lots of big ideas coming at you too quickly to digest and assimilate. Dreams are a just side effect of your unconscious mind’s processing of unresolved ideas during the night.Two weeks ago, a first-time Wizard Academy student, a 65 year-old man, raised his hand and said, “I dreamed I was on a gondola in Venice, Italy, when an incredibly beautiful woman came onto the boat and seduced me.”The class laughed, of course, but then the man asked, “Why do you think I had that dream?”“Did you enjoy the day yesterday?”“Very much! It was magical.”“Would you say that you’re on a journey, in an exotic place, overwhelmed by incredibly beautiful new ideas?”The man brightened. “The woman wasn’t a woman at all! She was just a symbol of what I learned!”“Makes sense to me.”“Me, too!”This brings us to the 4 stories celebrated in the art that overflows the campus of Wizard Academy.The Christmas Story of the Magi, or Wise Men (wise-ards,) in Matthew chapter 2 is a story about a group of people who saw beauty and truth where others saw nothing at all. The Wise Men did more than talk; they took action. They counted the cost and launched an adventure. They pulled the trigger and rode the bullet. They followed a star across an ocean of sand.Don Quixote de La Mancha, (1605) is essentially the same story. “This is my quest: to follow that star. No matter how hopeless, no matter how far.” Like the wise-ards before him, Quixote sees and values things that others neither see nor value. But isn’t this a quality of every innovator and entrepreneur? Quixote is driven by his pursuit of Dulcinea, the perfect woman than exists only in the imagination of a man.1 She was recently seen stepping aboard a gondola in Venice, Italy.A Message to Garcia – Translated into every language of the world, this true story by Elbert Hubbard was for many years history’s most widely distributed work during the lifetime of the author. Here are paragraphs 4 and 5:“Rowan was sent for and given a letter to be delivered to Garcia. How “the fellow by name of Rowan” took the letter, sealed it up in an oil-skin pouch, strapped it over his heart, in four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat, disappeared into the jungle, and in three weeks came out on the other side of the island, having traversed a hostile country on foot, and having delivered his letter to Garcia, are things I have no special desire now to tell in detail.”“The point I wish to make is this: McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, “Where is he at?” By the Eternal! There is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college in the land. It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this or that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies; do the thing – ‘carry a message to Garcia!'”Are you beginning to see a pattern?Quixote and The Wise Men, Rowan and Santiago, did more than talk; they took action.The Old Man and the Sea – On the second evening of his journey, the fisherman Santiago, still being towed by the giant marlin after some 30 hours, lay against the bow of his boat, looking up at the sky. “The first stars were out. He did not know the name of Rigel but he saw it and knew soon they would all be out and he would have his distant friends.” 2The call of an impossible dream. A journey. An adventure. Reckless and silly to everyone but you.What is lifebut a small boat,a big ocean,and a night full of stars?Roy H. Williams

I scribbled my original “Twelve Most Common Mistakes in Marketing” on a hotel bar napkin in Portland, Oregon in 1997 and then presented those mistakes in a seminar the next day to 800 people.The following year it became an important chapter in my first book, The Wizard of Ads. Happily, that book went on to become Business Book of the Year in 1998 and it launched a trilogy of New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers for me.Even though plenty of people still make the original 12 mistakes, I believe it’s time for an update since a new group has emerged to become the 10 Most Common.Inappropriate Use of Social MediaThe whole world is on FaceBook, but is that the right place for your product or service to be advertised? To get a clear idea of the kinds of offers that are working well on FaceBook, go to the Success Stories page at FaceBook.com. Judging from this list of success stories, it would appear that FaceBook works extremely well for getting people together socially, not so well for hard goods and services. (HINT: I think there may be a reason they call it “social” media.)Overconfidence in the Value of TargetingJeffrey Eisenberg insightfully points out that, “online customers are exactly the same people as offline customers, yet advertisers tend to think of them as an entirely different species.” For the same amount of money it costs you to reach 5 tightly targeted customers online, you can reach 5 customers who have that same profile PLUS 127 of their friends by using broadcast TV or radio. Do you want your brand to be the one people think of immediately and feel the best about when they finally need what you sell?The Assumption that Every Message is RelevantWhy does every advertiser believe their product or service category to be intrinsically interesting? More than information, entertainment is the currency with which you can happily buy your prospective customer’s time and attention. But most ads have zero entertainment value.Fear of CriticismMost ads aren’t written to persuade. They’re written not to offend. But any message that has the power to move people will always move some of them in the wrong direction. When you’ve written a good ad, you must brace yourself for the negative backlash you’ll receive from people who are anxious to be offended. The only alternative is to forever settle for ads that are mushy, mundane and mediocre. Please don’t.Measuring Ad Effectiveness Too QuicklyIts claim to “instantly and accurately measure every ad’s effectiveness” is part of what makes digital marketing so appealing to advertisers. But didn’t you say you want your brand to be the one people think of immediately and feel the best about when they finally need what you sell? This requires ongoing advertising and longer measurement cycles. You cannot hold every ad immediately accountable and expect to build relationship with your customer.Unsubstantiated ClaimsAdjectives are the marks of an ad filled with empty rhetoric.Verbs are the marks of an ad that demonstrates its claims.Verbs – action words – “show” your customer what your product can do. Fluffy adjectives simply “tell” them. In the words of Christopher J. Maddock, “Show, don’t tell.”Believing that “Old” Media No Longer WorksIt is true that you need a website and that most customers are going to visit your website before making first contact with you. Therefore, it’s vital that your website be a good one. But if you believe that online marketing is the most efficient way to drive traffic to your website, you need to go back and read Most Common Mistake #2. Do you want to see a massive jump in the effectiveness of your online ads? Begin advertising on radio or television. But Take Note: your elevated metrics will make it appear as though your online efforts are working magically well when, in fact, the credit should be attributed to mass media.Assuming “The Decision Maker” Is The Only Person You Need to ReachDecisions aren’t made in a vacuum. You must also win the influencers if you want to create a successful brand. If you don’t value the opinions of influencers you’ll evolve into a direct-response marketer. But does your business category lend itself to direct response?Believing that “Millennials” Aren’t Like the Rest of UsMillennials aren’t a tribe, they are a collection of tribes. They do not behave as a single, cohesive birth cohort. Google “Millennials” and the dictionary definition that will pop up will show the word “millennial” most commonly used in this sentence: “The industry brims with theories on what makes millennials tick.” But when you look at a list of what millennials supposedly want, it’s exactly what the rest of us want. Yes, they’re not like we “50-somethings” used to be, but then we’re not like we used to be, either.AdSpeakPeople don’t hate advertising; they hate boring advertising; they hate predictable advertising. They hate the time-wasting, life-sucking sound of too many words wrapped around too small an idea. They hate AdSpeak. But they love entertainment. Learn to purchase your customer’s time and attention and goodwill with delightful, interesting, entertaining ads.Come to Wizard Academy and we’ll teach you how.Roy H. Williams

Indiana Beagle is the spirit of curiosity, exploration and adventure. His twin sister Intuition is the beagle of my Destinae trilogy and the mother of Faith and Hope.Intuition is wordless but Indy can speak.Intuition came to life in June, 2001, during some early morning laughter with Princess Pennie.There is a beagle in our brain,” I shouted in mock rage, “and it must be unleashed to go where it will!” With my fist raised in defiance to anyone who would keep their beagle tethered, I shouted, “Free the Beagle! Free the Beagle! Aroooo! Arooooo! Aroooooo!”The subject of our laughter became a Monday Morning Memo, “The Beagle in Your Brain,” the following week. Two months later it was chapter 54 in Magical Worlds of the Wizard of Ads, which quickly became a Wall Street Journal bestseller.It was only when I was writing the Destinae trilogy that I realized Intuition has a mischievous brother, Indy, who can walk into any work of art and instantly be in that place, at that time. For Indy, photos and paintings are portals, giving him entrance into other worlds.But isn’t that what photos and paintings do for all of us?Indiana doesn’t appear in the Destinae trilogy because that’s the story of his sister. Likewise, you’ll find no photo or painting of Indy on the campus of Wizard Academy in Austin. When he isn’t guiding guests through a rabbit hole, Indy lives in the art collection you’ll find in the 12 buildings, 18 courtyards, parks and gardens, and 98 uniquely decorated rooms of that place.When you’re here and a work of art intrigues you, ask Indy what it means.There’s a scene at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) that tells us where Indiana Jones got his name.SALLAH: “Please, what does it always mean, this, this ‘Junior?'”HENRY JONES: “That’s his name. ‘Henry Jones, Junior.'”INDIANA JONES: “I like Indiana.”HENRY JONES: “We named the dog Indiana.”SALLAH: “The dog? (heh-heh) You are named after the dog?” (Laughter)INDIANA JONES: (Irritated) “I’ve got a lot of fond memories of that dog.”Like I said, Indiana Beagle is the spirit of curiosity, exploration and adventure. This is why he’s the guiding spirit of the Worldwide Worthless Bastards.“You know, Lydia, I used to be a rationalist.”“What is that?”“Well, it’s sort of believing only in what you see, or hear, or feel. But lately, I’ve begun to suspect that there are more things in heaven and earth than I ever dreamed in my philosophy.”“You learn much when you learn that.”– Colonel Ralph Denistoun to the gypsy woman, Lydia, in Paramount’s 1947 Movie, Golden EarringsIndy and I have enjoyed the conversations we’ve had with prospective members of the Worthless Bastards during the past several weeks.Here’s what those conversations sound like:“You should join us at the Toad and Ostrich Pub on Friday afternoons at four.”“What do you do there?”“We just talk, mostly. But you’re not allowed to discuss business, or work, or politics or sports. And you can’t complain about anything or talk about your problems.”“What is there to talk about, then?”“We sip water and tea and wine and whisky and talk about music we love or movies we’ve seen or restaurants we’ve tried or sometimes someone will do a magic trick or tell a funny story about growing up or a colorful person they used to know. It’s really amazing how interesting people can be when business and politics and sports are off the table.”Worthless Bastards are people who have discovered that life’s nonproductive moments are often the most life affirming of all.There is a time for goal setting and grit, struggle and striving, determination and defiance. There is a time for vision and valor and timelines and tenacity.But it isn’t all the time.Roy H. Williams

When I was a boy, I wanted an older brother.Not just a year or two older, but six or eight or ten years older. I wanted to be able to ask him things and trust the motives behind his answers.Over the years, I’ve been lucky enough to accumulate seven older brothers who speak wisdom into my life. These brothers give me the benefit of all their experiences – their successes and their mistakes – and help me remember who I am.I’ve never told you this, but I like to think of myself as your older brother. I try to give you the benefit of my experiences, if indeed there is any benefit to be found.Today your brother needs a favor. Will you indulge me?I’ve always been proud and ashamed that I never went to college. So when a group of scholars – department heads of major universities, mostly – asked me to contribute a chapter to their book about what Don Quixote means to the average person in the 21st century, well, I jumped at the chance.And then I put off getting started.And now I need to get it done.That’s where you come in.Will you write me a sentence or two or twenty about what Don Quixote represents to you?It doesn’t matter whether or not you’ve read the book. Your thoughts and feelings will come from wherever they come from. That’s the beauty of this project. You don’t have to defend your opinion, you only have to have one.Every generation for the past 400 years has seen Don Quixote differently. How do you see him today? What do you take from the story? Who is Sancho Panza and why does he matter? Who is Dulcinea and what does she mean to you? And if you are familiar with any of the other characters and elements of the story, I’d love to hear your thoughts and interpretations of those as well.How do you see Don Quixote? Your response can be as brief or as in-depth as you choose.Twenty different Cervantes scholars will each contribute a chapter to the book. I was the nineteenth person to receive an invitation, but at least I got invited.It means a lot to me.My chapter is supposed to be 5,000 words, so I need to hear from a lot of you. And please remember to give me your first and last name and your permission to publish what you send me. Also, tell me what you do for a living.Indy has volunteered to help me by collecting your emails at IndyBeagle@WizardOfAds.comTwo of my older brothers, Ray Bard and Don Kuhl, have already contributed their thoughts and will definitely be represented in my chapter.I’d love to see your name alongside theirs.Roy H. Williams