Wizard of Ads Monday Morning Memo

You have within you an idea, a possibility, a thought that has never quite gone away. You tell yourself it’s a childish fantasy.Perhaps it is. And that’s precisely why you should rescue it from the shivering shadows.Let your child live in the light. You’re strong enough now to watch over it and protect it from the beasts that would devour it.Let your child live in the light.This “thought that has never quite gone away” provides you with a perspective not fully understood by those around you. You see a special connection between certain things that others don’t quite see. This is probably one of your “life messages,” a note you carry from God to the rest of us.We are terrified to deliver life messages. I’m not entirely sure why. But I do know that every two-dimensional life gains depth when its message is brought into the light.Have you been living a 2-dimensional life? If you will share your secret belief, your special perception, you can step into an exciting, 3-dimensional world.Yes, some people will think you’re bat-crap crazy.That’s the price you pay.I’ll admit this probably sounds highly abstract and even a bit airy-fairy, so I’ll make it concrete by giving you some examples:1. I believe there are specific, spatial relationships within a 3-dimensional color model – my favorite is Munsell’s – that can accurately predict the emotional effect of juxtaposing selected colors. We explore this idea briefly during the “Color” module of the class, Portals and the 12 Languages of the Mind. (The 2014 session will be March 4-5. You should register.)2. I have been haunted by the number 3 since I was small. During the past 17 years I’ve investigated the relationship between the numbers 2, 3 and 4, and have been encouraged by the fact that Lao Tzu was haunted by the same idea during the lifetime of Alexander the Great (about 325 BC) and he wrote about it in chapter 42 of the Tao Te Ching. Augustine of Hippo was likewise haunted by threes in 410 AD and shared his conclusions in chapter 2 of book 15 in his series, On the Trinity. Alchemists struggled with this 2-3-4 relationship during medieval times, calling it “The Axiom of Maria.” Mathematician and theoretical physicist Henri Poincare’ was haunted by threes in 1887 when he investigated the wild-card power of every third gravitating body in complex systems and invented algebraic topology as a direct result. Carl Jung built his Theory of Individuation around the idea. So maybe I am a nut, but I’m a nut in pretty good company. If this idea holds interest for you, any of the cognoscenti of the Magical Worlds Communications Workshop can explain the benefits and uses of this perception of threes in detail.3. I want to create songs in which the musical instruments, themselves, sing the words to the song. You know what a trumpet sounds like. You can identify it by its sound. Now imagine the voice of a trumpet speaking intelligibly. I believe this will soon be done, not just with trumpets, but with every musical instrument. The vowels of any language can easily be converted into notes via their frequency signature, so the problem of making instruments “talk” doesn’t lie within the vowels, but in the formants of the consonants.Are you beginning to understand what I mean when I say, “a perspective not fully understood by those around you… a connection between certain things that others don’t quite see?”You have ideas like these within you, too. Why not let them out?Life messages are hard to articulate. No matter how well you explain them, your explanation always feels incomplete. Don’t let that hold you back.Life messages bring life to others but they also take a lifetime to deliver.Earl Nightingale, before he died, left you a message.?”Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.”Nolan Bushnell adds to this message a comment of his own.?”Everyone who has ever taken a shower has had an idea. It’s the person who gets out of the shower, dries off, and does something about it that makes a difference.”Terry Pratchett wraps these gifts from Earl and Nolan with a ribbon of rainbow light. “You’ve heard that before you die, your whole life flashes before your eyes? This is true. It’s called living.” Are you ready to get started?John Burroughs was born when Abraham Lincoln was just 28 years old. John died nearly 100 years ago. But before he died, he slipped a message into a time capsule and flung it deep into the future, to this moment, to you. This is his message: “The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are.”Don’t ask me what it means. That’s between John Burroughs and you. But I’d love for you to share your life messages with the board of directors of Wizard Academy.Will you?Write them down, as best you can, and send them to vice chancellor Daniel Whittington, daniel@wizardacademy.orgWe shall see what we shall see.And we promise we won’t think you’re crazy.Roy H. Williams

This ocean adventure called life is most easily navigated when we have a guiding light.The winds and waves of circumstance push at all of us.1. We can passively go with the flow.2. We can choose the badge of the victim.3. We can loose ourselves in pleasure.4. We can harness the wind and waves.The Drifter,?Spun by wind and wave,Helpless, says, ‘Whatever…’The Drowner?Plays for sympathy.‘It’s been the worst week of my life.’The SurferScans the horizon,Wanting ever ‘The next big thing.’The Wise Men?Follow the star.?Adjust the sails.Twist the rudder.The Wise-ards know.– Roy H. WilliamsStart begins with star.Rick Warren popularized the concept of a guiding light in his book, The Purpose-Driven Life, but he certainly didn’t invent it. That book was published in 2002. By 2007, it had sold 30 million copies.It would appear that people hunger to have a purpose.Miguel de Cervantes wrote about a man consumed with purpose.His Don Quixote has been heroic and laughable, wise and foolish, admired and scorned for more than 400 years. Steinbeck speaks of Cervantes and Quixote in his preface to East of Eden, then says, “The reader will take from my book what he brings to it. The dull witted will get dullness and the brilliant may find things in my book I didn’t know were there.”Steinbeck looked at Don Quixote and realized that we tend to see what is already within us.In The New York Observer of March 31, 1910, John Bancroft Devins set 14 words apart in quotation marks but failed to attribute them. These 14 words have since been repeated many times:“Two men looked out through prison bars. One man saw mud, the other stars.”The first man saw mud because mud was within him.The other saw stars because he was full of light.We do not see things as they are, but as we are.We especially do that with the Bible, I think.Jesus speaks of vision in the 6th chapter of Matthew and the 11th chapter of Luke. I suppose the passage has as many interpretations as it has readers:“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye: if your vision is singular, your whole body will be full of light. But if your vision is unfocused, your body will be full of darkness. If the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”I read those lines and hear Jesus speaking of the passion and energy and creativity and stamina – the light – that comes from having a vision, a dream, a purpose, a goal. And I hear him speak of the echoing emptiness of life without these things. Perhaps I find in that passage only what I bring to it, but that’s what I find, nonetheless.I find myself contemplating this for three reasons:1. It is November.2. We have only to build Bilbo Baggins’ house and the Lenhard-Murray amphitheater and the Wizard Academy campus will be complete. What will we do then?3. Pennie and I remember in vivid detail the day we purchased the land on which Wizard Academy is built. The ensuing 9 years and 8 months passed us by with such speed that we are left gasping in a vacuum.I walk across the campus and am startled by what I see. When did all this happen?Each autumn I think seriously about what to do with the rest of my life. I reflect on the irreversible past and project a possible future. It is my favorite time of year.Start begins with star.“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.”– Theodore RooseveltStart begins with star.“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”– Howard ThurmanStart begins with star.“It’s when you’re safe at home that you wish you were having an adventure. When you’re having an adventure you wish you were safe at home.”– Thornton WilderGo.Follow your star.Begin your adventure.“Safe at home”is highly overrated.Roy H. Williams

For Friends OnlyFifty-one times a year I write things I believe you’ll find to be useful. Once a year I turn the mirror toward myself. This is that time.I hope you don’t mind.I’ve enjoyed 8 distinct advantages in life for which I can take no credit. I am thankful for 6 of these advantages, but weirdly embarrassed by two of them.I was born in America as a white boy during a time when to be anything other than that was a distinct disadvantage. I didn’t choose to be (1.) white and (2.) male, so I’ve always carried uneasy feelings of guilt. There you have it.I’m often reprimanded by those who feel it’s in poor taste to acknowledge differences in race and gender. This confuses me. I believe it’s in poor taste to pretend that minorities and women are always as quickly hired as white boys. Things are certainly better today than when I was young, but we’ve got a long way to go before we’re the nation we pretend to be.I was born in the late 1950s. I remember the murder of Martin Luther King. I remember Rosa Parks. I remember being raised by a single Mom who worked harder than her male counterparts, was more effective than her male counterparts and was paid 32 percent less than her male counterparts. So please, for the sake of our friendship, keep your reprimands to yourself.These are the 6 things for which I have always been thankful.1. I was born poor.This gave me a certain fearless resourcefulness that isn’t so easily learned in the better parts of town.2. I was born introverted.This makes it pleasant for me to focus and concentrate deeply when I’m alone. I’ve used this preference to great advantage throughout my life. My clients even pay me for it. I call these deep thoughts “plotting and scheming against the rest of the world.”3. I began losing my hair in my late teens.This gave me credibility as a young ad man. Thinning hair makes a boy look older, so I looked 30 by the time I was 20. You have no idea how much more seriously people listen to your advice when you don’t look like a kid.4. I was raised by a mother who gave me copious freedom and good advice.Mom knows that traditional wisdom is usually more tradition than wisdom, so she taught me to think for myself. And her belief that I could accomplish whatever I chose was so vast and complete that I could not help but believe it myself. Add to this the simple fact that poor people are resourceful by necessity and fearless because they have nothing to lose and you’ve got the ingredients of an unbreakable entrepreneur.5. I fell in love with a girl who believed in me.Miraculously, she agreed to drop out of college and marry me when we were both eighteen. This is huge. It cannot be overestimated. My belief in the extreme importance of one’s life partner is so overwhelming that I taught my sons throughout their formative years that their choice of a life-partner would be far more important to their future happiness than their educational path or choice of career. I know such statements are considered to be heresy in career-worshipping America but they never arrested me for it.There is one more thing for which I am thankful.6. I’ve had deeply personal encounters with God that make it impossible for me to be agnostic even though I find it easy to follow the logic of close friends who believe him to be a delusion. And my God likes me! I’m sorry if this makes you uncomfortable or angry, but we’re talking about me today, not you, remember?I’ve shared with you from my heart today – at great risk – in the hope of inspiring you to look inwardly this week and celebrate the ordinary in your life with great joy. We’re about to go into 2014 together and we’ve never been there before so I felt we should take inventory of all our assets.Here’s your assignment, if you’re willing:Write down at least 5 things for which you are thankful. And you cannot list “Family,” “Friends” or “Health,” because frankly, these go without saying. To be thankful for broad categories like these is lazy, bordering on the unspeakably cliché. So be specific in your thanks. And don’t just name the thing, explain it. Will you do it?Will you share it?If you’re willing, send your list to Andrew@WizardOfAds.comPennie and I will read your lists on Thanksgiving and be thankful with you.Roy H. Williams

Evocative Words Work WondersGive a mundane product an evocative name and you will dramatically increase its appeal.Humans are uniquely gifted to attach complex meanings to sounds. Some of these sounds are musical; pitch, key, tempo, rhythm, interval and contour. But much more specific in their meanings are phonemes, the building blocks of words.Cat and Kite begin with the same sound. Ignore, for a moment, that C and K are different letters. The phoneme is the sound, not the letter. The sound represented by the letters “ch” in chirp, cherry and cheerful is another phoneme.There are only 40 phonemes in the English language. If you want to get fussy, you can count the unvoiced “th” sound in with as a different phoneme than the voiced “th” in the. If you continue down that road, you can find as many as 44 different phonemes. But that’s all.Forty-four sounds allow you and I to know each other’s thoughts.The Bible opens and closes with stories about the importance of names. Genesis tells us that Adam’s first task was to name all the animals. In the Revelation of John we read, “I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.”Names are important. This is a fact known to every cognitive neuroscientist.Nouns originate and are interpreted in a region of the brain just behind your left ear known as Wernicke’s area, connected by the arcuate fasciculus – a high-bandwidth bundle of nerves – to another region slightly forward of your left ear known as Broca’s area, where we attach the sounds we call “verbs” to the actions we need to name. Broca’s area then coordinates the diaphragm, larynx, lips and tongue so that we can form the rapid succession of phonemes in that positively human display called speech.Information gathered by the eyes, muscles and skin is routed through Broca’s area on its way to the dorsolateral prefrontal association area, the home of the visuospatial sketchpad*, the mind’s eye, where we “see” things in our imaginations. All of this is connected to the ear.Yes, humans are uniquely gifted to attach complex meanings to sounds. And we are uniquely gifted to make those sounds, as well.All of this is well documented.Shape and Color are visual languages.Phonemes and Music are auditory languages.Painters use paint and brush. Fashion designers use cloth and scissors. Jewelers use metals and gemstones. Visual artists, gifted in the languages of Shape and Color, often expect their work to “speak for itself.”But it can’t.If you will add to these visual languages an evocative name, the listener – your customer – will craft their own unconscious bond to the thing you have named. A well-chosen name focuses and accelerates the talent of the visual artist and gives that talent greater impact.A designer and a poet holding hands can reshape the world.Here’s a 60-second radio ad built upon the evocative naming of visual products.SARAH: Christmas is coming!SEAN: And what could be betterSARAH: than designer diamond earrings!SEAN: You’ve never seen ANYTHING like these.SARAH: From diamond Hugs and KissesSEAN: two-hundred-ninety-nine dollarsSARAH: to the fabulous hoops of the Renaissance Queen.SEAN: Twenty-five-hundred-thirty-nine dollars.SARAH: See them on our website.SEAN: The Diamond-Studded SUPERSTAR.SARAH: The Summer of Love.SEAN: Cinnamon Roll earrings!SARAH: Fairy Tale hoops.SEAN: Forever THIN.SARAH: Sparkling Springtime!SEAN: Pink CHAMPAGNE hoopsSARAH: and Captured HeartsSEAN: Buried TREASURE hoopsSARAH: [sexy] and the Diamond Negligee.SEAN: The Ocean JourneySARAH: and the Embassy Ball.SEAN: We have Splish-Splash earringsSARAH: and Drop-Drops!SEAN: Diamond SunflowersSARAH: and The Four Seasons of Vivaldi.SEAN: Did you mention Snuggles and the Colors of Light?SARAH: No, you did.SEAN: When?SARAH: Just now.SEAN: Oh.SARAH: Designer diamond earrings start at just 299 dollarsSEAN: at SpenceSARAH: and Spence Diamonds dot-com.SEAN: Do we need to give them the address?SARAH: No, they can find us.Do you want to see these earrings?Of course you do.Because you’re human.Some words describe what is outside a listener.But other words evoke what is within them.Evocative words and phrases connect with core values and allow the listener to attach their own story to what you are selling.Those of you who were far-thinking enough to sign up for Wizard Academy’s January class, “How to Write Direct Response Ads,” before it sold out will be taught how to choose and arrange evocative words and phrases for maximum effect.No, there are no remaining seats for sale.But five scholarships will be awarded.I’d love to see you win one.Roy H. Williams

for What Ails Your Customer?A spoonful of Entertainment helps the medicine go down,medicine go dowwwwn,medicine go down.The public will give you their time if you offer them entertainment.They will give you their money if you offer them hope.But don’t ever call it hope.Don’t accuse your customer of being hopeless. Just let them know exactly how you can make tomorrow different than today and let them know it in an entertaining way.Go do that.Go. Get started.“Be entertaining” and “make tomorrow different” is easier said than done, right?We want your customer to have a new perspective, a new attitude about you and what you sell. But if your customer doesn’t give your message a moment of their time, your message might as well have never existed.You paid the postage but they didn’t read the letter.Entertainment is the currency that will buy you their time. How might your message entertain them? I’m not just talking about being funny.Humor is nitroglycerine.Handled correctly, it moves mountains.Mishandled, it moves things you didn’t want moved.We often remember the humor but don’t remember the product, right? This is what happens when the humor is gratuitous, disconnected from the essence of the ad.“Entertaining” is simply what we call the most interesting thing that’s in front of us at any given moment. Sometimes the bar is lower than at other times.My friend Brian Alter is a jeweler who’s about to send a catalog to his customers. His excellent cover letter below will accompany each catalog. Take a look and see what you can learn.ANext week we’ll talk about PowerNaming.Now get some rest. Christmas is coming.Roy H. Williams 

You must attempt the ridiculous to accomplish the miraculous.David sees a giantand says, “I will defeat him.”Everyone else sees a giant, as well.David walks toward the giant with his slingand BANG, David is king.That’s a favorite story everywhere. Here’s another.Don Quixote sees a giantand says, “I will defeat him.”His companion sees only a windmill.Quixote charges the giant with his lance,is lifted high into the air on its revolving arms,and slammed into the ground.“It seemed like a good idea at the time.”Wizard Academy alumni refer to David and Don as “our brand of crazy.” Unafraid. Purpose-driven. Willing to try.So why does only David get a trophy?What about Quixote, who fought his giant hand-to-hand and ended up in a heap on the ground?Wizard Academy announces a $10,000 cash prize for him.Is he/she you?The purpose of the Quixote’s Windmill Prizeis to encourage the takers of chances, the facers of giants, the riders on the arms of windmills. We are a school for the imaginative, the courageous and the ambitious.Are you our brand of crazy?Tell us about it in a YouTube videobefore March 23, 2014 and you could win $10,000 in cash, plus a free ride at Wizard Academy for one full year; a revolving scholarship for as many classes as you choose to attend.These are the rules of engagement:1. Anyone can enter. You do not have to be an alumnus of Wizard Academy.2. Your story must be true and verifiable.3. You can’t enter an idea you did not pursue. You must have taken dramatic action, spent money, time and energy in the pursuit of your idea.4. You must have learned a lesson that has value.5. Your video cannot exceed 2 minutes and 30 seconds. If the YouTube time bar on your video says 2:31 or more, your entry will not be considered.6. The winner will be named on April 23, 2014.7. A contestant can enter no more than 2 videos each year.You will lose if you make us pity you.In fact, you have already lost. Quixote makes us cheer for his courage and he leads us in laughter at his defeats because Quixote knows that failure, like success, is a very temporary condition.There will be 5 areas of scoring. Each of the 7 directors of Wizard Academy can award up to 100 points in each of the following 5 categories.A perfect score would be 3,500 points.1. How good was the idea?Tell us why it made sense at the time. 7 x 100 points2. How aggressively did you pursue it?Make us feel your courage, your creativity, your determination. 7 x 100 points3. How bad was the outcome?Did you merely shrug your shoulders and walk away, or did paramedics drag your unconscious body from a smoking crater? 7 x 100 points4. What did you learn?How valuable will your advice be to the rest of us? 7 x 100 points5. How well do you tell your story?This is where you get style points for lighting, color, sound quality, graphics, special effects, humor… 7 x 100 pointsHave you tried and failed? Have you battled and lost?Watch the videos of the other Quixotes who enter and you won’t feel stupid anymore. You’ll say, “Wow. I’m part of a family, a tribe, a fraternity that doesn’t sit and watch from the sidelines.” And no matter how much your misadventure may have cost you, no matter how badly it hurt, you’ll be able to laugh and say, “Well, at least I’m not THAT guy.”When you have posted your video on YouTube,send the link to Daniel@WizardAcademy.org and, if accepted, Daniel will post it on the YouTube channel for Quixote’s Windmill Prize, also known as The Smoking Crater Award, The Business Bloopers Award, The Our Brand of Crazy Award.Here’s why you want to enter your video as soon as possible:The accepted video that receives the highest number of YouTube “thumbs up” votes will win no cash, but will receive a scholarship to as many classes as you choose to attend at Wizard Academy for 1 full year. The “thumbs up” winner will be determined at precisely noon on April 22, 2014. The earlier you enter, the more time you have to gather your “thumbs up” votes. If the $10,000 winner also happens to be the “thumbs up” winner, the second 1-year scholarship can be given to a friend. Both scholarships will run concurrently from April 23, 2014 through April 22, 2015.“What giants?” said Sancho Panza.“Those you see there,” answered his master, “with the long arms, and some have them nearly two leagues long.”“Look, your worship,” said Sancho. “What we see there are not giants but windmills, and what seem to be their arms are the vanes that turn by the wind and make the millstone go.”“It is easy to see,” replied Don Quixote, “that you are not used to this business of adventures.– Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote, 1605If I don’t see you here or there,I’ll assume you’re in the airon the arms of a windmill.Roy H. WilliamsChancellor, Wizard Academya 501c3 Educational Organization 

The following press release will soon be received by the media in Midland, Texas.Diamonds to be Cut in Midland(MIDLAND, TEXAS – October 29, 2013)[Name of Diamond Cutter] is coming to Midland to cut diamonds on Saturday, November 16th and the public is invited. “It’s one of the Christmas gifts we’re giving the city,” says Cathy Fleck of Occasions Fine Jewelry.“Diamond crystals aren’t very impressive when they come out of the ground. But then, when they’re cut, they explode with light. It’s like watching the sun come up over the horizon.”“We’re going to let our guests see and touch and hold a $1,500 natural diamond crystal before it is cut. Then, we’re going to have a drawing to see who gets that diamond for free. That person will then tell the diamond cutter the shape they want him to cut their diamond. And then everyone who’s there will see the birth of a new diamond. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”The event will be displayed on an LCD screen for those who can’t get close enough to the diamond cutter.“I asked myself, ‘How can a jeweler honor the birth of Christ?’ And then it hit me; the manger, the star, and Jesus coming into the world. The only thing a jeweler could do is let people watch the birth of a sparkling new diamond. And then that diamond must be given for free. Maybe you think the whole thing is silly, but I’m really looking forward to it.”Witness the birth of a diamond from XX – XX on Saturday, November 16.Occasions Fine Jewelry was born in the back of a local drug store in Midland 20 years ago. Today, they stand on the corner of Loop 250 and Garfield with more than 4,000 square feet and are known throughout the world.# # # # That press release was written by one of the Wizards of Ads. It features frame shifting, dimensional shifting, and a trio of reality hooks. Here’s the original press release that was given to us by our friend, Cathy Fleck, who asked, “Is there a better way to tell this story?” The writing is slightly better than average. But is better-than-average really good enough in today’s overcommunicated society?# # # # OCCASIONS FINE JEWELRY EXPLAINSDIAMOND CUTTING PROCESS TO THE COMMUNITY(MIDLAND, TEXAS – October 29, 2013)Occasions Fine Jewelry is bringing a Diamond Cutting Show to Midland on Saturday, November 16th. As a part of the show, Occasions is flying in equipment and cutters to do a demonstration for the public. They will show all stages of the process on site. “We are very excited about this new event,” said owner Cathy Fleck. “Very rarely do you get to experience something like this in Midland. We will also be drawing for a diamond that the customer can pick their own shape and cut to create their own diamond.”The event will discuss the different shapes and yields in person as well as display on an LCD screen. Customers will be able to walk through each step of the process.The event will be held at Occasions in Midland (2308 W. Loop 250) from XX – XX on Saturday, November 16.Occasions Fine Jewelry opened for business in the back of a local drug store in Midland over 20 years ago. Today, their Midland location on the corner of Loop 250 and Garfield is over 4,000 square feet.Occasions offers a number of lines exclusively in the West Texas area including Lorenzo, Orbis, Soho, Diamond Cushette, Cyma, Natalie Kay and Paul Winston.####The cost of hosting the diamond-cutting event remains the same for Mike and Cathy Fleck regardless of which press release they send.That, right there, that, is why you should learn to write.The Wizards of Ads are writers of persuasion. “Find a better story and deliver it with greater impact.” Two of the wizards who can teach you how to do this for yourself – Chris Maddock and Jeff Sexton – hold a writer’s workshop once a year at Wizard Academy, a 501c3 educational organization in Austin, Texas, a school for the imaginative, the courageous and the ambitious.According to the unabridged Oxford English Dictionary, “Wizard” derives from “wise-ard, wise man.” Soon you’ll soon be hearing about three of the most famous who followed a star to Bethlehem.I’m giving Mike and Cathy Fleck scholarships to the November 13 writing class at Wizard Academy; we teach big things fast; things not taught in college.You can come, too, if you like. But brace yourself.“Big things fast” arrive with impact.Merry Christmas.I really mean that.But you still have to pay for the class A Roy H. Williams

One of the books I’ll write someday is a collection of true stories gathered from extremely successful people.My business as an advertising consultant and seminar speaker has put me face-to-face with many of the brightest stars in the entrepreneurial sky. And rarely do I miss the opportunity to ask them,“Can you recall that fateful moment when you chose the fork in the road that led you to where you are today? How did you first get into this business?”Never – not once – has a successful person said to me, “I followed my passion.”But this is the answer you will hear again and again from people who are serving time in prison.The world is full of rich people who are not, and never were, successful. People who stole the money, inherited the money, married the money, won the money in the stock market or in the lottery, cheated others out of the money or were awarded the money in court, do not qualify as “successful” in my admittedly subjective opinion.The “Follow-Your-Passion” myth is pervasive because successful people are usually passionate. But those people would have been passionate about whatever they chose to do.Their jobs don’t give them passion.They give passion to their jobs.The same is true in successful marriages.Moon-eyed dreamers who say, “I just can’t find my passion” always act like I kicked their puppy when I tell them that passion is not a magical ether that can be located and tapped into. Passion is the shrapnel that flies from a three-way collision of determination, commitment and action.While we’re at it, let’s pull the mask off a couple of other myths:(1.) Passion doesn’t always manifest itself as happiness. Passion is also behind deep grief. (2.) Passion isn’t always confident. Worry is misguided passion, fearful passion, but it is passion nonetheless.Don’t do what you’re passionate about.Be passionate about what you do.Don’t follow your passion.Let your passion follow you. Passion is created when determination and commitment are joined by the nitroglycerin of action. Leonardo da Vinci said it 480 years ago and he said it in Italian. Here is the clearest translation:“People of accomplishment rarely sit back and let things happen to them. They go out and happen to things.”Listen to Leonardo.Go out and happen to something.When we hear the laughter and the dancing,the crying and the grief, we will know the shrapnel is flying.Roy H. Williams

The Silent Rifle as a 3rd Gravitating Body“Dangling like this from his leg, his upside-down perspective made him giddy. If this were to be his last moment he would die happy, but it would not. Instead, he’d soon be singing karaoke with a group of Korean tourists. But first, the roller coaster.”?– Christina Gressianu, opening lines of an unwritten novelAnton Chekhov wrote a letter to Aleksandr Semenovich Lazarev dated November 1, 1889, in which he said, “Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.”Tragically, this casual advice became the sacred and unbreakable rule of scriptwriting known as “Chekhov’s Gun” in which every element in a story must be necessary and irreplaceable.Obey the rule of Chekhov’s Gun and your stories will be predictable to all but the youngest of children.Movies are predictable, TV shows are predictable and Advertising is predictable because some fool decided Chekhov was a messenger sent from God.No, let us be fair to Chekhov: his advice was given in 1889 when less than 1 percent of the public had ever read a novel or seen a play. Motion pictures were an inventor’s experiment in a laboratory. Television wasn’t even a fantasy. His audience was, in effect, young children.Would Chekhov offer the same advice today? Let me assure you he would not.Surprise and delight are strangled by the cruel hands of Predictability.If you will write an interesting story, wallpaper the room with guns that are never used and never explained. An unfired gun is a curious distraction, a potential disaster or delight that hovers beautiful like a hummingbird just out of view.I use “gun” only as the metaphor for a literary device, just as Chekhov did. Can an oversized bottle of champagne be a silent rifle, a hovering gun hanging beautifully on the wall?Of course it can.One of my favorite passages in literature flagrantly violates the rule of Chekhov’s Gun. It is an inexplicable paragraph inserted into the middle of Cryptonomicon, an extraordinary adventure/mystery novel written by Neal Stephenson. The gun on the wall is a bowl of breakfast cereal.The cereal, the milk, the eating of the cereal, indeed breakfast itself is utterly unnecessary in the story of Cryptonomicon. But there it is:“World-class cereal-eating is a dance of fine compromises. The giant heaping bowl of sodden cereal, awash in milk, is the mark of the novice. Ideally one wants the bone-dry cereal nuggets and the cryogenic milk to enter the mouth with minimal contact and for the entire reaction between them to take place in the mouth. The best thing is to work in small increments, putting only a small amount of Cap’n Crunch in your bowl at a time and eating it all up before it becomes a pit of loathsome slime, which, in the case of Cap’n Crunch, takes about thirty seconds… He pours the milk with one hand while jamming the spoon in with the other, not wanting to waste a single moment of the magical, golden time when cold milk and Cap’n Crunch are together but have not yet begun to pollute each other’s essential natures.”Chekhov, I believe, would approve.Welcome, Anton, to 2013.Roy H. Williams

My friend Jeffrey and I were talking one day about this and that when he said, as much to himself as to me, I think, “What is it that separates confidence from hubris?”I replied, “The outcome.”“That’s it!” Jeff gasped through his laughter, his head thrown back as tears began to inch toward his ears. “If you succeed, it was confidence. Fail, and it was hubris.”I’ve never been sure why my answer gave Jeff such pleasure, but isn’t it great to see a friend laugh uncontrollably?For the past 30 years I’ve livedwith my finger on the pulse of business owners.I know the rhythm of their heartbeats.I know what raises their blood pressure.I know what puts them to sleep.I feel the thump, thump, thump of their hunger for success.I know the storms that rise above them.I know the rains that fall.And I know what keeps them moving.Time and Chance are variables beyond our control.Money and Love are fuel.Time and Chance affect the flow of Money and Love.But Money and Love have no effect on Time and Chance.I’ve always been simpatico with the writer of Ecclesiastes.I think I understand him. He said,I have seen something else under the sun:The race is not to the swift?or the battle to the strong,?nor does food come to the wise?or wealth to the brilliant?or favor to the learned;?but time and chance happen to them all.Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come:As fish are caught in a cruel net,or birds are taken in a snare,so people are trapped by evil timesthat fall unexpectedly upon them.It is not my goal to bring you down or give you melancholy. I hope only to broaden your perspective. I want you to enjoy this adventure called Life, regardless of the scenery that surrounds you. You made it here. You exist. You’re alive. How cool is THAT!We choose our destiny with every choice we make.We create our reality with every action we take.And Time and Chance happen to us all.Roy H. Williams