Wizard of Ads Monday Morning Memo

Courage might look like confidence to onlookers but confidence and courage are not the same. Confidence means you’re not afraid. Courage means you do your best even though you’re scared half to death. Courage does not rely on confidence. Courage relies on commitment.“It embarrasses me to admit that there have been seasons in my life when I was so full of myself that there was no room for anyone else.” – Richard Exley, Dec. 12, 2011(Richard has been a close friend for 30 years. I have witnessed these seasons in him as he has witnessed them in me. – RHW)Confidence without humility is arrogance.Humility without confidence is an inferiority complex.The single prerequisite of true humility is that you must first have confidence.The false humility of inferiority is really just anger in a sad disguise. Courage is good,confidence is better,but humility is the highest lessonand much harder to learn than the previous two.“There is a strange duality in the human which makes for an ethical paradox. We have definitions of good qualities and of bad. Of the good, we always think of wisdom, tolerance, kindliness, generosity, humility; and the qualities of cruelty, greed, self-interest, graspingness, and rapacity are universally considered undesirable. And yet in our structure of society, the so-called and considered good qualities are invariable concomitants of failure, while the bad ones are the cornerstones of success. A man – a viewing-point man – while he will love the abstract good qualities and detest the abstract bad, will nevertheless envy and admire the person who through possessing the abstract bad qualities has succeeded economically and socially, and will hold in contempt that person whose good qualities have caused failure. When such a viewing-point man considers Jesus or St. Augustine or Socrates he regards them with love because they are the symbols of the good he admires, and he hates the symbols of the bad. But actually he would rather be successful than good.”– John Steinbeck, Sea of Cortez, p. 96, (1941)Begin by learning courage. Stare into the face of the tiger that threatens to devour you. Be the excellent soldier who runs toward the sound of the guns. You will do these things not because you are fearless, but because you have chosen to. And when you have stared down tigers and emerged from battles undead, you will notice that your courage has grown into a strutting little rooster called Confidence.And then one day long after, if you are open-minded, open-hearted and wise, you will realize that your successes were never born from the strength of your will, the razor’s edge of your intellect or the power of your focused mind, but from the whim of an inexplicable little fairy called Luck.Laugh at the rooster,Tip your hat to the fairy,And smile.Roy H. Williams

Reality doesn’t exist; at least not in the way that we usually think of it. Dr. Jorge Martins de Oliveira writes,“Our perception does not identify the outside world as it really is, but the way that we are allowed to recognize it, as a consequence of transformations performed by our senses. We experience electromagnetic waves, not as waves, but as images and colors. We experience vibrating objects, not as vibrations, but as sounds. We experience chemical compounds dissolved in air or water, not as chemicals, but as specific smells and tastes. Colors, sounds, smells and tastes are products of our minds, built from sensory experiences. They do not exist, as such, outside our brain. Actually, the universe is colorless, odorless, insipid and silent.”Dr. Oliveira isn’t a touchy-feely philosopher, a halfwit existentialist or the delusional leader of a religious cult. He’s the Director of the Department of Neurosciences at an important institute in Rio de Janeiro. (I love Latin American scientists. They speak of the beauty of science more poetically than do scientists in the United States.)According to Oliveira, each of us lives in a private world of our own perceptions.Speaking of this perceptual reality he writes,“Although you and I share the same biological architecture and function, perhaps what I perceive as a distinct color and smell is not exactly equal to the color and smell you perceive. We may give the same name to similar perceptions, but we cannot know how they relate to the reality of the outside world. Perhaps we never will.”But isn’t there an objective reality that’s the same for all of us?Sure there is. In the purest objective reality, 7 billion of us are trapped on a tiny speck of dust that circles an 11,000-degree fireball as it shoots through a limitless vacuum at 252 times the speed of a rifle bullet.And none of us ever thinks about it.That seems almost surreal, doesn’t it?I point out the subjective nature of our perceptual realities to underscore the importance of articulate communication. Are you able to make others see what you see and feel what you feel? If so, you have persuasion, the most powerful of human skills. Physical speed, agility and strength seem puny standing next to it. Indeed, the pen is mightier than the sword.Next Monday we’ll examine the word choices of a great contemporary writer during the first 30 minutes of our monthly, 1-hour video webcast for subscribers. I hope to teach you how to choose words as he chooses them so that you might speak and write with greater persuasive power. I’ll also be revealing a 25-year secret; specifically, the criteria my firm uses to select which radio schedules to purchase from the thousands that are submitted to my media buyers each year. I’ll teach you how to extract more benefit from your ad budget.The Wizards of Ads are known for the growth of their clients, small businesses who currently air 52-week schedules on more than 700 radio stations across the United States, Australia and Canada. Eyebrows will jump when I reveal the criteria we use for choosing these stations. Tempers will flare. Media salespeople everywhere will shout we’re “doing it wrong.”I’ve decided not to worry about that. Instead, I’ll be trying to wrap my head around how we can fly at 252 times the speed of a rifle bullet and feel as though we’re standing still.Whoosh. Roy H. Williams

Dave saw adventure where others saw only shadowsbecause Dave is a creative genius who never forgot how to play.The mind wants closure, for everything to add up and make sense, for there to be no loopholes, paradoxes or remainders. Intellect wants to believe that it has the answers, that is sees beyond broken logic, that it is ultimately in control, that there is no force greater than itself.In short, humans want to be their own god but we are poorly equipped for the job.The study of Magical Thinking includes the examination of common superstitions, justifications and self-delusions. Think you don’t have any? Think again.The same insanity that allows us to believe in a god who has everything “under control and moving forward according to His Perfect Plan” also allows us to believe that the Higgs boson particle is somehow proof that the vast diversity of plant and animal life on this planet is the accidental result of an explosion.“GOD, we are a comic species. Why are you interested in us?” This is a question that’s been asked for at least 3 thousand years. Indeed David, player of the harp and slayer of Goliath asks GOD in the 8th of his Psalms, “What is a human being that you think about him? What is a son of man that you take care of him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings. You placed on him a crown of glory and honor. You made human beings the rulers over all that your hands have created. You put everything under their control.”On a practical level, an understanding of Magical Thinking – this amazing propensity of humans to jump to ridiculous conclusions and become deeply bonded to them – is the most powerful sales tool on which you will ever lay your hand.Fortunately, our not-quite-sane ability to imagine and believe in the unproven, the unlikely and the clearly impossible is not just proof of our brokenness, it is also our greatest gift and highest treasure. Magical Thinking allows us to see possibilities not indicated by the evidence at hand. Intuition depends upon it. Breakthroughs happen because of it. Undiluted play is at the heart of it.Play. Do you remember it? Dave Young was playing when he saw Quixote in the shadow of the cactus.Stated in the simplest of terms, Magical Thinking describes potentialities that are not strictly possible, but are believable nonetheless. And these potentialities can be positive or negative.The obvious question is, “What is a potentiality?”You’re a young man who is about to ask the love of your life to marry you. Special circumstances give you the opportunity to buy a diamond engagement ring for a fraction of its true value. The previous owner was a woman who was murdered by her husband. He then fled the country with all of his assets. The ring is being sold by the cemetary that buried the woman. Do you buy the ring and present it to your fiancé as a symbol of your love?Why not? Diamonds and gold are inert. They have no memory and carry no contagion, no karma, no bad juju. You know this in the left hemisphere of your brain, but Magical Thinking tells you otherwise in your right.Contagion and “bad juju” are negative potentialities. Sports memorabilia, celebrity autographs and historical artifacts are valuable due to positive potentialities.When you understand the seductive pathways of Magical Thinking you’ll be able to write advertising and web copy that causes people to choose you, your company and your brand, above all others, even when it defies common sense.Magical Thinking works like magic, allowing the magician to pull rabbits from hats that everyone knows to be empty. magiimagine magic.Roy H. Williams

Out in the open Wisdom calls aloud, she raises her voice in the marketplace…”- Solomon, Proverbs ch. 1Wendy Clark sponsored a trio of young protégés to attend this year’s annual Young Writer’s Workshop at Wizard Academy. While she was on campus with her crew, she said,“There really needs to be a book of helpful tips for start-up business owners. The E-Myth warns you that being a good housecleaner doesn’t necessarily mean you’d be good at running a housecleaning business. And that’s quite a revelation. But there’s no book that tells a person how to make the leap from wage earner to business owner. The book is needed and needed badly.”Will you help Wendy and I write that book of entrepreneurial tips?Wendy and her sister Jessica overcame an impossibly vertical learning curve by pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. Their company, Carpe Diem Cleaning in Durham, North Carolina, is the classic success story. Wendy spoke to me of some powerful insights she had been forced to learn the hard way. Tragically, I’d heard them all before. Lots of times. So why hadn’t I warned her?This is a book that screams to be written and you, mi compadre*, are going to contribute what you know. You’ll do it because it’s the right thing to do. You’ll do it because you know every strong economy is built on companies with fewer than 100 employees. You’ll do it because we’re all in this together.I mentioned Wendy’s comment to Wizard Academy’s board of directors last Monday. Jean Backus said, “I taught basic tax tips for 10 years at Austin Community College and a high percentage of my students already had an MBA. When I asked, ‘What are you doing here?’ they always said, ‘They don’t teach this stuff in college.’”Jean Backus promised to give us a list of time-and-money-saving tips. Likewise, Dennis Collins and Adrian Van Zelfden promised to contribute what they’ve learned in their several decades as consultants to hundreds of business owners. Doctors Oz Jaxxon and Lori Barr promised to chip in their collected wisdom as well. And I promised that you would send in at least one golden nugget.Here are a few examples of the kinds of tips this book will contain:1. Calculate the potential revenues available to your category in your trade area in 3 ways: (A) Make a list of all competitors in your category, estimate the annual sales volumes of each, then total the estimates for a “country boy” estimate of the marketplace potential. (B) Pull national sales volume estimates from trade publications for your category, then divide that number by the population of the nation, then multiply by the population of your marketplace. (C) Access the government NAICS numbers for your category to derive a per capita average for your state, then multiply that number times the population of your trade area. Don’t be surprised when all 3 answers fall in a narrow range.2. Growing from 5% of your market potential to 25% of your market potential (20 percentage points) is easier than growing from 25% to 33% (8 points.) This is because you win the easiest customers first, then must face customers that are much more difficult to win. It is extremely rare for a business to grow beyond 33% of the market potential for their category.3. Commit all agreements to writing. The clearest memory is no match for pale ink.4. Sometimes your very best just isn’t good enough. Don’t let it get you down.5. In most service businesses, 1/3 of revenues will go to payroll, 1/3 will go to overhead, and 1/3 will be gross profit from which taxes, etc. must be withheld. Take this into consideration when hiring and pricing.6. A talented, hardworking tradesman, craftsman or technician, working alone, can make a lot of money. Soon they’ll have no free time and will be turning away business, so they will hire a helper. Then they’ll discover that it’s faster and easier to just do it themselves than it is to train, motivate and supervise the helper. So they’ll hire a second and third employee and work harder than ever and make less money than when they were working alone. Until that tradesman, craftsman or technician has approximately 10 employees, he or she will usually make less money than when they were working round-the-clock, alone. Be ready for these frustrations if you choose to build a service business.7. A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it, and never makes that mistake again. But a wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid that mistake altogether. Share what you’ve learned with others and be quick to hear what they have learned and you can both be wise.“Out in the open Wisdom calls aloud, she raises her voice in the marketplace…” – Solomon, Proverbs chapter 1Solomon… wise man… wise-ard… Wizard Academy,America’s Most Interesting Business School.Good decisions come from experience.Experience comes from bad decisions.What has your experience taught you?What sage advice have you received that you’d like to pass along? Send it to Jackie@WizardOfAds.com and feel good that you’re building a strong economy by helping others to succeed.Roy H. Williams

A 30-Year Examination of Money and Jews“Attention, Wal-Mart shoppers,” is a phrase I heard a lot as a kid.My school career began at Hilldale elementary in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Having been absent from that fair city since 1973, I Googled Muskogee to see what had changed in 39 years. As it turns out, not much.The person(s) who wrote the Wikipedia entry for this haven of my childhood wanted to make sure we knew the following 3 things about Muskogee. These are direct quotes:Muskogee was commemorated in the 1969 Merle Haggard song “Okie from Muskogee”.The Jerry Jeff Walker song “Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother“ is a satire of small-town life playfully aimed at Muskogee, which is made evident in the last line of the song: “Muskogee, Oklahoma, U.S.A.”In the sitcom Friends, Chandler becomes excited when he hears a mention of Muskogee, saying that it’s “only four hours from Tulsa,” where he resides. In reality, Muskogee is less than an hour from Tulsa.(That the writer felt the need to correct Chandler and point out Muskogee is “less than an hour” from Tulsa makes me smile. If Oklahoma were Los Angeles, Tulsa would be Beverly Hills.)Oklahoma became a state just 51 years before I was born. As a kid, I knew a lot of adults who grew up in the region when it was still officially “Indian Territory.”The Oklahomans of my childhood were mostly mixed-breed mutts. I say this lovingly. I grew up knowing nothing of ethnicities. I never knew anyone who could call themselves Mexican, Polish, Irish, German, Italian or anything else. Heck, we didn’t even have Catholics.Jews were as rare as Chinese, existing only in newspapers and books.The first “foreigner” I ever met was a Jewish man from New York who did me an extraordinary kindness. The encounter made such an impression on me that I’ve been predisposed toward Jews ever since.Here are a few thingsI’ve learned about Jewish culture over the years:  (Doubtless some of my Jewish friends will take issue and feel compelled to correct me on some point or other but that’s perfectly normal. An Israeli friend, Dror Yehuda, warned me many years ago, “Six Jews, ten opinions.”)1. A solution that is not sustainable is probably unwise. The best solutions are always self-sustaining. Knowledge of this deeply embedded cultural belief helps one to understand the 8 Levels of Charity known to every Jew. The lowest levels of charity are those where you hand someone money and walk away. Jewish thought asks, “What is the problem that causes them to need this money? If I truly care, I should help to solve the underlying problem.” Feeding endless amounts of money into a broken situation is unsustainable. Consequently, the highest of the 8 Levels is to help a person start a business that will give them an income on an ongoing basis and provide jobs for others as well. This is true love. Another form of Jewish love-in-action is to give a person a job. These solutions are considered superior because they solve the problem in a sustainable manner. Although no Jewish person has ever said so to me, I get the sense that Jews feel it’s a little bit tacky to just give a person cash and then walk away.2. It is the responsibility of every Jew to make the world better. “What am I doing that makes a difference?” is the ever-present question in the mind of an orthodox Jew. This is probably why Jews are exactly 100 times more likely to win a Nobel Prize than other ethnicities. This is true. Slightly more than 20 percent of all Nobel Prizes have been awarded to Jewish people even though they comprise only 2 tenths of 1 percent of the world’s population. Does it surprise you that every time I’ve ever pointed this out, someone within earshot has immediately said, “Well, it’s the Jews who decide who wins the Nobel Prize, that’s why.” For the record, the Nobel Prize committee is Swedish, not Jewish, and Sweden’s Jewish population is precisely the same 2 tenths of 1 percent as the rest of the world. I did the research.Think about it. If your culture taught you from birth (A.) to always be thinking about how to make the world better and (B.) that the highest form of love is to create sustainable businesses that create jobs for the community, is it any wonder these people have become unusually successful?Roy H. Williams 

Robert Pirosh died on Christmas Day, 1989, in Los Angeles. He was born in Baltimore in 1910. But prior to that Christmas Day in L.A., Pirosh taught screenwriting at the University of Southern California. He was considered a credible screenwriting coach because he had written the screenplays for Gathering of Eagles (1963) starring Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor and Hell is for Heroes (1962) starring Steve McQueen. Prior to that, Pirosh wrote and directed Valley of the Kings, a 1954 adventure movie, and was nominated to receive an Academy Award for his 1951 film, Go for Broke! Two years earlier Pirosh had in fact won the 1949 Oscar for his screenplay of Battleground, a movie about the siege of Bastogne in World War II. Pirosh found his inspiration in his diaries, having served as a Master Sergeant in the 35th Infantry Division. One bitterly cold and forlorn day during the battle of the Bulge, Pirosh led a patrol into Bastogne to support the surrounded American forces there. Bastogne is a long way from Baltimore and being surrounded by people who want to kill you is not the mark of a very good day. Pirosh was awarded the Bronze Star. But war and movies about war were not what Robert Pirosh had planned for his life. Prior to serving in WWII, Pirosh had written some of the funniest lines of Groucho Marx’s career. In the screenplay for A Day at the Races (1937,) Pirosh has Groucho saying, “If I hold you any closer, I’ll be in back of you,” and picking up a telephone to say, “Room Service? Send up a larger room.” Groucho Marx and Robert Pirosh became lifelong friends. We won’t take the time to talk about Robert Pirosh as a writer for The Waltons, Hawaii Five-O, Mannix, Bonanza, My Three Sons, Family Affair, Combat! and The Fugitive. Our interest is directed at the letter that started it all, a letter blindly sent by 24 year-old Robert Pirosh to every producer, director and studio executive in Hollywood: Dear Sir:I like words. I like fat buttery words, such as ooze, turpitude, glutinous, toady. I like solemn, angular, creaky words, such as straitlaced, cantankerous, pecunious, valedictory. I like spurious, black-is-white words, such as mortician, liquidate, tonsorial, demi-monde. I like suave “V” words, such as Svengali, svelte, bravura, verve. I like crunchy, brittle, crackly words, such as splinter, grapple, jostle, crusty. I like sullen, crabbed, scowling words, such as skulk, glower, scabby, churl. I like Oh-Heavens, my-gracious, land’s-sake words, such as tricksy, tucker, genteel, horrid. I like elegant, flowery words, such as estivate, peregrinate, elysium, halcyon. I like wormy, squirmy, mealy words, such as crawl, blubber, squeal, drip. I like sniggly, chuckling words, such as cowlick, gurgle, bubble and burp.I like the word screenwriter better than copywriter, so I decided to quit my job in a New York advertising agency and try my luck in Hollywood, but before taking the plunge I went to Europe for a year of study, contemplation and horsing around.I have just returned and I still like words.May I have a few with you?Robert Pirosh385 Madison AvenueRoom 610New YorkEldorado 5-6024 Robert Pirosh has been gone for 23 years, having successfully satisfied the demands of a 79-year adventure. As Chancellor of Wizard Academy, I hereby bestow on Robert Pirosh The Order of the Beagle, the highest award our little institution can offer. Based on his letter and what can be pieced together of his life, Robert Pirosh was our brand of crazy. Do you have nominations for The Order of the Beagle? Send your suggestions and the rationale behind them to MicheleMiller@WizardAcademy.org Wizard Academy belongs to you. What do you plan to do with it? Roy H. Williams

Inclusive Communication by DesignRoughly 400 years before the wise-ards followed their star to Bethlehem, a Greek physician recognized four basic styles of behavior, calling them Choleric, Phlegmatic, Melancholic and Sanguine in the mistaken belief that these observable patterns of behavior were triggered by excesses of certain bodily fluids. Today’s Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, DiSC, True Colors and The Behavior Style Assessment are merely scientific instruments based on refinements of Hippocrates’ original observation.Just to be clear, these instruments do NOT measure your abilities but merely your preferences. You can function perfectly well outside your preferences. In fact, much of your peak performance is likely to be in areas outside your preferences. So what good is an understanding of the science of preferences if it has no link to performance?Communication.Communication.Communication.Question: Is it more effective to communicate with others as you would have them to communicate with you, or should we strive to communicate with others in the manner they prefer to be communicated unto?Courage (Lion) Heart (Tin Man) Home (Dorothy) and Intellect (Scarecrow) are the pillars in the Palace of the Temperaments. Strong communications have points of connection to each of these four pillars.The person who values intellect needs to understand your logic.The person who values feelings needs to perceive your motives.The person who values stability needs to know it has been tested.The person who values courage needs to hear you speak of action.If you are wise, you will speak to each of these 4 people every time you attempt to persuade. Put something in your presentation for each of them. This is called “inclusive communication by design.”Most of us attempt to persuade as though everyone makes decisions according to the same criteria we use. But they don’t. There is a Scarecrow, a Tin Man, a Dorothy and a Lion in every crowd and you must speak to each in the language they prefer.Speak to all four preferences and your voice will carry rich harmony. We see the quartet from Oz everywhere we look.AJefferson is the intellectual Scarecrow of Rushmore.Lincoln is its big-hearted Tin Man.Washington is America’s great stone Dorothy.Roosevelt is our reckless rock Lion.We spoke last week about these same archetypes found in the principal characters on Desperate Housewives. Indeed, it’s virtually impossible to create succesful fiction without characters who embody each of these four preferences. Did you ever see Sex and the City?Miranda is the intellectual Scarecrow.(Myers-Briggs NT)Carrie is the big-hearted Tin Man. (Myers-Briggs NF)Samantha is the reckless Lion. (Myers-Briggs SP)Charlotte is the proper Dorothy. (Myers-Briggs SJ)My partner Chuck McKay wrote about inclusive communication by design in 2006 and another partner, Jeff Sexton, wrote about it in 2007. Both were inspired by that great psychologist Dr. Richard D. (Nick) Grant, one of the founding board members of Wizard Academy. Jeffrey and Bryan Eisenberg also speak of Dr. Grant in their bestselling books, Call to Action and Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?Ten of my Wizard of Ads partners are going to be certified as Myers-Briggs instructors and facilitators this autumn. Would you like to join them and get certified yourself? There are only 3 seats left in this 4-day class. Cost will be $4,000 and will incude a room and meals in Engelbrecht House, Wizard Academy’s amazing student mansion. Acadgrads, as always, receive a 50 percent discount. (Call Becke at 512-295-5700 during Central Time business hours to register.)I’m secretly hoping the lucky 13 candidates will be treated to a surprise visit from Dr. Grant. Back in 2000 when Wizard Academy first began, we miraculously had a recorder turned on while Dr. Grant was riffing about the four temperaments. He said,“You probably remember that on the old Star Trek there were four principal male characters. Those were the four temperaments, that’s why it worked.”“There was Scotty, the SJ engineer that took care of the infrastructure, ‘I can’t make it go any faster, Captain!’” (Dorothy, Washington, Charlotte)“Then there was Bones, the doctor, the compassionate NF who took care of people, ‘Dammit, Jim, I’m a doctor, not a doorknob!’” (Tin Man, Lincoln, Carrie)“Then there’s Kirk, the robust, swashbuckling Captain, the SP, ‘More power, Scotty!'” (Lion, Roosevelt, Samantha)“And then finally the NT, Spock, the brilliant science officer who would die for a principle.  NTs are scary, they’ll die for a principle, ‘The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one.’ Gave his life.” (Scarecrow, Jefferson, Miranda)“So that’s why that show worked, that’s why it was so wonderful; it had all four temperaments.”Temperaments. Preferences. Archetypes. These have nothing to do with abilities. Zero. Nothing. But to understand these basic 4 temperaments is the beginning of more effective and successful communication. Understand the preferences and your team will work more smoothly together, your ads will pay higher dividends and you’ll live a more exciting love life.Or you could just keep doing what you’ve been doing.Roy H. Williams

If I could give you the gift of Curiosity, I would risk a great deal to do it.I would buy it for you illegally, inject it into your arm with a needle and watch as Life flowed into your eyes. I would do this for you because your future would brighten and your days would be full of wonder.Curiosity is addictive, it is true. But it is not unhealthy. Nor is it illegal. Unlike the drugs of Greed, Ambition, Anger and Fear, Curiosity makes a person happier, healthier and easier to love.Curiosity mixed with initiative means your life will never lack purpose.Curiosity without initiative is daydreaming.Curiosity followed by action is adventure.Curiosity is colored by the individual who swims in it:AThe physically curious person hungers to go and touch and experience and do. They speak often of travel, tend to be impulsive and always in motion. We see physical curiosity in the Warrior archetype of psychologist Carl Jung. The emotionally curious person seeks connection to others; soul-sharing through that mystical umbilical called empathy; words and gestures, painting, poetry, plays and songs linking heart to heart. Emotional curiosity is spiritual hunger. This is the Seeker/Healer/Lover archetype.bThe intellectually curious person navigates an ocean of riddles that must be solved, connections that must be investigated, patterns that whisper of secret meaning. This is the Magi/Wise-ard (magician/wizard) who travels to impossible places without ever leaving the room.rThe organizationally curious person discovers what is missing and then provides it. These are the leaders who serve us by creating structure, process and order. Organizational curiosity is demonstrated by the Administrator/King archetype.Intuition is Curiosity’s beautiful daughter.“Intuition becomes increasingly valuable in the new information society precisely because there is so much data.”– John NaisbittThe holy grail of every curious person is that sparkling moment called “discovery.”Fan the spark of curiosity in your mind. Watch it blaze into a flame of passion that will illuminate you with inspiration.Remember what David Ogilvy told us last week?“Stuff your conscious mind with information, then unhook your rational thought process.” In other words, study hard and then play.Play. The right hemisphere of your brain cannot do its job as long as Lefty is calling the shots. So tell your left-brain to take the night off.And then goAnd see for yourselfAnd you’ll know something you never knew.Go. Follow the spark of curiosity. Let it be your guiding star.The Journey is begun.Roy H. Williams

Joe Kraus was co-founder of excite.com in 1993. Today he’s a partner at Google Ventures, an angel investor at LinkedIn and on the board of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Kraus says we live in a culture of distraction. Prior to the availability of smartphones, we accessed the internet an average of 5 times a day. Now the average is 27 times a day. Kraus is worried about this:“The effect of all of this [connectivity] is that we’re increasingly distracted. The funny part about distraction is that it’s a worsening condition. The more distracted we are, the more distractible we become.”“Some people call switching our attention from one thing to another ‘multi-tasking’ like we’re a computer with dual cores running two simultaneous processes. Except we’re not. Numerous brain studies have shown that what we call ‘multi-tasking’ in humans is not multi-tasking at all. Your brain is merely switching its attention back and forth between two tasks.”“Those studies have shown that we’re dumber when we do this, an average of 10 IQ points dumber. That’s twice as much as smoking a joint dumber. And we’re also 40% less efficient at whatever it is we’re doing.”“But my favorite part about multi-tasking is that the more you do it, the worse you are at it. It’s one of the only things where the more you practice it, the worse you get at it.”“When you practice distraction, which is what multi-tasking really is, you’re training your brain to pay attention to distracting things. The more you train your brain to pay attention to distractions, the more you get distracted and the less able you are to focus even for brief periods of time on the two or three things you were trying to get done in your ‘multi-tasking’ in the first place. How’s that for self-defeating?”Joe Kraus is probably familiar with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the University of Chicago professor who said, “Humans cannot really successfully multitask, but can rather move attention rapidly from one task to the other in quick succession, which only makes us feel as if we were actually doing things simultaneously.” (The cognoscenti will recall this statement as part of the Magical Worlds Communications Workshop.)Here’s what our Culture of Distraction means to marketers:1. Getting attention is one thing. Holding it is another.2. The volume of information gushing toward your customer is like a fire hose aimed at a teacup.3. Advertising must embrace a Big Idea or it will be ignored.4. Attention can be held only by moving rapidly from Big Idea to Big Idea to Big Idea.5. Never in history have we crammed bigger thoughts into fewer words.I opened last week’s memo by giving you Five Big Ideas jammed into just 39 words; think of these as a 15-second radio ad:Mediocrity comes from the perfectimplementation of traditional wisdom.The person who achieves spectacular failurehas at least attempted something bold.Failure is a temporary condition.Success is likewise temporary.Life, itself, is temporary.So quit hesitating.Do something. Big Ideas don’t arise from normalcy. Big Ideas are products of audacity. The unmitigated gall of a Big Idea requires that you be a bit of an outsider or you will never walk the path where it can be found.That most Brit of all Britons, the great David Ogilvy, put it this way:“The beginning of greatness is to be different. And the beginning of failure is to be orthodox. Big ideas come from the unconscious. This is true in art, in science, and in advertising. But your unconscious has to be well informed, or your idea will be irrelevant. Stuff your conscious mind with information, then unhook your rational thought process.”“Stuff your conscious mind with information, then Unhook your rational thought process.” Anyone who has been here will recognize that Ogilvy was describing Wizard Academy. This is that Island of Outsiders where your mind is stuffed and stimulated throughout the day with information and perspectives far beyond your normal experience. Add to these days electric evenings flowing with (1.) the freedom one experiences when surrounded by brilliant, friendly strangers, (2.) a modest amount of alcohol and (3.) immodest amounts of laughter, and you have opened the faucet from which Big Ideas run like tap water.The first day of any class at Wizard Academy is hard work but the evening is a complete joy as you decompress with your classmates in Engelbrecht House, Wizard Academy’s secluded student mansion in the valley below Chapel Dulcinea. Day Two is when the real magic begins and the second evening sparkles. It happens every time. Can you imagine the pixie dust when a class runs 3 days and 4 nights?The Magnificent Seven is a business-growth workshop that happens just once every two years: Three days, Four nights, Seven companies. Interested?Big Ideas will fly through the air like paintballs. Everyone who attends this workshop will leave a different color and carry home a bold plan that includes a Big Idea. If you’re not frightened by the color and sparkle and high-velocity impact of truly Big Ideas, you really ought to come.Roy H. Williams   

A Message at Graduation Time The person who achieves spectacular failurehas at least attempted something bold.Failure is a temporary condition.Success is likewise temporary.Life, itself, is temporary.So quit hesitating.Do something. Mediocrity comes from having perfectly implemented tried and true, traditional wisdom.The outcome is the only thing that separates confidence from hubris. If your bold idea succeeds, you were a confident visionary. If your bold idea fails, the walking dead will accuse you of being full of yourself. “It was hubris,” they will say.Ignore the zombies. Life is risk. Risk is life. The only death is mediocrity. The only stupidity is fear. Fling yourself into something uncertain. The view from the edge is spectacular. What the hell, go ahead and put all your eggs in one basket. If you lose those eggs, you can find some more. The world is covered with eggs.Zombies invented the lie that curiosity killed the cat. But it wasn’t curiousity that did her in. It was boredom.Boredom killed the cat.Security, boredom and a bloodless life are all the zombies have to offer. But if you follow your Beagle of Intuition into the Forest of Uncertainty, you’ll ask directions of angels and they’ll answer you by opening a door you never knew was there. You’ll kiss the hand of Serendipity as you gaze upwards into her face. And she will smile. Zombies tell many lies.Their most famous lies are:1. A college degree is the key to getting a good job.2. If you give your money to financial experts they will grow it into a fortune. (Strangely, this second lie is partly true. But often, the only fortune those experts will grow your money into is their own.)Your Beagle of Intuitionknows different truths:1. Opportunity comes to those who have asked directions of angels.2. Money flows to those who have seen the smile of Serendipity. The world is covered with eggs.And there is a miracle inside every one of them.Roy H. Williams