Wizard of Ads Monday Morning Memo

When Samuel Langhorne Clemens began to write, he adopted the pen name Mark Twain, a common shout among riverboat pilots on the Mississippi river.When Sholem Rabinovich began to write, he adopted the pen name Sholem Aleichem, a common Yiddish greeting whose most accurate translation would be, “Peace be unto ya’ll” or “Peace be unto youse.”Mark Twain gave us Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, a celebration of everyday river life in 1800s America.Sholem Aleichem gave us Tevye the Milkman and Fiddler on the Roof, a celebration of everyday Jewish life in 1800s Russia.Both men had similar styles of writing and both were known for their audacious wit. Either might have said, “A bachelor is a man who comes to work each morning from a different direction.” (But in this case it was Sholem Aleichem.)One might assume the Russian writer adopted the trademarks of the American Mark Twain to become an East European version of that famous humorist and philosopher but that assumption would be incorrect. When Sholem Aleichem came to the United States in 1905, Twain sought him out and confessed that he considered himself to be “the American Sholem Aleichem.”When Sholem Aleichem died in New York in 1916, 100,000 mourners gathered at his funeral.Instructions were left for his family and friends to “select one of my stories, one of the very merry ones, and recite it in whatever language is most intelligible to you.” “Let my name be recalled with laughter,” he added, “or not at all.” These annual readings of the wit, audacity and rich philosophy of Sholem Aleichem have continued each May to the present day, and in recent years have become open to the public.Sholem Aleichem said things few men dared to say.And he made a difference in the culture of his day.Leonard Pitts is another man like Sholem Aleichem.A columnist syndicated by the Miami Herald, Leonard Pitts first came to my attention on July 12, 2001, when Pennie handed me our newspaper and pointed to a scathing review of the just-released movie, Baby Boy. Midway through the review, Pitts began firing word bullets aimed with the precision of a champion marksman:Everybody should have a white man. Even white men should have a white man.Because when you have a white man, nothing is ever your fault. You're never required to account for your own failings or take the reins of your own destiny. The boss says, “Why haven’t you finished those reports, Bob?” and you say, “Because of the white man, sir.”I'm not here to sell you some naive nonsense that racism no longer exists. One has only to look around with open eyes to see that it continues to diminish the fiscal, physical and emotional health of African-American people. All of us are obligated to raise our voices in protest of this awful reality.But black folks are also obligated to live the fullest lives possible in the face of that reality. To live without excuses.Leonard Pitts works hard to understand the perspective of America's white majority. Are you willing to work to understand the perspectives of America's Black and Brown minorities? Are you willing, as a white person, to speak up to your white friends as boldly as Leonard Pitts spoke to the black community?Will you, as part of a cultural minority, work to understand the actions of those who frustrate you?Will you listen and contemplate and use wit and humor to open the eyes of those who don't see clearly?If so, I want you to apply for a scholarship to become one of Wizard Academy's World Changers for 2008. We're going to approach this racism thing from a whole new direction.Aroo.Roy H. Williams

American education teaches a subject vertically, narrow and deep. And the deeper one plunges into the subject, the narrower it gets. Specialization.1a. Liberal Arts1b. Literature1c. Spanish Literature1d. Spanish Literature of 1492-16811e. Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616)1f. Don Quixote de La Mancha by Cervantes (1605)1g. Symbolism in Don QuixoteAnd then you write your master’s thesis:1h. Sancho Panza as a Figurative Symbol in Don Quixote de La ManchaOur educational system has taught us to value vertical, deductive reasoning. This is why our logic is so often binary: if-then, either-or, right-wrong. This is the logic of technology.But vertical thinking is most powerful when augmented by a horizontal viewpoint since the lateral perspective will often spy answers that lie outside the vertical path.Horizontal thinking will recognize a pattern it has seen, even when that pattern was observed in a completely unrelated field. (The cognoscenti will remember this technique as Business Problem Topology.) This “pattern recognition” often allows the horizontal thinker to correctly predict an outcome from what appears to be too little information.Intuition is unconscious, horizontal thinking.“Some people are unhappy about lateral [horizontal] thinking because they feel it threatens the validity of vertical thinking. This is not so at all. The two processes are complementary, not antagonistic. Lateral thinking enhances the effectiveness of vertical thinking by offering it more to select from. Vertical thinking multiplies the effectiveness of lateral thinking by making good use of the ideas generated.”– Edward DeBono, author of 62 books on creative thought.Purely horizontal thinking is known as daydreaming. Fantasy. Mysticism. The purely horizontal thinker has a thousand ideas but puts none of them into action. He or she sees the big picture and all its possibilities but has little interest in linear, step-by-step implementation.Purely vertical thinking leads to compliance, conformity, and a false sense of knowledge. (False because it’s often just memorization in disguise. The student knows what to do without understanding why.) The purely vertical thinker is a nit-picker, a legalist, a tight-ass.The healthy mind is capable of switching from vertical to horizontal thought and back again.Problem solving is horizontal thinking adjusted by vertical analysis. But the implementation of that solution will require step-by-step, vertical action modified by horizontal adjustments as the need arises.Read his books and you’ll recognize Lee Iacocca as a horizontal thinker who implements his ideas vertically.Iacocca sees patterns, then takes sequential action to accomplish what he has seen in his mind.“When you stop to think about it, most of the great companies of our times began as upstarts – little Davids taking on big Goliaths.” – Lee Iacocca, Where Have All the Leaders Gone? p. 159   Horizontal thought is how Iacocca rescued Chrysler from the brink of disaster. It's how Peter Ueberroth organized the wildly successful Los Angeles Olympics and generated a surplus of 250 million dollars. It's how Amazon.com and eBay came to be. It's how the Prius and the iPod were born.Wizard Academy teaches you how to see the answers that lie outside the vertical perspective.Are you a little David? Do you want to learn the techniques of the great innovators?Come to Wizard Academy and we’ll teach you how to defeat the Goliath in your life.Yours,Roy H. Williams

I’ve never seen a business fail due to reaching the wrong people. But if you listen to advertising sales reps, “reaching the right people” will solve all your problems.And guess who has exactly the right people for you?The conversation usually goes something like this: the sales rep says, “Tell me, who is your customer?”“Blah, blah, blah.”“Really? That’s exactly who we reach! What a fit! It’s like a hand in glove, a marriage made in heaven! We reach your exact customer profile!”Here’s an idea. Call every advertising sales office in your city and tell them you want to advertise with them. Let’s see how many of them say, “Sorry, your customer isn’t who we reach.”The myth of “the right people” is a myth every business owner wants to believe because it keeps them from having to make uncomfortable changes. “Our selection isn’t off-target, we’re just reaching the wrong people.” “Our prices aren’t too high, we’re just reaching the wrong people.” Traffic isn’t down because our ads are flaccid, we’re just reaching the wrong people.”In truth, “the right people” are easy to find.They’re everywhere.And they know each other.And they talk.The right message works regardless of which media delivers it.The wrong message disappoints you and your customer alike.When I travel and speak publicly, business owners often grab my arm to tell me the demographic profiles of their customers. They say things like, “My customer is an upper-middle income female between 35 and 54.”This is useful information for an ad writer. But what these business owners hope I’ll be able to tell them is which media will work best for their business. “Is it cable TV? Network TV? Newspaper? Billboards? Huh? What do you think about PR? Is it the internet? Is internet the key? What about radio? Does anyone listen to the radio anymore? Which media should I buy?”My answer never changes. “They call it mass media for a reason; it reaches the masses. The successful use of mass media requires a message that matters to a large percentage of the public. Tell me your message and I’ll tell you which media is best suited to deliver it for you.”Is there such a thing as targeted media? Of course there is. If you sell a specialized product like dental supplies, I never suggest mass media. There are a variety of ways you can target dentists:1. Letters and catalogs mailed to dentists.2. Dental industry trade magazines.3. Salespeople calling dentists on the phone.4. Participation in trade shows and other events to which dentists are invited.5. Banner ads on dental websites.6. Keyword purchases of jargon relevant only to dentists.7. Search engine optimization of your dental supplies website.8. Free samples of your product shipped to dentists.9. Logo-emblazoned gifts that might be used by the staff each day in the typical dental office.But if your product is less highly specialized than dental supplies, airplane parts or industrial glue, you’ll do well to craft a message for the masses and deliver it through mass media.Media salespeople are mistaken however, when they use such terms as “our reader,” “our viewer” and “our listener” since these terms make it seem as though that reader, listener or viewer can be reached through them and them alone. In truth, every reader, listener or viewer is available to you through any of several different media outlets. None of us are reached through only a single media outlet.As I write this, one of my media buyers is wrapping up a 52-week, citywide radio schedule in a medium-sized city. This year he purchased a significantly different list of stations than the group we purchased last year and saved $59,000 in the process. But we’re reaching as many people as we did last year and with just as much repetition.Why not go ahead and spend the additional $59,000 you ask? Because there is no radio station that can offer us a significant number of listeners we aren’t already reaching. The expenditure of additional dollars would only increase the repetition of our message among listeners we’re already reaching on other stations. And we already have enough repetition.Can you think of something you might be able to do with an extra $59k?Come to Wizard Academy.Roy H. Williams

Here's the Pattern: When times are tough and customers are scarce, business owners buckle down and try to become even better at the things they do well. They do this because they trust the Guide pattern, “This has always worked in the past.”Perhaps you're doing the same.But following the Guide pattern in a declining market won’t take you where want to go, since staying who you are won’t expand your customer base.To grow your sales volume you must increase your market share. You must attract those customers who, in the past, have chosen not to do business with you. But those customers won’t make a new decision about your business until you give them new information. As long as you keep doing what you’ve always done (and saying what you've always said,) they’ll keep making the decision they’ve always made.They’ll keep buying somewhere else.To grow, you must expand your identity. Add to your message. Appeal to additional customers.The Challenge pattern of new circumstances demands that you choose a new Guide pattern.Leaders usually cling to old Guide patterns in times of stress. This is why challengers often overtake leaders during times of upheaval. The leaders were reluctant to reinvent themselves.For more than a quarter century I’ve made my living dethroning market leaders and setting my clients in their places. And in all those years I’ve never seen a category leader do anything but what they do best. This predictability makes them easy to defeat.The successful challenger is always willing to adopt a new guide pattern and stretch beyond the comfort zone.A few weeks ago I wrote, “If you dominate your business category and you’re struggling to stay on top, my experience tells me you probably don’t have the courage to make the necessary changes that would allow you to move to the next level. So you might be wasting a plane ticket to Austin.”Now you know why I wrote it.If You Feel It's Time to Reinvent Your Business:Step 1: Do exactly what you fear a competitor might do. Be your own competition.Step 2: Evaluate your advertising. If your messages have been transactional (full of facts and details) build a relational offering for your customer. If your messages have been relational (service and commitment based) create a transactional package.Step 3: Ignore those well-meaning friends who will accuse you of having lost your focus.Step 4: Release unhappy team members to go where they can be happy or they'll torpedo your plan with half-hearted implementation.Step 5: Advertise aggressively. “Aggressive” doesn’t require a big budget. It requires a big message. In the words of Robert Stephens, “Advertising is a tax you pay for being unremarkable.”The more unremarkable your message, the more ad money you have to spend. Embrace a remarkable message and you'll be surprised how little money is required to spread the word.If you need some help crafting a remarkable message, come to Austin.We're good at it.Roy H. Williams

Half your brain sees a hierarchy.Deductive reasoning is a product of this.Vertical. Sequential. Objective. Scientific. Hard facts. Details.“Be for what is.”The other half sees connectedness.Intuition is a direct result.Horizontal. Chaotic. Subjective. Relevant. Relationships. Big picture.“Recognize the pattern.”Intuition is a form of pattern recognition. Wordlessly it whispers, “I’ve seen this behavior before. I know what happens next.”We call these whispers “hunches,” “gut feelings”, “premonitions.”Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is what happens when these whispers get too loud.We are pleased when a mystery is solved.Another way of saying this is, “We are pleased when the Challenge pattern resolves into the Guide pattern.”That’s when things come together and “make sense.”The pieces of a jigsaw puzzle can be interlocked to form a rectangle. The correct assembly of these uniquely shaped pieces is the Challenge pattern.The photograph on the front of the box is the Guide pattern. Consequently, the image fragment on the face of each puzzle piece gives us a clue where that piece belongs.The challenge pattern is what we’re trying to solve.The guide pattern tells us where things belong.Imagine how much harder it would be to solve a jigsaw puzzle if you had never seen the completed picture on the box.The choices you face each day are your Challenge pattern.Your Guide pattern in life – the picture on the box – is your schema, your worldview, your expectations. Your Guide pattern is influenced by your culture and customs, training and religion. Your Guide pattern is influenced by what you read, how you play, and whom you admire.As your life unfolds across the tapestry of time, your desires are simply your life’s attempt to satisfy the Guide pattern.Change the guide pattern and you change your desires. Change the guide pattern and you change your life.Here’s another example. In any scientific experiment, there's a Guide pattern called the “control” group. The challenge pattern is represented by the “experimental” group.(I fear you won’t find much else written about Challenge patterns and Guide patterns because I made these terms up to explain some things in my mind.)Challenge patterns and Guide patterns, the calm before the storm and the morning after, labyrinths and fractals are all expressions of Archetypal Patterns.Archetypal patterns are the Guide patterns of every happy moment. Learn to employ these patterns and you'll have the ability to create greater and more frequent success. But beware. When an archetypal pattern becomes obvious, it becomes a cliché.Next week I'll tell you how to discover archetypal patterns you can use as Guide patterns to launch yourself to new heights in business and the arts.Roy H. Williams

Ten years ago, Eric Rhoads asked me to appear on the cover of Radio Ink in a suit of armor. Since Eric is one of my closest friends and a major supporter of Wizard Academy, I agreed to do it for him.Since 1998, my Wizard of Ads column has appeared in every issue of Radio Ink, more than 200 in all. The columns I write for Eric are never released to another outlet.Today I’m making an exception to that rule because I believe 2008 will be a major growing-up year for radio and readers of the Monday Morning Memo need to understand what’s going on.The following is an excerpt from my column in the current issue:Syndication came to television 50 years ago. Networks like ABC, CBS and NBC offered local TV stations better shows than they were able to produce themselves. And these better shows were cheaper than local productions. The viewers won. The stations won. Television became much more profitable. National advertisers loved placing ads in hot, national shows.In the past, national shows have been the exception in radio, rather than the rule.They’re about to be the rule.I predict that half of America’s morning drive jocks will soon be replaced by 10 or 12 syndicated morning shows beamed in from somewhere else. This will happen in other dayparts as well.Frankly, I’m in favor of it.Wait! I hear the voices of broadcasters clamoring, “But radio is local. Our listeners want local. Syndication is anti-radio.”I respond, “Listen to the people of your town. Are they saying, 'We don’t want Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, American Idol, and Lost! We want the local TV shows?'”“Are they saying, 'We don’t want Spiderman, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Lord of the Rings in our theaters! We want the local movies?'”“Are they saying, 'We don’t want Rush Limbaugh and Howard Stern, we want a local political pundit and a local shock jock?'”Ten years ago, radio’s consolidators cut costs by cutting the fat. Then, when pressured for more profits, they did the only thing they knew to do; they cut deeper, but this time into muscle. Radio was crippled. Occasionally they cut arteries and radio stations began dying. Wall Street prices dropped cold and hard, icy hail on a barren landscape.There were plenty of heroic efforts in the emergency room. Not all radio group heads were selfish. Not all were shortsighted and stupid. I’ve watched from the sidelines as good men and women did the best they could under impossible circumstances.Now radio is going private again. Deconsolidation has begun. The age of syndication is upon us.Don’t be afraid of it.   #   #   #   #Now I hear the voices of Monday Memo readers, asking, “What about satellite radio? What about the iPod? Aren't these eroding radio's audience?”Sure, these new technologies, along with online attractions like youtube, myspace and facebook, and video game platforms like the Sony Playstation and the Nintendo Wii have added to the list of attention-gobbling gadgets that began with CDs, DVDs and cell phones back in the dark ages. In short, Americans have too many gadgets and too little time to play with them all.The net result is that media is getting trickier to buy. But make no mistake, broadcast radio remains a powerful tool for local business. As soon as I find a better value, I'll let you know.Keep in mind that(1.) my consulting firm doesn't work by the hour and(2.) I don't charge according to the size of the client's ad budget, and(3.) my income is adjusted annually according to the growth of my client.The moment any new media has the potential to be a more efficient use of my client's ad dollars, I'll be on it like a duck on a June bug. My future depends on it.Now chin up, eyes forward.You're going to have a great week, I promise.Yours,Roy H. Williams

Socrates was right, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”Most of us have moments when we ask, “Am I happy? Is this what I want to do? Am I making a difference? Would I be missed if I were gone?”Introspection is like medicine. It’s beneficial in small doses but an overdose will leave you self-absorbed and depressed.My policy to write about you, not me.My goal is to give you interesting things to think about.My hope is that your life will be made better because of me.People who perceive these things through my writings assume I’m a sensitive person who will look deep into their eyes and say profound things. They’re always disappointed when they meet me. In truth, I am introverted, vain, vulgar, and socially awkward.But God likes me anyway.Strangely, I’m a powerful public speaker. This is due to what psychologists call my auxiliary personality, a hidden part of me that walks on stage when it’s show time. The bigger the crowd, the taller my auxiliary. The real me always watches from offstage. “Gosh, he seems to be doing pretty well. Let’s hope he doesn’t say something I’ll regret.”Obviously, I’ve set my policy aside today.I risk not achieving my goal.But I haven’t given up my hope,I want your life to be better.That’s why I write books.That’s why I founded a *business school.That’s why I’m teaching a free, 2-day class for small business owners.If your dreams are bigger than you areand you have the courage of a lion,the ferocity of a tiger,and the determination of a turtle,send an email to Tamara@WizardofAds.com.Tell her your city, your business category, and your current, annual sales volume. Tell her what you believe to be holding you back. We can seat no more than 99 business owners in Tuscan Hall and I want to give these seats to the men and women I believe will benefit the most.If you dominate your business category and you’re struggling to stay on top, my experience tells me you probably don’t have the courage to make the necessary changes that would allow you to move to the next level. So you might be wasting a plane ticket to Austin.But if you’re currently doing less than 10 percent of the business in your product or service category, I have a long and happy track record of helping people just like you.I’m going to see 99 people enjoy blazing growth in this soggy, wet economy because I gave them a day and a half of my life. The workshop is called, How to Make Business Good When Times are Bad.I’m charging nothing for it. Lunch will be provided but you’ll have to be in Austin, Texas, April 14 and 15. And you’ll have to be invited. The first step toward getting invited is to email Tamara.Remember what Socrates said about the unexamined life? He could just as easily have said, “The unexamined business isn’t worth owning.”Come to Austin and examine your business.Socrates also said, “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.”I don’t plan to fill your head in Austin. I plan to set you on fire.I think Socrates would be proud.Roy H. Williams

“What will he write of us, Cissy, this young man who has taken it upon himself to tell our stories?”“I’m not a mind reader, Alice.”“He never met us. He didn’t know us. He has seen us only through the lens of books he little more than scanned.”“He will write what he will write.”“But I’m so tired of it all, these writers who remember only the scandals.”“I don’t think he’s like that. His book will be historical fiction.”“That’s even worse.”“Perhaps.”“Historical fiction. What does that mean?”“He plans to tell the tale we hid from the world, Alice, not the tales that have been told before.”“Good god, you don’t mean…”“Yes. You, me and Ellie. Cal, Willie and Nick.”“Please tell me you’re only being mean.”“Alice, it’s happening. Face it. He pieced it all together.”“You and I were friends once, Cissy.”“Yes.”“But not anymore.”“No, not anymore.”–   Alice Roosevelt Longworth (1884 – 1980)–   Eleanor Medill “Cissy” Patterson (1884 – 1948)AAs I write the words of Cissy and Alice, they step from an unchanging past into a myriad of possible futures. They step tentatively at first, testing the waters of time with pointed toes as though the temperature might be unkind.Then they rush laughing into life, dancing on the waters as they understand the opportunity they've been given.I’m writing the chaotic story of the intersecting lives of six persons. Dozens of books have been written about five of the six, though no author has ever noticed that all five were actors in a single play.The sixth invididual, Cal Carrington, was also real and his relationship with the five was exactly as I will describe.My novel begins in 1884 and ends in 1948. Teddy Roosevelt makes an occasional appearance, although he is not a principal character.The encounters and relationships I've woven together were sucked from the dark archives of Time Magazine, the diaries of neighbors, books written by other authors and my own imagination. I've been researching the sacred six since February, 2001.I believe their story would have been told long ago except that Alice Roosevelt would have sued for slander. And since Alice outlived the other five, their amazing story died with her.Until now.Roy H. Williams

2008 is shaping up to be an unhappy year for most product and service categories. If your year-to-date numbers are trending ahead of 2007, I salute you.Today’s Monday Morning Memo is for the remaining 96 percent of American business owners.Here’s what I want you to do:1. Write in a vertical list the names of every competitor you face in your chosen product/service category. If you need help remembering them, look in the Yellow Pages. This should take no more than 10 to 12 minutes. Don’t leave anyone out.2. Write next to each name an estimate of that company’s sales volume in the category in which you compete.3. Add your own name and sales volume to the list.4. Total the dollars that you’ve estimated will be spent in your product/service category this year in your trade area. This is your Market Potential.5. Tell us the name of your city or trade area and its approximate population.6. Email all this information to Tamara@WizardofAds.comNow for the “Treasure” part:1.   I’m going to ask my market research department to verify or modify the snapshot you’ve given us of your Market Potential. You'll receive the results by email.2.   Ninety-nine of you will be invited to be my guests in Austin April 14-15 for the unveiling of an all-new presentation and workshop: How to Make Business Good When Times are Bad.  3.   This is a session I’ll soon be presenting to business owners from coast to coast at $25,000 per market visit. But 99 of you will get to experience it in Austin for free.You’ll learn to identify your Limiting Factors, the things that've been holding you back.You’ll learn to evaluate your Competitive Environment, the key to good strategy.You’ll learn to develop Unifying Principles, the secret of esprit de corps.You’ll learn to leverage your Defining Characteristics, the essence of persuasive ads.You’ll learn Wanek’s Ways to significantly increase the believability of your advertising, your sales presentations, positioning statements, tag lines and slogans. (There are only 6 things you can do. I'll teach you all 6, courtesy of my partner, Tom Wanek.*)You’ll return home equipped to take your place among that happy 4 percent of business owners who are trending ahead of last year.Interested?Get started on your list of competitors and sales volumes. Be sure to tell us the name of your trade area and its population. We need to have this information as soon as possible.Have a great week.Yours,Roy H. Williams

Answer: If you knew, it wouldn't be a blind spot.Accelerate the performance of your business in 2008. Find your blind spot and fix it.There are 7 common blind spots with 4 common causes.The most common blind spots have to do with…1. customer profiling.What traits do your customers have in common other than the fact they all buy from you? Are you seeing your customers as they really are, or are you seeing them as you wish them to be? False profiling leads to expensive mistakes.2. reputation.Consider the people who don’t buy from you. Are they buying elsewhere because they haven’t heard about your company, or is it because they have? I’ve never met a business owner willing to believe their company had a bad reputation.3. relevance.Most “unique selling propositions” are irrelevant to the customer. Are your ads answering questions no one was asking?4. location.Yesterday’s right location is tomorrow’s wrong one. Has the future arrived and left you behind in a weird part of town? Or did you fall into the happy trap of cheap rent only to find yourself invisible?5. staff.How consistently is your staff delivering the experience you’ve crafted for your customer? The fact that your staff is perky and happy doesn’t always mean they’re doing their jobs. Have you been confusing attitude with performance? Are you one of those big-hearted bosses who will excuse incompetence as long as the employee seems loyal and sincere?6. price credibility.Do you know the prices of your competitors in your product or service category? Or do your customers know more than you? If you say to me, “I don’t worry about what the competition is doing, I just worry about what we’re doing,” I swear I’ll slap you.7. media myths.Are you anxious to find a more effective media? If so, you’ve got really bad ads. I’ve never seen a company fail because they were using the wrong media or reaching the wrong people. But I’ve seen thousands fail because they were saying the wrong things. A powerful message will produce results in any media.The most common causes of blind spots are…1. entitlement.Do you believe your business deserves to grow each year simply because it’s had another birthday?2. preference and denial.Do you mistakenly believe that other peope think like you do? Are you so focused on your goals that you can’t see reality? Have you attended one-too-many positive thinking seminars? If so, you’re on dangerous ground, amigo. “Well, that can’t be true because, well, it just can’t.” Is this really your answer?3. misinformation.Do you usually believe what you’re told? A dinner companion says to you, “The food here is terrible. I’m never coming back.” But when the smiling manager arrives at the table and asks, “How was everything?” your companion replies, “It was great.” Are the people around you telling you what you want to hear? Are you part of a group of business friends who telephone each other for false reassurance?4. risk aversion.Did you work hard to “build up your business” and now you’re taking it easy a little, enjoying the fruits of your labor? Congratulations. That warm glow you’re feeling means you’re about to be toast. If you’re not acutely aware of your competitive environment, you’re coasting, losing momentum and in danger of being overtaken. You became a self-made man or woman because you took big chances when you had little to lose, right? But now that life is good, you abandoned this aggressive behavior and expect good things to happen because “you earned it.” Remember the tired old elephant whose butt you kicked to get where you are today? The new elephant is you.Am I your enemy or your friend?This was a dangerous memo for me to write because folks tend to be sensitive about their weaknesses. So if at any time you felt belittled, insulted or offended while reading this memo, there’s a pretty good chance we found your blind spot.Still friends, right?Yours,Roy H. Williams