True story:<\/p>\n
I was once listening to Dany Kennedy talk about the paradox of how\u00a0he rails against using manual labor to sell with… while he’s on\u00a0stage speaking and selling his products.<\/p>\n
(i.e. doing manual labor).<\/p>\n
I’m certainly no Dan Kennedy, but I can relate.<\/p>\n
Call it hypocrisy if you want.<\/p>\n
(You wouldn’t necessarily be wrong.)<\/p>\n
But, for better or worse (I just know it works for me), I’m a…<\/p>\n
And yet… here I am telling you to buy my novels, listen to my\u00a0podcast, read my emails, and buy from my affiliate link (when I\u00a0sell stuff as an affiliate).<\/p>\n
Can we say “disconnect”?<\/p>\n
But wait, my hypocrisy gets better!<\/strong><\/p>\n I also write marketing, copywriting, business, and sales books…\u00a0but rarely read books about marketing, copywriting, business, or\u00a0sales. I much prefer reading autobiographies of great people who\u00a0have conquered their fields, scuttled their competition, and\u00a0accomplished great things.<\/p>\n But, not marketing people.<\/p>\n Or sales people.<\/p>\n Or, even business people, necessarily.<\/p>\n You see, instead of reading about the newest way to squeeze out an\u00a0extra .005% response or learning another way to outsource… or get\u00a0more done in less time… I’d rather read about how the musician\u00a0Yanni went from sleeping in his friend’s basement, dirt broke and\u00a0with no future… to becoming one of the most successful musicians\u00a0of all time (even if I think most of his music is too dainty for my\u00a0taste). Or how author, columnist, and right wing political\u00a0commentator Pat Buchanan went from being a brawler always looking\u00a0for a scrap on the streets of Washington D.C., getting tossed in\u00a0jail, and causing hell everywhere he went… to becoming one of the\u00a0most prolific political writers of our time and advising\u00a0presidents. Or how a desperate Stephen King went from getting\u00a0hundreds of rejection slips for his stories and having to type on a\u00a0broken typewriter balanced on a child’s desk on his knees in the\u00a0back of his cold trailer home… to becoming perhaps the most\u00a0popular fiction writer in history.<\/p>\n And those autobiographies are just for starters.<\/strong><\/p>\n There’s also the late football great Walter Payton.<\/p>\n And filmmaker James Cameron (who made the 2 highest grossing movies\u00a0of all time — and let me just say, the extreme and borderline\u00a0sociopathic stuff that guy does just to get a single camera shot\u00a0for a scene in a movie that most people won’t even probably notice\u00a0is crazy…)<\/p>\n And my boy coach Mike Ditka.<\/p>\n And comic book creator Stan Lee.<\/p>\n And, most recently, General Douglas MacArthur, whose real life\u00a0exploits in wars and battles (both on the battle field, and in\u00a0politics) make anything Hollywood could cook up look like the\u00a0Mickey Mouse Hour.<\/p>\n Lookee:<\/p>\n All these autobiographies change the way you think.<\/strong><\/p>\n They change the way you view success.<\/p>\n And, they change the way you attack problems.<\/p>\n The things you learn in autobiographies of great men aren’t the\u00a0same things you’re going to learn in yet another best-selling\u00a0business book on Amazon or in an IM launch with a fancy whiz-bang\u00a0name attached to it designed to rile up the goo-roo fanboys\u00a0and affiliates haunting the Warrior Forum.<\/p>\n This is the kind of material that changes your brain.<\/p>\n Forces you to be more adaptable.<\/p>\n And, dare I say… turns you into an infidel in your niche — as\u00a0you automatically start doing things the opposite of how everyone\u00a0else is, not caring what people think, and developing a powerful\u00a0“anything that gets in your way DIES!” mindset that’s as rare as\u00a0hens teeth these days. (People fake this attitude in social media\u00a0all the time, I’m talking about “for realz” having it.)<\/p>\n My point?<\/p>\n I once heard this advice:<\/p>\n “If you want to do great things, don’t read great books. Read books about great men.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n (That’s more of a paraphrasing, but you get the gist…)<\/p>\n So it just seems to me that, if you want to conquer and rule over\u00a0whatever it is you do… read about great people, and how they\u00a0thought and worked… how they stared Desperate in the face and\u00a0kicked its ass… and how they (to quote one of my favorite movies\u00a0“The Shawshank Redemption”) sometimes crawled through a river of\u00a0shit and came out clean on the other side.<\/p>\n Anyway, something to think about.<\/p>\n Do whatever it is you think is right.<\/p>\n I’m not here to tell you what to read or not.<\/p>\n If you want to read about yet another super secret ninja rockstar\u00a0gangsta persuasion technique, then have a party.<\/p>\n Me?<\/p>\n I’m gonna get back (right when I’m done writing this) into reading\u00a0about how General MacArthur inspired such a fear and awe in his\u00a0enemies, that the Japanese obeyed (and practically worshipped) him\u00a0over even their own emperor after WW2.<\/p>\n Okay.<\/p>\n One last paradoxical hypocritical note:<\/p>\n Yes, I think you should read biographies of great men before\u00a0reading yet another thing about sales, marketing, persuasion, etc.<\/p>\n But, I also think you should check out “Email Players”:<\/p>\n