Confession time: I am an inferior human being … meaning I come
up short in almost every category by which people are measured.

Every day, I look around and see people who are more athletic
than me … better-looking … taller … smarter … thinner … kinder …
more personable … wealthier … healthier … more well-adjusted …
even funnier.

Whatever I do professionally – copywriting, book writing,
speaking, information marketing, consulting – there are others
who are more successful and make much more money at it than I do
(though in one of these vocations not many others and not that
much more money).

How do I live with myself knowing that I am so inferior?

The secret is that you can be lousy at 99.9% of things and still
have a happy and successful life – at long as you are good at
just a few or perhaps even only one thing.

As far as I know, Paul Simon is good at only music. He’s
certainly not the biggest, strongest, or best-looking guy on the
block.

Also, most fans listening to his music would agree that Paul
Simon doesn’t have the best voice and isn’t the greatest singer
in the world.

But Paul Simon has enough people who like his songs and his
singing to give him a lucrative and successful music career.

You do not have to be the best there is at what you do to make a
great living at it. SR is a great example.

SR is a professional stand-up comic who decided to make the
transition to more lucrative performing as a corporate
motivational speaker.

I have heard SR do both comedy and speaking. He is not the
funniest comic I have ever heard. He is not the best
motivational speaker I have ever heard.

But he IS the funniest motivational speaker I have ever heard.
So he makes a great living speaking for meeting planners who
want a motivational speaker who can also make their audience
laugh.

What most people don’t realize is that you don’t have to possess
nearly as many fans as Paul Simon to make a lot of money and
live well from your work.

I think it was Seth Godin who observed that if you have just
10,000 fans, you can make a great living and have a successful
career.

For instance, if you have an e-list with 10,000 subscribers, and
can convince each to spend just $100 a year with you, you will
gross annual sales of a million dollars.

Ten thousand people are hardly a big fan base; Bon Jovi probably
has millions of fans. You do not need a huge fan base to succeed
at whatever it is you do.

If you are a freelance copywriter, and tomorrow 10% of the
Fortune 500 wanted you to write copy for them, you would be
overwhelmed and could not handle a fraction of the workload.

You simply do not need every company out there to consider you
the top copywriter. You only need a few who like what you do
well enough to want you to work on their promotions.

And even those few companies do not have to consider you the
“best” at what you do. They simply have to feel that your
service is a good fit for what they want.

Years ago, when I did some consulting work for Dow Chemical,
they shared with me that they were producing 778 print ads,
brochures, catalogs, press releases, data sheets, and other
marketing documents that year.

If you were a copywriter back then and Dow was your only client,
they could keep you busy and profitable round the clock – and do
the same for ten other copywriters at the same time. And that’s
just one client.

So if it helps you, I want you to know:

1-You can be middling to poor at most things and still have a
successful life and career.

2-You don’t even have to be the best at what you ARE good at to
have a successful life and career. You just have to offer
something that other people want.

3-You don’t have to have throngs of admirers. In many instances
10,000 fans, 100 customers, or 10 clients or less can keep you
busy and profitable all year long.

If all this is of some comfort to you, and stops you from
fretting about what you think are your shortcomings, then I have
achieved my goal.

I’ve made a large number of mistakes in my life. These flubs
have cost me more in lost income, career success, and happiness
than I could possibly keep track of.

Here are my 5 worst screw-ups, presented in the hopes that I can
help you avoid making the same errors I did:

1-Not jumping on opportunities.

When Internet marketing arrived on the scene, I both resisted
and ignored it.

I could have gotten into online information marketing in the
1990s.

Instead, I waited until 2004, until my colleague FG pushed me
into doing it.

As a result, others gained the leadership position I could have
owned, and I lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales I
could have made during that time.

Joe Vitale and others have said, “Money loves speed.” The faster
you act, the more likely you are to succeed.

2-Not having an ultra-narrow niche.

At the beginning of my copywriting career, I wrote only
industrial copy, and was well positioned in that niche. I loved
it! Industrial clients wanted to hire ME, not my generalist
competitors.

As time went on, more people outside that niche wanted to hire
me, and so I became less focused, although today I do have four
niches: financial, health, high tech, and business-to-business.

I love writing for the variety of clients I have today, but from
a purely business point of view, life would be easier if I were
more narrowly niched.

I think copywriters who laser focus on a narrow niche are smart,
like Pam Foster who specializes in the marketing of pet
products. Now that’s a narrow niche!

3-Turning down book contracts.

There have been a few times over the last three decades when I
turned down a major publisher who wanted me to write a book for
them.

In each case I came to regret turning down the book offer — and
wished I had accepted and had written the book.

Every book I have written has helped my career in some way –
even my satire, sex, and Star Trek books!

My advice: writing traditional paper books is good for your
career or business, so if you are offered a contract by a real
publisher, take it.

4-Not saving your accomplishments and kudos.

Any time I get a letter of praise, I drop it in a file labeled
“kudos.” I then excerpt these favorable comments and post them
on my site:

www.bly.com/newsite/Pages/testimonials.php

Any time you produce something for an employer or client, like a
video or a brochure, save a copy as an electronic file.

Clients today increasingly want to see that you have done work
similar to what they need done now.

The more samples you can show them, and the closer those samples
match their current project requirements, the more comfortable
they will be hiring you.

Although I saved a lot of my work, every once in a while a
prospect asks for a sample in a field where I have done work –
but don’t have the sample. And I kick myself every time.

5-Not having children at an early age.

This we couldn’t help: although I got married at 25, my wife was
diagnosed with cancer a few months after the wedding, and we
could not have kids for several years following her treatment.
Then we went through infertility and didn’t have our kids until
we were in our 30s.

If I could change all that, I would have had kids when we were
still in our 20s. Doing so increases the odds that the parents
will be around for the kids and grandkids longer. And, younger
parents have more energy.

Steve Martin became a first-time dad at age 67. When his
daughter graduates college, her father will be 88. That’s not
ideal for either parent or child, in my opinion.

SiriusXM Satellite Radio is now a direct mail scammer.

I just received a mailing from them with “Statement Enclosed” printed on the outer envelope — even though I am not a subscriber.

I immediately opened it, fearing that I somehow owed them money.

What was inside was not a statement. It was a direct mail promotion inviting me to subscribe to their satellite radio.

This is total deception, pure and simple.

It was a common practice years ago, what with envelopes containing faux checks or designed like notices from the IRS.

The practice is rare and frowned upon today.

Shame on you, radio guys. Seriusly.

 

 

Subscriber SM isn’t happy with me.

A week or so ago, he e-mailed and asked me a yes/no question
about his career.

I immediately e-mailed him the answer, which was one word: “Yes.”

I was proud of getting to the point so succinctly. But my answer
made SM unhappy. He wrote:

“Thank you for your one-word reply. It is obvious to me now that
I have to spend $$$$ with you to be a friend.

“I must tell you I have spent Aussie dollars on two of your
books The Copywriters Handbook and How to Write and Sell Simple
Information. Obviously an e-mail with a few words of hope or
incouragement [sic] must be too much.”

As a professional writer for 34 years, I feel compelled to point
out to SM that being concise in writing is a virtue. Its main
benefit is an important one: it saves the reader time.

I like to think I have mastered the art of concise writing, and
I have to tell you that many of my subscribers who e-mail me
have not.

They send long, convoluted e-mails in which they have buried a
point or question somewhere, then expect me to do the work to
dig it out.

Since I am incredibly busy, I won’t. My usual reply is: “Can you
ask me your question in fewer words, please?”

I think what bothered SM was that I wasn’t more chatty and
leisurely in my e-mail to him.

He also thinks his having bought a couple of my books (on which
I earned a total of about $2 in royalties) obligates me to spend
a certain minimum amount of time with him. Obviously he feels I
did not take enough time in answering his question.

What he does not understand is that I get a large number of
questions and requests by e-mail daily.

I do answer every one, which is something that, as far as I can
see, most of my peers do not do. And I answer them as soon as I
get them.

But to answer them all, I necessarily have to keep my responses
short.

Otherwise, I would be spending the whole day answering queries,
for which I am not paid, and would have no time to write copy
for my clients, for which I am paid.

I am generally cordial to my readers (unless they are rude to
me) and I have warm feelings toward them – and I want them to
succeed.

So I gladly answer short questions without charge … just as I
would do for any friend.

But I do not believe I am required to be your unpaid mentor or
coach. Do you?

And since I don’t offer paid coaching or mentoring, you will
have to look elsewhere for a private teacher.

I am often asked, “Many of your colleagues offer paid coaching
programs and make good money from it. Why don’t you?”

The reason is simple: I don’t enjoy coaching. And that’s it.
Period.

If someone needs advice or instruction, they can either read my
books – or if that’s not enough, I will happily recommend a
coach to them – someone I know and trust.

I don’t know about you, but the whole reason I am self-employed
is so I can do the things I like to do – which is write – and
avoid things I don’t like to do.

Isn’t that what you desire, too?

 

Several weeks ago, I wrote about how it used to stymie me when a subscriber would ask whether they should do something – like
quit their job or start a home business.

But an even tougher question you guys ask me is “What should I
do?”

The question is usually followed by a list of 3 to 5 choices, of
which the subscriber expects me to pick one for her.

Listen: I can’t tell you what to do. That’s your choice.

But I can give you some guidelines for deciding what to do on
your own.

The first consideration is money. It’s simple: come up with the
annual income you need to live the lifestyle you wish.

Then eliminate the options on your wish list that can’t fulfill
that requirement.

If none of them do, you must either consider other options or
find a way to make one of the options pay off better. For
instance, if you desire to be a freelance writer, write for
higher-paying markets.

Next, do what I call a “self-inventory.” Ask yourself:

>> What am I passionate about?

>> What do I enjoy?

>> How would I like to spend my days?

>> What do I have an aptitude for?

>> What am I trained or educated in?

>> What is my work experience?

>> What product or service can I provide that others would pay
for?

>> What have I done that others have praised me for?

Usually one or two items on your wish list will fit well with
your self-inventory answers, and of those, only one will deliver
your target income.

Then you have to decide.

For me, the most important criteria were:

1-Money: I needed to make enough money to provide for my family
and send two kids to college. I had no trust fund and will
receive no significant inheritance.

2-How I spend my days: I wanted to spend my days alone, in my
home office, at my PC, writing.

My personal definition of success, for me – yours may be
different – is: doing what I want to do, when and where I want
to do it, and getting paid well for it.

By “well” I had a figure in mind that was a multiple of the
earnings of acquaintances in town – mainly husbands of my wife’s
friends – who either have small businesses or work in highly
paid executive positions.

No choice you make will be ideal. Every business and profession
has its pros and cons.

To me the trick is to pick something remunerative enough to meet
your income goal while enjoyable enough to make you want to go
into the office in the morning.

Another priority of mine is to avoid boredom. I believe most of
my subscribers share this desire – probably you, too.

One of the cruelest fates is to spend your days doing a job you
detest for a boss or company you don’t like — and being unable
to quit because you need the money.

I see two ways out of this. The first is to move to a different
job function (i.e., from purchasing agent to product manager) or
change companies or industries.

The second is to start some type of self-employment, whether
freelancing or running a small business.

Many people dream of the second option and spend years
considering it, but fear holds them back.

I have previously paraphrased a wise therapist who once told me
what it takes to get moving.

He said: you won’t make a change until the pain of your current
situation – whether boredom, lack of money, lack of fulfillment,
dislike of your boss – outweighs your fear of making a change.

As a rule, that either happens or it doesn’t.

The other day subscriber LG wrote to me to tell me that the
Kindle version of my book “The Copywriter’s Handbook” (Henry
Holt) displayed some odd symbols on some of the pages.

Though I thanked him, the truth is: I don’t care and, not being
the publisher, I can’t do anything about it.

In fact, I was unaware that there was a Kindle version of this
book!

Does this fact – and my lack of interest — shock you?

The reason I don’t care is: bandwidth and focus.

While an author with one or two books may agonize over every
screen of the Kindle version of his book, I have 80 published
books. And I don’t have time to proof the Kindle version of even
one of them, let alone all of them.

Also, I have a full load of copywriting assignments, and my
copywriting clients are my #1 business priority – and serving
them takes most of my time.

It comes down to bandwidth: I have a finite amount of time and
energy, and therefore I can only attend to a limited number of
tasks.

And it also comes down to focus: I have to set priorities, which
means focusing on only the most important tasks – and letting
the others go.

I must do this if I am to be successful in my copywriting
business, which is of prime importance to me.

I find almost universally that people who have not achieved the
level of success they desire lack focus: they feel they have to
pay attention to everything, no matter how small or trivial –
even though doing so can seriously impede the achievement of
your goals.

For example, there is a small group of people who scan the
dozens of articles on my web site and seem to take great delight
in finding and pointing out a typo to me. I wonder why they are
doing this instead of perfecting their own web site. Do they not
value their time?

Here are my recommendations for accelerating your progress
toward your goals:

1-Don’t waste your time on unimportant, trivial things.

2-Focus on tasks that are important and contribute to your
success.

3-Treasure your time like, as Dan Kennedy says, the gold in Fort
Knox.

4-Get busy. Most successful people I know are busy.

5-Work hard. Whoever said “work smart, not hard,” was wrong.
Successful people work smart and hard.

6-Focus on what you do best. Farm out everything else.

7-Don’t feel you have to do something just because someone asks
you. Learn to say no.

8-Set priorities, because your bandwidth, like everyone else’s,
is limited.

9-Become obsessed with ROTI – return on time invested – for
every activity you undertake.

10-There is plenty of success advice out there from people who
are not successful. Ignore it.

One of the differences between traditional print writing and
online writing is the principle of “transparency.”

Transparency means telling the reader all sorts of personal
things about the writer.

Why should the reader care about you? I don’t know.

In the good old days, my mentor SR wrote:

“Don’t tell the reader what YOU did or like. Talk about her
fears, her concerns, her desires, her dreams.”

That’s still the primary interest of today’s prospects. But now,
they also want to know more about you.

A possible reason: the Internet is a more interactive, two-way
communication medium than print.

Therefore, your readers have a stronger desire to connect
directly to you, and part of that is to know more about you.

So in the interest of transparency, here are 21 things you may
be curious or interested to know about me – or not (I am not
100% sold on this transparency thing):

1-I am 5’7″ and have a hang-up about being short. If I could
change 7 things in my life, one would be to become six feet tall.

2-I embarrassingly weigh a little over 200 pounds, and have
struggled with a weight problem for the past few years (I used
to be 175).

3-I absolutely love my work, which primarily is freelance
copywriting and secondarily book writing, Internet information
marketing, and speaking. There is nothing on the planet I would
rather do than write, and my favorite writing is copywriting.

4-One of my great writing pleasures is writing essays. Years
ago, Thomas Nelson published a book of my essays, Count Your
Blessings, though it was hardly a best-seller.

5-I am a hardcore introvert. I like being surrounded by my wife
and kids, but other than that, I prefer to spend time alone.
Prolonged exposure to people wears me out.

6-Aside from writing, my favorite activity is reading The New
York Review of Books. I read every word of every article in
every issue, and if you know NYRB, you know that’s a lot of
words!

7-Unlike some entrepreneurs who work 24/7, I seem to need the
normal amount of sleep, although I often have trouble sleeping.
One of my guilty pleasures is I take an hour nap on the
weekends, and it is the best sleep I have. I agree with Fran
Lebowitz, who said, “I love sleep because it is both pleasant
and safe to use.”

8-My favorite movie is One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. My
favorite comedy film is Rat Race.

9-I also love horror movies, especially the old ones. My
favorite horror movie is Dracula Has Risen from the Grave with
Christopher Lee.

10-My favorite book is Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. Of
course, that’s a play. My favorite novel is The Prince of Tides
by Pat Conroy, who is also my favorite writer.

11-I love science fiction and have a web site dedicated to it,
www.sciencefictionprediction.com. My favorite science fiction
novel is Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny. I’m also a fan of
Harlan Ellison and Isaac Asimov, who is my writing role model
for his prolificity and clear prose.

12-Although I am not a hardcore Trekkie in that I do not go to
conventions, I love Star Trek, and I wrote a trivia book for
HarperCollins titled The Ultimate Unauthorized Star Trek Quiz
Book.

13–For decades my hobby was keeping fish tanks, both saltwater
and fresh, and at one point I had 4 tanks, including one with a
freshwater stingray and another with an eel. Now I have cut down
to one 92-gallon tank. I also have a web site dedicated to this
hobby: www.aquariumdetective.com

14-When I was a kid my passion was science, in particular my
chemistry set. And yes, I have a web site on this too:
www.mychemset.com. I have a B.S. in chemical engineering from
the University of Rochester.

15-I used to enjoy playing chess with my kids, but now in their
20s, they have lost interest. So I don’t play anymore. No great
tragedy; I am not that good anyway.

16-When in high school, I played clarinet and baritone sax, and
I was not terrible. I enjoy listening to bari sax, especially
Gerry Mulligan. A big thrill of my life was meeting Benny
Goodman in an elevator at a club where my father had taken me to
listen to the Buddy Rich band.

17-I used to listen to music in the office 12 hours a day. Now I
prefer silence when working. But I still love a wide range of
music: jazz, classical, rock, and pop. I occasionally listen to
and enjoy a Barry Manilow CD. So sue me.

18-I love dogs. Our golden retriever, Princess, died a couple of
months ago and I am still not over it.

19-A few people I find funny: Louis CK, Demetri Martin, Sean
Morey, Ricky Gervais, Seth McFarlane, Ray Romano. I like Chris
Rock but his mouth is too foul for my taste.

20-If I could do one thing over again in life, I would have had
my kids in my 20s instead of my 30s. But my wife had cancer when
we were young, so we couldn’t.

21-My favorite food on the planet is a kosher hot dog. And yes,
I wrote a book about them: All-American Frank: a History of the
Hot Dog (Publish America). Oranges come in second.

Ted Nicholas, Russ Dalbey, and other success writers have in
numerous publications identified – accurately, in my opinion –
the 4 elements needed to attain a happy life:

1-Relationships … you need to have family and friends – people
you love and people you like.

John Donne said “No man is an island.” Even introverts, loners,
and recluses need people in their lives — and interaction with
them.

Having friends not only makes people happy but can even improve
mental health: A study from the Harvard School of Public Health
found that people with the most active social lives had the
slowest rate of memory decline.

I have a few good friends, but I am not very social, and I don’t
see them much. We communicate mainly by phone and e-mail.

My wife and I both feel that our two sons, Alex and Stephen, are
the center of our life.

2-Money … Mark Twain did NOT, as many people believe, say that
money is the root of all evil. What Twain really said was: “Lack
of money is the root of all evil.”

Many people erroneously believe that rich people think of
nothing but money.

The fact is that those who think constantly about money are
those who do not have enough of it. I’ve seen this up close: I
have relatives who are bankrupt, and every discussion comes
around to lack of money and how it hamstrings them in daily life.

Like many people, I grew up without much money. We were not
poor, but many others we knew obviously had more than we did.
But I never had to worry where my next meal would come from –
literally, because my mother is a great cook.

3-Work … next to my family, there is nothing as key to my
happiness than loving the work I do.

In my early life I held corporate jobs. I did not like working
in a corporation, and the days passed with glacial speed.

I have been a full-time freelance copywriter since 1982, and it
is still loads of fun to me every day I do it. What could be
better than that? Conversely, to me there are few things worse
in life than hating your job.

Thomas Carlyle: “Blessed is he who has found his work; let him
ask no other blessedness.”

Noel Coward: “Work is more fun than fun.”

4-Health … it is impossible to fully enjoy life if you are
seriously ill or even sick a lot of the time.

There is more health advice out there today than at any time in
human history. The trick is evaluating the source and knowing
what to listen to.

I have said in other e-mails that if you wake up in the morning,
and you are in good health and have a roof over your head, it’s
a good day.

I know this from having several health scares with my wife,
including the time she was misdiagnosed with stage 4 ovarian
cancer and told (erroneously) that she had only months to live.
Our whole world was destroyed by that one sentence until, many
weeks later, we found out she was OK.

I find that enjoying the 4 conditions listed above is not a
given. Most of us have to work for them, me included. Here’s
what I recommend:

>> Family – treasure your spouse and your children. Spend lots
of time with your children when they are young and still want
you.

>> Friends – don’t let lack of time make friendships disappear.
Make a proactive effort to reach out to and stay in touch with
friends. In this I often fail.

>> Money – make it a goal to become financially comfortable. I
suggest you create a plan to amass a $2 million net worth by age
55. That is made easier by earning an annual income of $200,000
or more.

>> Work – find the intersection of your passion and the needs of
the marketplace. As Aristotle said, “Therein lies your
vocation.” In other words, find something you love that others
will pay you handsomely for. Dr. Seuss points out: “You have
brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer
yourself in any direction you choose.”

>> Health – guys especially, don’t avoid going to the doctor
because you’re afraid or you are being macho. When in his 60s,
my father waited too long to have a lump on his leg examined.
When he finally went to the doctor, it turned out to be sarcoma,
and he died 18 months later after a prolonged and painful
illness. During my dad’s long decline, no one in our immediate
family was very happy.