Monday Morning Memo

(with a Quartet of Celts) Wizard Academy exists to educate, equip and encourage small business owners, little people with dreams who face giant corporations with big bank accounts. Like the windmills of Quixote, these giants are often unaware and unfeeling of their challengers. Don Quixote was an average man, distinguished only by his beautiful dream. &hellip Continue reading »

A rich knowledge of history is better than creativity. Let me qualify that. A rich knowledge of history is better than creativity if your goal is to make money. The most profitable form of creativity is to repurpose the proven. Do you want to put together a group of colors that create a powerful effect? &hellip Continue reading »

We have, for the most part, the feelings we choose to have. Please don’t be angry with me if you prefer to be tragic. I do not deny you this choice. I deny only that you have no escape. Our feelings in the first moment are triggered by our circumstances. Happy news. Sad news. News &hellip Continue reading »

Use half as many words and they’ll hit twice as hard. Every writer knows it. Salespeople need to learn it. A few weeks ago I invested a day of training in the telephone staff of a client of mine and doubled their close rate as a result. “You’re working way too hard at it,” I &hellip Continue reading »

When your friend says something interesting, write it down. Better yet, post it online and give your friend eternal life. I was whining to Rich Mann over a plate of sushi one day when he reminded me to shut up and be happy. Rich didn’t even look up when he said it. He just mumbled, &hellip Continue reading »

Today I’m going to tell you 3 new things you need to know about. My enthusiasm will probably make it sound like I’m giving you a sales pitch. Sorry about that. If you’re not in the mood, the tiniest motion of a finger will take you to a new and different place… You decided to &hellip Continue reading »

I recently spent a day with two lawyers who practice the same legal specialty. We’ll call them Nick and Ralph. They live on opposite sides of the country. They met at a conference and became friends. Nick read my books, attended Wizard Academy, and decided to go fishing for customers with a net. He put &hellip Continue reading »

The Miraculous Disappearance of Black-and-White Most of the choices we make have effects we did not anticipate. This is due to the Law of Unintended Consequences. “Economists and other social scientists have heeded its power for centuries; for just as long, politicians and popular opinion have largely ignored it.” – Rob Norton, author of The &hellip Continue reading »

Voltaire is often quoted as having said it, but he never did. It was actually Pierre de Beaumarchais in 1775, just a few months before Thomas and George and Ben and the boys wrote their scathing letter to England’s king. Beaumarchais was working on the second scene in the first act of The Barber of &hellip Continue reading »