Set Goals Without Struggling
“A windmill is eternally at work to accomplish one end, although it shifts with every variation of the weathercock, and assumes 10 different positions in a day.” – Charles Caleb Colton (Lacon, 1825) My first reaction to Deepak Chopra’s book, “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success,” was something like: “He’s…
Do More By Doing Less
“He who conquers others is strong. He who conquers himself is mighty.” – Lao Tzu (The Character of Tao, sixth century B.C.) One of the things you learn in Jiu Jitsu (and you can learn everything that is worth learning in Jiu Jitsu) is that when your opponent is holding you…
Spiritual Success Secrets: Law 2 – The Power of Karmic Freedom
“You choose, you live the consequences. Every yes, no, maybe, creates the school you call your personal experience.” – Richard Bach (Running from Safety, 1994) In Chapter 3 of his book titled “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success,” Deepak Chopra argues that we are all free, all the time,…
Spiritual Secret of Success – Law 1: Get More By Giving More
“When I give I give myself.” – Walt Whitman (“Song of Myself,” Leaves of Grass) When people think about getting rich, there are usually two broadly different ways they go about it. Some people try to get rich by taking from others. They figure there is a limited amount of…
Your Once-a-Year Wake-Up Call
“I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live.” – George Bernard Shaw The single most powerful, most life-improving, most intellectually expanding, most emotionally uplifting thing you can do for yourself is to wake up earlier than you are waking…
How To Write Better Copy By Being Honest
“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.” – Thomas Jefferson The unflinching principle of all successful advertising … of all marketing … of all business … of all relationships … is one of the oldest success secrets in the world: “Do unto others as you would have…
How to Respond to Potentially Embarrassing Questions
“Mistakes are a part of life; you can’t avoid them. All you can hope is that they won’t be too expensive and that you don’t make the same mistake twice.” – Lee Iacocca (Iacocca: An Autobiography, 1984) You are making a sales presentation or speech, feeling your oats, when someone…
Make Your Problem Solving Skills 3x Stronger
“Problems are only opportunities in work clothes.” – Henry J. Kaiser (1882-1967) According to an article in the MIT Sloan Management Review (covered in a recent issue of Executive Leadership), good problem solvers use different parts of their brains to solve different types of problems. Essentially, there are three very…
Honesty, Integrity, and All That
“The measure of any man’s virtue is what he would do, if he had neither the laws nor public opinion, nor even his own prejudices, to control him.” – William Hazlitt (Characteristics, 1823) I like the general idea of honesty and integrity and would like to think of myself as…
The Most Important Persuasion Tip
“If you would convince others, seem open to conviction yourself.” – Lord Chesterfield (Letters to His Son, Feb. 22, 1748) When I critique advertising copy, I use a bag full of tricks I’ve collected over the years to make the job easy and quick. I’ve detailed these in AWAI’s copywriting…
How to Achieve Moral Perfection: The Ben Franklin Formula
“What is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.” – Ernest Hemingway (Death in the Afternoon, 1932) Ben Franklin, one of the worlds wisest writers and the thinker upon whose advice ETR is based, began his adult life with a…
What Kind of Advice Should You Be Following?
“Never trust the advice of a man in difficulties.” – Aesop (“The Fox and the Goat,” Fables, sixth century B.C.) Since I began writing ETR every day, I’ve begun paying attention to books, newsletters, and videos that talk about success. The great majority of them are written by 20-something journalists…