Posts by Mark Morgan Ford
Advice Needed … Advice Given
“Bringing up a family should be an adventure, not an anxious discipline in which everybody is constantly graded for performance.” – Milton R. Sapirstein (Paradoxes of Everyday Life, 1955) Dear Early to Rise, In the supermarket line today, my 10-year-old-son Aidan picks up two Snickers bars. I say, “I’m not paying for that.” He says,…
Read MoreHow Risky Is Real Estate Investing?
“Knowledge is power.” – Francis Bacon (Meditationes Sacrae, 1597) When it comes to earning a second income, I believe in real estate. No other investment I know of has its beneficial balance of capital appreciation, income, and risk management. I explained my ideas last year in a series of messages (#394-#400) that elicited a good…
Read MoreWatch Only Good Movies
Whether you are taking the trouble to drive to the theater and wait in line or renting a movie from Blockbuster, you’ll improve your enjoyment of life immeasurably by watching only (or at least mostly) good movies…
Read MorePop Quiz!
It’s that time again — time to see how much you remember of all the fun stuff we’ve been learning. The answers to today’s Pop Quiz will be posted at the end of tomorrow’s message and on “Speak Out” (www.earlytorise.com). Part I: Show Off Your New Language Skills. What do the following “Words to the…
Read MoreLiving Rich: Read Only the Best Short Stories
“In anything fit to be called by the name of reading, the process itself should be absorbing and voluptuous; we should gloat over a book, be rapt clean out of ourselves.” – Robert Louis Stevenson (A Gossip on Romance, 1882) If you like to read, read short stories. Why? Because short stories today (at least…
Read MoreA Starbucks Secret: How to Keep Good Employees
While I was traveling over the weekend, I picked up a copy of a good book in the Las Vegas airport called “Lessons from the Top: The 50 Most Successful Business Leaders in America — and What You Can Learn.” One of the profiles in the book is on Starbucks CEO Howard Shultz and his…
Read MoreHow Big Should The Type Be In Your Advertising?
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, and the problem is that I don’t know which half.” – John Wanamaker One of the questions you will face when you review your direct-response advertising is “How large should the type be?” On the one hand, you want the type large enough so that the…
Read MoreThe Problems With Starting And Growing Any Business
“In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product, and profits.” – Lee Iacocca (Iacocca: An Autobiography, 1984) When you start a business, you have three concerns — one conceptual, one financial, and one personal: 1. Is your business model viable? 2. Do you have enough money? 3. Do you…
Read MoreMake Big Bucks As A Copywriter
Honing your success skills — in my humble opinion — is the smartest thing you can do for yourself. The economy is always changing, every businessman I know is working scared, and cutbacks and layoffs are toping the news. It’s one thing to have your stock market portfolio collapse, it’s quite another to be at…
Read MoreCopywriting – Master These 5 Things
John Forde is a guy who knows what he’s talking about — someone who’s written some great copy in his time and is always in demand. That’s why new (and aspiring) copywriters often turn to him for advice. John started as an intern, making $15 a day. Now he lives and works in Paris, in…
Read MoreMethod Marketing
“We believe what we want to believe, what we like to believe, what suits our prejudices and fuels our passions” – Sydney J. Harris (“Lies Are Not Easily Put to Rest,” Clearing the Ground, 1986) If you know anything about acting, you’ve probably heard of Lee Strasberg and Konstantin Stanislavski. Strasberg was head of the…
Read MorePick Up The Pieces of Your Broken Dream
A week ago, I received a package I’d been waiting for. The feature-length movie I had co-written, co-directed, and co-produced last summer had been edited. A rough cut was finally ready for my review. You might imagine I’d rush home to watch it, anxious as I was to see how it turned out. But I…
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