Be Picky About Picking Fights
Disagreements happen. You can’t always get your way. Everyone has an opinion. There are two sides to every argument. When you’re dealing with family or friends, you expect to have differences of opinion. Perhaps you are willing to fight for your views and what’s important to you. And often, because…
READ MOREAn Invitation to Make a Lot of Money Fast
Today, I am going to give you a way to make a lot of money. And after I have explained it, I will tell you exactly how to get started.
It is a very simple strategy. I have used it and have personally seen it being used at least 100 times in the last 10 years. In the beginning, the success rate was less than 50 percent. But now, because of what we have learned, it is probably over 90 percent.
READ MOREHow to Master the Art of the Upsell
Salt is a restaurant tucked away near Patterson Park in Baltimore. I ate there last week. I’d give it 8.5 points out of 10, which for me is a very good rating. The food was great and I received an immediate warm and friendly welcome by the owner, Jane. But…
READ MOREThe Language Perfectionist: Punctuation Peccadilloes
I titled a recent column “Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope.” An eagle-eyed reader pointed out that the sentence contains an error called a “comma splice.” Because the two phrases could be complete sentences, they should be separated by a semicolon, not a comma. But as I noted, I…
READ MOREDon’t Gamble
“Don’t gamble; take all your savings and buy some good stock and hold it till it goes up, then sell it. If it don’t go up, don’t buy it.” Will Rogers’s observation on the stock market is as true today as it was over 70 years ago. It speaks to…
READ MOREWant Lots More Sales? Avoid These Seven Deadly Sins
A few years ago, after making a speech about copywriting that I thought was excellent in every way, my childish delight at my own brilliance was destroyed by a cynical listener. He said, “Well, you seem to know just about everything about what to do in order to write good…
READ MOREHow to Make the Trend Your Friend
I’ve been in the investment advisory business for more than 30 years. During that time, I have fallen in love with all of the most voluptuous investment systems — fundamental investing, contrarian investing, technical investing, etc. Without exception, those relationships began euphorically. I was happy to have discovered some new…
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Are You an Existentialist?
Existentialism is a philosophical movement that came about in the late 19th century. It is not some abstract set of theoretical truths.
READ MOREThe Language Perfectionist: Confusables, Redux
When I studied French in high school, we were taught the phrase faux amis, or “false friends.” The expression refers to foreign-language words whose meanings you think you know but which can lead you astray if you’re not careful. A similar phenomenon occurs in English, as demonstrated by the many…
READ MOREHow to Lose Everything and Never Miss a Beat
“We have a fire!” Slowly waking from my Nyquil induced sleep, I struggled to understand what my wife was saying. “We’ve got what?” “We have a fire!” she said again, bringing me fully awake. I stumbled out of the bedroom and toward some unusual noises in the garage. When I…
READ MOREEvolution, Not Revolution
The average person believes that great wealth is created by revolutionary breaks with tradition. The Instinctive Wealth Builder (IWB) believes in Darwin. It’s not surprising that so many people believe in revolution. Many best-selling books have supported it. Read the popular biographies of Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller, or Bill Gates…
READ MOREWhat I Learned at the Franklin Mint
How many geniuses have you met? I met Charlie Chaplin (very briefly) in 1966 while working on publicity for the film Fahrenheit 451. Then I was lucky enough to work with David Ogilvy for eight years. Ogilvy still exerts enormous influence in the marketing business, and if you haven’t read…
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