Halbertism #48

Thursday, July 1, 2004

"Anything that's worth doing, is worth doing poorly!"

Joachim DePosada

Best business advice I ever got. It came from my friend, Joachim DePosada.

You gotta look like a fool to become a pro. Nobody pays par golf the first time he shoots 18 holes. Nobody plays killer guitar the first time he holds it in his hands.

Want to know how to get good at writing? You get good at writing...

By Writing!

Writing A LOT!

Copy out in your own handwriting all the classic ads you can get your hands on. After weeks of this, write an ad of your own.

Test your own ad.

It probably won't work. So, what do you do next?

Write ANOTHER ad!

Test that ad also.

Keep doing this over and over until you get a winner.

It took me more than four (4!) years to write my first winning direct mail letter... but... more than six hundred million (600,000,000!) copies of that letter have been mailed.