“The trade of advertising is now so near perfection that it is not easy to propose any improvement.”
“Everything that can be invented has been invented.”
I think most of us would at least see some truth there. Advertising is very sophisticated now, even compared to 15 or 20 years ago. Surely we must be close to the limit of what can be done.
And the same could be said of invention and innovation. Over the past 100 years we’ve invented practically everything man ever dreamed of, and a great deal more besides. In recent years the computer and the digital revolution seem to have completed the picture. It certainly seems like there’s little of any consequence left to be invented.
If you find yourself nodding in agreement with any of the above, consider the following… The writer, Samuel Johnson, made the first statement, highlighting the perfection of the advertising business, in 1759 – over 250 years ago. The second statement, bemoaning the downfall of invention, was made by Charles Duell, US Patent Office Commissioner in 1899 – over 100 years ago. In fact, his disillusionment caused him to resign from his job. Still, I’m sure he didn’t miss much.
Here’s the point. Pick any time in history and you will find that people felt that previous generations had it easier, that the opportunities were better and more plentiful, that it was so much more simple to make your mark in the world. If only we could have been around then. We’d have really made a go of it! We have a word for this. We call it nostalgia. Fact is, when we look back at past opportunities we do so with the benefit of hindsight. When we’re assessing the current openings available to us we have to do so using foresight. And that’s considerably less reliable!
We can all look back a comparatively short time and say how much easier it would have been back then to prosper in computers, software, mobile phones or a host of other markets that were in their infancy at the time. And we may well be right. But the people getting out there and actually doing it at the time didn’t really know that for sure. It’s only hindsight that adds the certainty. Foresight created the profit.
Here in the 21st Century, you can be sure that the new opportunities available, and the avenues for improving existing opportunities, are at least as plentiful as at any time in history. They’re just not as obvious to you because you don’t have the benefit of hindsight to guide you.
Don’t fall into the nostalgia trap. In ten years’ time, these will be the “good old days” when ‘getting on’ was as easy as falling off a log. By then, of course, things won’t be nearly so easy, and opportunities won’t be nearly as plentiful. Except, of course, they will. Remember, becoming a success in whatever you want to do is as easy as it’s ever going to get. There’s absolutely no logical reason for looking back, or delaying making a start for a moment longer.
Kind Regards
John Harrison
PUBLISHERS NOTICE
Just In…
Hello,
We have just received the email below from one of our customers. I thought you might be interested in what he has to say…
From: John C******* [john********@*****.com] Sent: 09 August 2020 09:58 To: Admin Subject: “The Hermes Strategy “
Dear Bill,
Well that was a result —- I certainly wasn’t expecting the system to pay for itself in 2 days with 66/1 shot Star of Emaraaty! I have backed 66/1 shots before, but I don’t think I would have picked this one!
Once again ——Thank You Very Much.
Kind Regards,
John
If you’d like full details on what he is talking about please Click Here
You may not realise it yet, but the weeks, months and years will very soon start whizzing by at a rate you find hard to comprehend. If you’ve got things you want to do (and who of us hasn’t?) it’s never too early to get started.
You may not recognise the name Lenny McLean. In the 1970s and early 1980s he was ‘king’ of the unlicensed boxing ring. When he wasn’t fighting men in the ring he was fighting them outside it as a bare-knuckle fighter, minder, debt collector and doorman – the sort of character for whom the word ‘colourful’ was invented!
In his later years McLean moved into TV and films in small supporting roles, and his last appearance was in the hit film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. I say last appearance, because while making the film he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and died soon after.
Now, up until being issued with a ‘death sentence’, McLean had always relied on his physical attributes and presence to make a living. He realised that this avenue was no longer open to him, and not only that, but decades of hitting and being hit had done little to benefit him financially. In short, he was effectively broke, and he knew that when he died his wife would have nothing.
It dawned on McLean that the value in what he’d been doing for the last 30-odd years was not in the work he’d done, but in the story he could tell. And so he decided to write his autobiography. It was entitled The Guv’nor – McLean’s nickname in the boxing ring. When the book was published, it was an immediate hit and remained firmly placed in the Top Ten Bestsellers list for at least two years.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the autobiography ultimately earned far more than McLean made from his other activities throughout his entire career.
Sadly, he isn’t around to benefit – and that’s the point. This book could have been written at any time and McLean would have been able to enjoy the benefits, but it took something catastrophic to shift him out of his comfort zone and into a new, better and more lucrative course of action. In reality, most of us are like this.
We have ambitions, we think there’s probably a better way, we suspect there’s more out there for us, but our current life isn’t so bad. And so inertia gets in the way and stops us from taking the actions necessary to move on.
Yes, we want more but before we get it we have to do something. We have to take action. And that’s the difficult bit. That’s why we wait – to be made redundant… for an ailing business to finally collapse… for a milestone birthday… for New Year’s Eve… to become ill or disabled… whatever – before finally doing something positive.
If we’re fortunate and it’s not too late, everything works out well, our new path is successful and we go from strength to strength. But why wait to be forced into a corner, or for some false and meaningless future date before doing it? After all, we can never get that wasted time back – the time between being able to do it and actually doing so.
I think, the writer, Mark Twain, summed it up perfectly when he said: “Twenty years from now, you’ll be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, dream, discover.”
It’s a great quote, and so true. Speak to most people in the later years of their lives and you will rarely hear talk of things that they wish they hadn’t done; but plenty of talk about opportunities which have now passed, and which should have been seized upon at the time.
Three of the saddest words to start any sentence are: “If only I’d… ” How many times have you heard them? You really don’t want to be the one using them in twenty years’ time.
Can you imagine anyone lying on his or her deathbed, with a saddened look in their eyes, and saying: “I wish I’d spent a bit more time in that dead-end job”? Neither can I. But the truth is that millions lie there wishing that they’d chased their dream; that they’d taken that chance…
Don’t be one of them
Kind Regards
John Harrison
PUBLISHERS NOTICE
Dear Streetwise Customer,
I hope you’re keeping safe and well.
This offer is limited, so we are only make it available to our most valued Streetwise customers at the moment.
Back in the autumn, we alerted a few of our customers to a course, created by a guy making what seemed at the time to be an outrageous prediction.
He predicted the world would soon be gripped by a unprecedented crisis which would create a huge financial opportunity. Crazy eh?
Anyway the course revolved around a strategy which would enable anyone to make £2,803 a month to ‘tick over’ in normal times, but would then transform into a massive fortune maker once the implications of the predicted crisis hit.
Not many people (including me!) believed the prediction, but £2,800 a month is certainly worth having and a number of our customers got on the bandwagon and started doing well with it…and then the crisis came…sooner than anyone thought.
The big opportunity he planned for is about to hit, and I want as many of our customers as possible to benefit…but there’s a hitch.
For reasons explained when you take a look at the details here, I can only help NINE people at the moment. But those nine people are going to get something nobody else has been able to get up until today…
The full programme in one package and at a huge discount!
The adjective that sums up many people’s lives, when they are left to their own devices, is ‘drifting’. They drift through school into a college or University course and then on into a job. Little or no thought is given to any of it. It’s a course; it’s a job. You’re lucky to have either. It will do.
At the end of each day they drift home, eat some junk food, watch some junk TV and catch up with the latest junk gossip online. Sooner or later they will drift ever deeper into a relationship with someone with no real consideration for whether this person is right for them, and before they’ve had time to think about it (not that they would do anyway) they’ve drifted into parenthood, marriage or both.
Pretty soon, it’s hard to tell one day from another, and one week imperceptibly blends into the next. Eventually longer periods also blend seamlessly into each other, with the only discernible difference between one year and the next being the size of their gut, the destination of their fortnight in the sun and the location of the office Christmas party.
Any changes they do make are purely reactive. They make no attempt to plan, create or actively advance. And before they know it, they’re stuck in a rut with sides they can’t see over the top of – approaching middle age and wondering where the hell their life went.
Think I’m over-dramatising? I’ve hardly started. And unless you make a firm commitment to take control of your own life and your destiny right now, this will happen to you too. Jim Rohn, the motivational speaker and writer, highlighted the problem very well. “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” By drifting, you make yourself cannon fodder – ripe for sacrifice in the pursuit of other people’s plans.
To escape that fate, you have to take positive, proactive action now. You have to think, you have to plan and you have to take action. Nobody can, or will, do it for you. Nor will it happen by accident or magic. Drifting is an inevitable precursor to disappointment and failure. Whatever you want, it’s up to you to take action to make it happen.
Kind Regards
John Harrison
PUBLISHERS NOTICE
Dear Streetwise Customer,
I hope you’re keeping safe and well.
This offer is limited, so we are only make it available to our most valued Streetwise customers at the moment.
Back in the autumn, we alerted a few of our customers to a course, created by a guy making what seemed at the time to be an outrageous prediction.
He predicted the world would soon be gripped by a unprecedented crisis which would create a huge financial opportunity. Crazy eh?
Anyway the course revolved around a strategy which would enable anyone to make £2,803 a month to ‘tick over’ in normal times, but would then transform into a massive fortune maker once the implications of the predicted crisis hit.
Not many people (including me!) believed the prediction, but £2,800 a month is certainly worth having and a number of our customers got on the bandwagon and started doing well with it…and then the crisis came…sooner than anyone thought.
The big opportunity he planned for is about to hit, and I want as many of our customers as possible to benefit…but there’s a hitch.
For reasons explained when you take a look at the details here, I can only help NINE people at the moment. But those nine people are going to get something nobody else has been able to get up until today…
The full programme in one package and at a huge discount!
I want you to imagine that you have taken leave of all your senses, and for some reason have decided that you want to travel to Rotherham. And you have no idea how to get there. You flick through your address book, and realise that you only know three people from Rotherham…Paul Shane (who was in Hi-De-Hi) Paul from The Chuckle Brothers… and me.
Paul isn’t returning your calls (he can be like that) Barrie is away doing a summer season in Rhyl, and so as a last resort you decide to contact me for directions. Despite being a little miffed at being your third choice behind two ‘C List’ celebrities, you catch me in a charitable mood, and so I send you step-by-step instructions on how to get here.
I think no more about it until the day of your journey, when I get an irate phone call from you…
“What have you done to me?…Have you any idea where I’ve ended up? Barnsley…bloody Barnsley! It’s worse than Rotherham.”
I’m amazed to receive your call ~ not because you say Barnsley is worse than Rotherham (it is) but because you got lost. I mean, I know my directions were spot on. “I don’t understand it,” I say, “you should have arrived in Rotherham without any problems. Did you follow the directions exactly?”
“Of course I did…” you say, somewhat irritated, before adding a little sheepishly, “…for most of the way. But then you directed me along the motorway. I don’t like driving on the motorway, and so I went along the A640 which looked as if it runs alongside it. And it did for a while, but then it veered off. Took me an hour to get back on track.
Anyway, I got back on your route eventually, and I came to a roundabout. You said take the third exit, but I didn’t like the look of that at all. It went straight through a scruffy steelworks. I’d have got my car filthy. So anyway, I took the second exit which looked to be going in roughly the same direction, but went through some nice countryside. Don’t know what happened after that, but the next thing I saw was a ‘Welcome To Barnsley’ sign. Last time I ask you for directions!”
I’ll come back to Barnsley in a moment, butI want to give you another scenario first…
I want you to imagine something almost as strange as the desire to visit Rotherham. I want you to imagine that you are having a second childhood moment, and have decided that you’d like to make an Airfix model of a Lancaster Bomber. So you go into your local model shop, mumble something about it being a present for your nephew, and take home a box of bits, some glue and some instructions.
The shop keeper thinks no more about it untilhe opens his doors the next Saturday morningto be faced by you – red-faced and angry, andbrandishing something in your hand.
“Look at this!” you say, shaking an object so close to the shopkeeper’s face that he can’t quite make out what it is. “This is supposed to be a Lancaster Bomber. It looks more like something spawned from a brief liaison between a wheelie bin and a Dalek! I can’t believe you sold me this piece of crap.“
“I don’t understand it,” says the shopkeeper, after removing what was supposed to be the Lancaster’s wing from his left nostril. “It’s not meant to look like that. Did you follow the instructions?”
“Of course I followed the instructions.” you reply. “I mean, you can’t follow them word for word can you? The big bits looked easy to put together and so I did them first. I know the instructions said you had to do some small bits first, but I wanted to get going with the damned thing. Anyway, when I’d done the big bits, I was going to do the little bits later. But then I couldn’t get them to fit in ~ and you needed to have them in place to finish the model off. I couldn’t get the tail to go on at all. Last time I’ll buy a bloody model from you!”
For a number of years now,something has puzzled me…
I sell the same product to two different people, and one writes to say that it is literally the best thing since sliced bread, and the other writes to tell me that it is a steaming pile of horse poo, and I should be locked up for selling it.
Same product…two completely different reactions.
I should point out that these are not products purchased for the way they look, or what they do when you plug them in. They are products comprising information and instructions which you need to follow in order to do something…
Usually when I get this sort of diversereaction, it’s a product designed to helpthe recipient make some more money.
Now for quite some time, I’ve suspected that the divergent experience people have with these products correlates with the propensity of the recipients to follow the instructions. In other words (like the villains in my two stories about getting to Rotherham, and building an Airfix model) the people who failed were unsuccessful because they didn’t follow the instructions.
I mean look at it this way…
If you had to cross a minefield, it would make sense to follow exactly in the footsteps of someone who had already done it, would it not? Does that make sense? Taking a different route because it looked quicker or by-passed some nasty mud, wouldn’t be a sensible option. You would have absolutely no idea whether your deviation from the prescribed route would result in total disaster. In a minefield, the gap between total success and total destruction may be little more than a hair’s breadth, and the uninitiated have no way of knowing where the make-or-break borders are.
And it can be exactly the samein a business or money-making enterprise.
Now as I said, I suspected that the difference between success and failure ~ between sliced bread and horse poo ~ with these products, was in the application of the instructions, but I couldn’t really prove it. You see, when you set up and run a money- making project, the number of things you need to do (and the order in which they need to be done) necessitates a relatively complex process. And asking someone to recount the process they’ve gone through isn’t normally very productive…
They can’t remember ~ or don’t want to remember!
However, I recently had a breakthrough, because we launched a betting advisory service, and the process involved there is one of childlike simplicity. It goes as follows:
1. Receive a recommended bet by email detailing the event, the outcome to be bet on, the acceptable odds and the size of the bet.
2. Place the bet!
That’s it! Really!! There’s absolutely nothing further to do. No decisions to make, no further actions to take, no thinking to do. Nothing. It’s all done for you. Just follow the instructions.
By the end of the first month of this new service I was delighted. The results had come in just as we’d expected and hoped, and anyone following the advice in that first 30 days would find themselves over £600 in profit.
Perfect…
Or so I thought until I received an email from an irate customer: “You said this service would be profitable. I’ve been on it for a month now and I haven’t made a penny. In fact I’ve barely broken even. I’ve been conned…” etc, etc. You get the idea.
I emailed this gentleman back and expressed my surprise at his disappointment. I asked him to send me his betting records, so that I could see why they didn’t tally with mine. A couple of days later I received an email detailing a betting record for the month, which did indeed show a small loss. But his betting record had very little in common with the instructions he’d been sent.
There were five days’ bets which were missing altogether (“I was away on holiday that week.”) another three bets which weren’t placed (“I just didn’t fancy those.”) and some winning bets that were placed at a fraction of the recommended staking level (“I was a bit short of ‘readies’ that week and so I had to cut back.”) There was even one bet which we hadn’t sent him at all! (“That was one I picked out myself.”)
The guy had paid for information from someone who knew the betting equivalent of the road to Rotherham, the right way to build a Lancaster Bomber, and the way through a minefield – but had chosen to ignore or be selective with the advice…
With the result that he’d endedup in Barnsley, holding a piece ofcrap with half his leg blown off!
Now look, there’s an important caveat here. You have to choose your business advisors carefully in the first place. But once you’ve done that, there’s no sense in being selective, or trying to second-guess with respect to the information, instructions and route map you’re given. It’s not a menu from which you can choose the ‘dishes’ that seem the most palatable. You have to swallow the whole meal…
As children, we’ll almost always choose the ice cream over the spinach ~ given a free choice. And even as adults, when we know what’s good for us, the lure of the palatable, easy-to-swallow part of the meal is a strong one…
And so it is with business.
You have to swallow the whole meal exactly as it’s served up. Miss something out, or eat it in the wrong order, and you could very well find yourself nutritionally deficient or with indigestion…
Or skint-arsed as my bankmanager likes to call it!
So buckle down and eat your greens. They’re not just good for you, they’re essential. Just make sure your chef knows how to cook them first.
I’ve just returned from a totally undeserved week’s holiday. Yes, I did have a nice time – thanks for asking. And that’s despite having to endure the torturous process known as international air travel.
Now I’m no expert, but I believe there are quite stringent regulations in place throughout the EC for the transportation of livestock. The animals have to be treated humanely for example, and there are rules about the amount of space each animal is allocated. I think it would be a nice idea if these rules and regulations were extended to the transportation of human beings…
Because on airline trips to European destinations, there are clearly no such rules.
The journey back was horrible, but far from untypical. If I was being processed for admission to a high security prison, I don’t think the experience could have been any more uncomfortable or depressing. There was a one-hour delay for a start…no reason given, just a delay. And so I stood there, like an idiot, staring at the check-in board, trying to second-guess where the flight might be checking in.
I’m sure you’ve played this game. You’re tired and irritable and you’ve got half a ton of luggage you’re desperate to get rid of. Your check-in desk hasn’t been announced yet, and you REALLY want to know where it’s going to be. Guess right, and you’re in position to get to the front of the queue. Get it wrong, and you’ll be at the back and facing another 45-minute stand, playing kick-the-case.
I didn’t guess right or wrong, because the bastards didn’t announce the bloody thing at all. Instead they allowed a crowd of pensioners on a SAGA holiday (and who very clearly had inside information) to check in first. Now I don’t wish to be unkind, but this sort of thing doesn’t make for swift progress. By the time they did announce the desk, the queue was back out of the doors and there were people in front of me who I swear were still in bed when I arrived at the airport.
One queue followed another…and then another…as I shuffled along as if in a chain gang. I was asked to remove clothing, jewellery, to empty my pockets…even take off my shoes. I half-expected someone to hand me a pick at the end, and order me to start breaking rocks.
But they didn’t…
Instead, they directed me on to a bus (no seats – obviously) where I stood for fifteen minutes until the driver came back from his lunch break, and then drove us the 100 yards to the plane steps. You can’t walk, you see…that might be a welcome break, and their goal is to break your spirit.
Anyway, I was confident of getting a seat at this point, but no such luck. You see, back in the check-in area, I’d noticed a woman (well you couldn’t fail to notice her really) whose arse was clearly too wide to fit in an airline seat. I’d noticed this, and so had my wife and daughter. But nobody from the airline had. I remember we discussed it at the time. Was she travelling in the cargo hold, or had she booked two seats – one for each cheek?
The answer was neither, which is why I found myself stranded half-way up the aircraft steps in a gale, while (and sadly this was out of view, and I only heard about it second-hand) sweating and straining cabin crew battled to shoehorn the woman into her seat. As I passed where she was sitting (or should that be berthed?) I could hear her complaining that people had been rude about her size.
Not as rude as I’d have been if I’d been given a seat next to her, I can tell you!
Why is it that you can get on to a plane carrying 100kgs of excess blubber and it doesn’t cost you anything (other than a little personal dignity) but you get penalised if you take so much as a toothbrush over your baggage limit? It would be much fairer if you had to get weighed with your luggage, wouldn’t it? It doesn’t really matter whether the weight is in your bags or in your beer belly.
When I eventually got to my seat, it didn’t take me long to notice that all was not well. While the cabin crew had done their best to clear it up, it was hard to escape the conclusion that someone had thrown up on the outward journey. As I’m sure you’re aware, it’s an aroma that doesn’t improve with age. I’m not a big fan of aircraft food at the best of times – and this wasn’t the best of times. My tray stayed firmly in the upright position.
I got off at the other end (as I always do at such times) vowing never to travel again. And of course I won’t ~ until the next time.
The purpose of this rant is threefold:
1. To allow me to vent my spleen.
2. To allow you to delight in my misfortune. I think the Germans call it Schadenfreude.
3. To serve as a permanent reminder for me, and an impetus to up my game and make enough money to hire a private jet next time.
And on that last point, any contributions will be gratefully received.
