“If the founder of an organization does not empower the next generation of leadership to carry the enterprise forward while he is still viable as a leader, the organization he founded will cease to exist within 10 years after his death.”

I have no recall of how I learned that information, but I have known it for nearly 40 years. My confidence that it is true tells me that I trusted the source.

I was working in an industrial steel fabrication shop in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma for 3 dollars and 35 cents an hour when I learned a second truth I cannot prove, but I remember the episode clearly. The year was 1976, when a million dollars was like ten million dollars today.

I was listening to a radio interview while driving a delivery truck down Lynn Lane. The man on the radio had mailed a survey to a large number of millionaires and a surprisingly high percentage of them had completed that survey and returned it to him.

He was sharing the characteristics of self-made millionaires:

“Do self-made millionaires have a high I.Q.? No. The percentage of self-made millionaires with a high I.Q. is the same as the general population.”

“Is it education? No. Self-made millionaires are no better educated than the rest of us.”

“Is it family money? No. Self-made millionaires are no more likely to come from a wealthy family than you and I.”

“Is it family connections? No.”

“Did they marry someone whose family had money and connections? No.”

“Did they ‘get discovered’? Did they get a big break? No.”

When all of my assumptions had been shattered, he said there were only four things that self-made millionaires tend to have in common:

(4.) Self-made millionaires are more likely to have been fired from a job than the rest of us.

(3.) A high percentage of self-made millionaires have filed bankruptcy at least once.

(2.) Self-made millionaires distrust traditional wisdom and believe there is a better way.

(1.) Self-made millionaires think further ahead than we do. They have a time horizon that isn’t measured in days or weeks or months, but in years.

The invisible man on the radio went on to say that a person’s socio-economic strata is largely determined by how far that person thinks ahead.

The average American has a plan for their next two paychecks. Their upcoming paycheck is fully committed, and they have bills to pay with the paycheck that follows, although that one offers a small opportunity for discretionary spending. The paycheck after our next one gives us a little bit of hope.

Two paychecks ahead is the furthest we dare look. This is what it means to be middle class.

But at least we are not struggling to find the money to buy a new battery for the car so that we can get to work, or trying to borrow money to pay a long-overdue electric bill, or wishing we had enough food in the kitchen to last until payday. These people are struggling, but that is not the bottom. No.

At the bottom of the socio-economic strata are the addicts who can think only of their next drink, their next score, their next fix. Their time horizon is a few hours, at most. Tomorrow doesn’t enter their mind.

Friend, I am convinced you can succeed at anything you choose to do, provided you have the emotional staying power to survive your mistakes.

No matter how hard you try, there are a certain number of mistakes you are going to make. This doesn’t mean you have failed. It means you are learning.

So always keep trying. But above all:

Think ahead.

Roy H. Williams

PS: “The one thing all famous authors, world class athletes, business tycoons, singers, actors, and celebrated achievers in any field have in common is that they all began their journeys when they were none of these things.”

– Mike Dooley

PPS: When business owners struggle, they often blame everyone but...

A successful mechanic shop brings in about $500,000 a year. But whether or not the shop owner makes any profit on that $500,000 isn’t determined by how good they are at repairing cars, but by how good they are at running a business.

And even those shop owners who are good at running a business might not be good at converting telephone inquiries into customers.

You realize I’m not just talking about auto repair shops, right? I’m talking about every category of business in America.

At this moment, I’m talking to you about yours.

1. Are you good at your job?
2. (Are your customers impressed?)
3. Are you good at running a business?
4. (Pricing, recruiting, work-flow management, inventory management, vendor relations, employee retention, customer retention, payroll management, etc.)
5. Are you good at generating inquiries?
6. (Advertising, brand-building, sales activation, customer word-of-mouth and online reviews.)
7. Are you good at turning inquiries into customers?
8. (Close rate, conversion.)

Now, back to Jerry:

1. Jerry was good at his job.
2. So good, in fact, that his reputation allowed him to bring in 12 times as much business as the average “successful” auto repair shop. Jerry wasn’t bringing in $500,000 a year. He was bringing in $500,000 a month.
3. Jerry was good at running a business.
4. He and his wife traveled and enjoyed life at a much higher level than most of us.
5. Jerry was good at generating inquiries, mostly because his auto repair shop made customers happy for a lot of years, and happy customers tend to multiply.
6. But Jerry was only average at turning telephone inquiries into customers. Still, he was doing 12 times the sales volume of the average “successful” mechanic shop in America.

Jerry and his wife are often at Wizard Academy.

Jerry was paying attention when I said, “Bad marketing is about you, your company, your product, your service, how many years you have been in business and how many awards you have won. Good marketing is about the customer, and how your product or service can change the private little world they live in.”

After contemplating those words, Jerry and his wife realized that how they respond to telephone inquiries is a form of marketing. Specifically, it is the kind of marketing that can improve the percentage of incoming phone calls that become customers.

I encouraged Jerry and his wife to experiment. I said, “Try something new. Give it time to work, but if it doesn’t work, try something else that is new.”

Jerry’s second experiment caused his business revenues to jump 53% above the previous year, month after month.

Jerry’s mechanic shop no longer does $6,000,000 a year. He now has a $9,180,000 mechanic shop.

I know what you’re thinking. You want to know how Jerry and his wife lit the fuse on the rocket that put their business into orbit, am I right?

Okay, I’ll tell you.

Jerry’s wife said, “Every incoming call begins with the caller saying, ‘Can you,’ ‘Do you,’ or ‘Will you.’”

“Give me some examples,” I said.

She said, “Can you repair the transmission on a 2018 Mercedes-Benz E400?”

Our answer is, “Yes we can. And if you’d like to bring it in, we’ll take a look at it right now.”

“Do you work on Volkswagens?”

“Yes we do. And if you’d like to bring it in, we’ll take a look at it right now.”

“Will you take a look at my Porsche 718 Cayman? It dies every time I make a sharp left turn.”

“Yes, we will. And if you’d like to bring it in, we’ll take a look at it right now.”

Do you see what Jerry and his wife are NOT...

The Growing Up Years: Ages Birth to 20

When a man is in his teenage years, people with good intentions will ask, “What are your plans for the future?” Fewer than 10% of us have a real plan at that age, but we make one up so that we don’t disappoint those who believe in us.

I tell teenage boys the truth when I sense they are feeling adrift. “It is rare to know at your age what you want to do with your life, but people will often ask you as though you are supposed to know. But the real truth is this: If you have your head completely out of your ass by the time you are 30, you are way ahead of the game.”

The Education Years: Ages 20 to 30

Regulated careers – engineer, lawyer, doctor – require a young man with a plan. The rest of us just bumble along and learn from our mistakes.

People assume that a man who “plans his work and works his plan” is more disciplined and has a higher I.Q. than those of us who bumble. But I believe it is better to aim your temperament than try and change it.

Planners prefer structure. Bumblers prefer adventure. This doesn’t mean Bumblers are less visionary, less disciplined, less committed, or less intelligent. They just prefer to improvise, innovate, and impress, rather than plan, schedule, and execute.

Planners tend to become professionals. Bumblers tend to become business owners, tradesmen, salespeople, consultants, worker bees, or bums.

As of January 2024, there were 1,100,101 physicians in America. The average primary care doctor in America makes $265,000 a year. Specialists make an average of $382,000, which is about the same annual income as the owner of a modestly successful plumbing or air conditioning company with fewer than 10 employees.

In January of 2023, there were 1,331,290 lawyers in America earning an average annual income of $100,626 a year. Lawyers in the 75th percentile make about $103,000. Top earners make an average of $131,000, which is about the same as a modestly successful salesperson working for a local TV or radio station.

Like I said, a man’s path forward has more to do with temperament than anything else. To force a man to behave outside his temperament is cruel and unusual punishment.

The Acquisition Years: Ages 30 to 40

For most men, the years between 30 and 40 are about gaining experience and status and possessions as we quietly struggle and claw our way upward. Adrenaline is our drug of choice. Conspiracy theories, video games, sports betting, fishing boats, sports cars and motorcycles provide us a way of escape. These are the years when onlookers say, “The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.”

But in spite of our visible successes, we cannot quiet the inner voice that whispers, “If other people knew you the way that I know you, they would know what a phony you are.”

It is no coincidence that Henry David Thoreau was just over 30 when wrote, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, and go to the grave with the song still in them.”

The saddest of all men stay in toy-gathering mode for the rest of their lives, wanting only to make more money and a bigger name for themselves. When such a man reaches 60 and looks back at his 30th birthday, he hasn’t really gained 30 years of experience. He has had one year’s experience 30 times. But he doesn’t know how to do anything else.

Having never discovered his soul, he goes to his grave with his song still in him.

The Elevation Years: Ages 40 to 50

For about 80 percent of American men, the decade beween 40 and 50 is when we will make our mark on the world. The big leaps forward, the fingerprints we leave behind, the stories that will be told when we are gone, usually happen between our 40th and 50th birthdays.

These are the years when we begin to see clearly.

These are the years when we make fewer mistakes.

These are the years when we suck the juice from all of our...

To Hollister and Gideon,

You have arrived at that age when everyone you meet will ask you about your plans for the future. I am older, happier, and probably more successful than those people, so ignore them. Listen to me.

Knowledge is important, but experience is what really matters. School can give you knowledge, but it cannot give you experience.

Experience is the name we give to our mistakes.

Success is simply a matter of surviving your mistakes. But first you have to make them. So take chances. Feel the pain of disappointment. Then pull yourself together.

Avoid the mistakes that are bigger than you.

1. Don’t die.
2. Don’t create a baby until you’re ready.
3. Don’t go to prison.

Those mistakes are hard to undo.

Surviving all your other mistakes will require nothing more than financial and emotional “staying power.”

Financial staying power isn’t measured by how much money you have. In fact, an abundance of cash will tempt you to calculate your burn rate. You will say, “At my current rate of spending, I can last until such-and-such a date before I run out of money.”

When you calculate your burn rate, you create an unconscious plan. You have looked into the future and seen yourself collapsing in defeat on that day. Personally, I have never known anyone who succeeded after calculating their burn rate. They imagined running out of money, and then they did.

I knew they had calculated their burn rate because everywhere they went, they said, “I have to be profitable by such-and-such a date or I will run out of money.”

Boys, no matter how much money you have, you can run out of money. True financial staying power isn’t measured by how much money you have; it’s measured by how little money you need to stay in the game. The secret is to keep your monthly obligations so low that it takes very little to cover your living expenses.

The most successful of my Wizard of Ads partners kept their jobs until they were making enough money as my partner that they could afford to walk away from their previous employment. Some of the others were lucky enough to have a life partner who made enough money to cover all the monthly expenses of the household. The partners who struggled in the early days were the ones who had significant monthly expenses and a lot of money in the bank. These were the ones who calculated their burn rate and then slowly began to panic as they saw that money disappear month after month.

Financial staying power is easy. Live modestly. Don’t owe money.

Emotional staying power is what makes you successful. It gives you the ability to fail without thinking of yourself as a failure. So take chances. Feel the pain of disappointment, then pull yourself together, like I said.

Failure, like success, is a temporary condition.

You are going to need encouragers. I have your MeMaw and the encouragement of God that I find in my Bible.

Mistakes are inevitable. Don’t fear mistakes.

Encourage people. Be slow to offer advice, but quick to offer encouragement. Tell people what you admire about them. No one likes a flatterer, but if you speak the truth, they will hear it as the truth.

Marry your best friend. You will know they are your best friend when you look forward to being with that person, even when you are not imagining them naked. Pennie – your MeMaw – believes in me more than I believe in me. I have asked God to give each of you a life partner like that.

I am not the only person who thinks these things. On May 1, 2024, Jason Fried wrote,

“Occasionally a 17-year-old will write, asking for entrepreneurial or business advice. Oftentimes they’re early bloomers and already have something going on. Others are chomping at the bit once they get out of high school. It’s great to hear from them. But my advice is generally that they don’t need advice. You don’t need...

“Telling the truth more powerfully than is completely accurate” is to think and speak of a future event as though it has already happened. Some people call this “manifesting,” but I am uncomfortable with that word because it conjures the image of a person literally speaking things into existence, an ability that I believe is God’s alone.

Yes, I am of that ancient belief that the Big Bang began when God said, “Let there be…”

Although I reject the idea of “manifesting,” I do believe in visioncasting, which I define as the encouragement of others by speaking of a possible future as though it is certain to happen.

When a person needs courage and confidence, give them yours. Tell them of the future that you see for them.

I meet every Friday for a luxurious lunch with 5 friends, most of whom are over 60. Recently, after 3 hours of conversation around a large, circular table, we fell into a silence as each one of us took a sip of wine, or contemplated what had just been said, or looked at the menu for additional things to order. I looked up when I heard a voice say, “Who put it into your head that you could do the things you’ve done?”

The friend who had spoken was looking directly at me. Reading the confusion in my eyes, he began to list a number of things that I take completely for granted. Remembering that his question had been, “Who put it into your head?” I told him the truth: “My Mother.”

I was suddenly looking into 5 surprised pairs of eyes, and I was surprised that they were surprised.

The awkward silence that followed made me realize they were waiting for me to continue, so I said, “Whenever I told my mother that I couldn’t do something, she would always say, ‘Of course you can.’ And then I would do it. I can’t remember her ever saying, ‘Well, just do your best,’ and she never once did something for me that she believed I could do for myself. She would just look at me patiently and say with complete conviction, ‘Of course you can.'”

My friends kept staring at me in silence. I wasn’t sure what was happening. Finally, the friend who had asked the question looked into my eyes and said, “What a gift!” The others began nodding their heads as they repeated, “What a gift.”

I had the good sense to shut up and listen.

For the next half hour, I listened as each one of them told stories of their childhood that made me understand their admiration for my Mother.

Those thirty minutes connected a lifetime of dots for me. Throughout my adult life, I have been embarrassed by people who have asked me questions about my supposed courage, or audacity, or vision, of some other such fiddle-faddle. I was never sure how to respond to those people because I know for certain that I do not possess those qualities.

I have somehow successfully coasted through more than 65 years of life without a college education, happily married to the girl I have loved since I was 14 years old, because the two most important women in my life believe that while failure is inevitable, it is also a temporary condition, and in the end we will succeed, because, “Of course we can.”

Please listen to what I am about to tell you.

Give the gift of courage and confidence to the people you love. Tell them what you believe about them. Tell them what you see when you look into their future. The sentences you speak to them should begin with the words, “You are…” and “You will…”

They will see what you see, when you speak it.

Your words will change their thoughts and actions.

And they will live to see it happen.

Roy H. Williams

Two-letter postal abbreviations don’t have periods after the letters, so when I titled today’s Monday Morning Memo, “Reno is West of L.A.” I was not using L.A. as the postal abbreviation for Louisiana.

Carson City – the capitol of Nevada – is likewise west of Los Angeles, as are 5 other state capitols. Juneau, Honolulu, Sacramento, Salem, and Olympia are the capitols of Alaska, Hawaii, California, Oregon, and Washington. West, west, west, west, and west of L.A.

Google it. Or Bing it. Or Yahoo it. However you like to do it.

Reno is located at 119°49′ West.

Los Angeles is 118°14′ West.

Reno is 86 miles west of Los Angeles.

The coordinates of a city give you its precise location, just like the chapter and verse numbers of books in the Bible.

Psalm 119:49 – the Reno Psalm – says,

“Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope.”

Reno was founded by Charles William Fuller, who built a bridge across the Truckee river so that settlers would not lose hope.

Psalm 118:14 – the L.A. Psalm – says,

“The LORD is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation.”

Los Angeles was named “The Angels” in 1769 by Father Juan Crespi, a Franciscan priest who celebrated in his journal the discovery of a “beautiful river from the northwest.” A source of water that saved his thirsty band of travelers.

You will remember that I mentioned Louisiana in my opening sentence.

New Orleans is at 90°07′ West.

Psalm 90:7 – the New Orleans Psalm – says,

“We are consumed by your anger and terrified by your indignation.”

The French Quarter of New Orleans is 90.°06′ West.

Psalm 90:6 – the French Quarter Psalm –says,

“In the morning it springs up new, but by evening it is dry and withered.”

Does the longitude and/or latitude of a city unlock a secret message from God to that city?

No. Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous. Have you lost your mind?

But let’s pretend that it does.

The latitude for my hometown of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma – which, prior to 1907 was “Indian Territory” – is 36.°06′ N.

Psalm 36:6 – the Broken Arrow Psalm – says,

“Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people and animals.”

We create imaginary worlds when we pretend, but even imaginary worlds have to have rules. This truth is known to every author of Science Fiction, to every author of Fantasy, and to every 6-year-old.

We must now make up some additional rules because some of the Psalms don’t have enough verses to match the coordinates of certain cities. As an example: Chicago is at latitude 41°52′ North, and its longitude is 87°39′ West.

We’ll begin with longitude: Uh-oh, Psalm 87 doesn’t have a 39th verse.

Now let’s take a look at latitude: Uh-oh, Psalm 41 doesn’t have a 52nd verse.

But Genesis 41 does!

Genesis 41:52 – the Birth Verse of Chicago – says,

“The second son he named Ephraim and said, ‘It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.’”

Chicago was incorporated in 1837, but it blossomed in an amazing second birth after the fire of 1871. Read it for yourself.

I went with “birth verse” because Genesis means...

You see a lot of crap during 40 years as an ad writer.

You see big, steaming piles of predictable ads written by amateurs who assume the audience is required to listen.

You see frozen piles of heartless ads that speak to ideas rather than to people.

You see the scattered shrapnel of ads written by highly creative but trigger-happy typists who don’t understand the necessity of strategy.

Amateur ad writers believe in creativity. Accomplished ad writers believe in strategy.

Good ad copy flows from strategy.

Strategy flows from whatever is in the pantry of the advertiser.

You must begin by prowling through that pantry. Take inventory of all the unused story elements you will find hiding there.

Bad strategy is usually the result of someone’s ego.

A business owner wants to hire you. When you meet with that person, you realize that they want to be perceived in a certain way. They usually call this fantasy their “brand essence,” and if you do not indulge them in their fantasy, they will accuse you of not understanding their brand.

They want you to continue doing what they have done in the past, but make it work this time. If you disagree with their strategy, they will say, “You don’t understand who we are.”

You will say, “No, that is not who you are. That’s just who you want to be. But you don’t have the ingredients to bake that cake.”

This is always an unproductive argument, so when a business owner who wants to hire you says, “This is what I want you to do and this is how I want you to do it,” the best answer is to say, “It sounds to me like you’ve got things under control. Great idea! Follow your dream. God be with you. Stay in touch! Goodbye.”

If you employ the same strategy they have used in the past, it’s not going to work any better than it did in the past.

You will be tempted to do what your prospective client is asking you to do. “After all, it’s their company, right?”

Your reason for thinking these thoughts will be that you need the money. But if you do what your prospective client tells you to do, this is what will happen:

1. Your ad campaign will underperform.
2. Your client will blame you.
3. You will be fired.
4. You will have a record of failure.
5. You will lose confidence in yourself.

Find your money elsewhere.

Before you accept a client, ask yourself, “Am I willing to give this person a place in my life?”

Consider that question carefully, because your client will certainly occupy your thoughts. Will you look forward to speaking with them, or will you dread it?

Even the best clients will occasionally ask you to do something that you believe is a bad idea. This is when you will need to do the opposite of what I told you a moment ago. When you have accepted the job, you can no longer say, “It sounds to me like you’ve got things under control. Great idea. Follow your dream. God be with you. Stay in touch. Goodbye.”

You have given this client a place in your life. You have accepted the role of being their ad writer. You have an ongoing relationship. This is when you have to remember that they did not hire you to be CEO.

1. Tell them that you will definitely do what they say.
2. Then tell them why you think it is a bad idea.
3. When they have heard you, and understood you, and asked that you do it anyway, make it a point of honor to figure out how to make their bad idea work.
4. Take ownership of the idea. Put everything you have into it. Be proud that you were able to make it work.
5. When you have an ongoing relationship, you no longer have the option to say, “You’re on your own.”

Most ads are not written to persuade. They are written not to offend.

The power of an ad can be measured by the strength of the backlash against it.

Backlash doesn’t mean the ad is good; it...

As you increase your words, you decrease their impact.

Communicate your thoughts in short sentences. Those thoughts will be remembered, and you will, too.

Shorter hits harder.

I read a book by a man who is a deep thinker, a great strategist, and a good writer. His strengths are that he can identify, organize, and communicate key ideas.

But those ideas would hit harder if the man could write tighter.

Tight writers

1. reject unnecessary modifiers.

2. reduce the word count.

3. prove what they say.

4. use active voice.

Modifiers:

Adjectives and adverbs are fatty foods. They give energy to your story when used sparingly but cause your sentences to feel bloated, sluggish and fat if you overindulge. Adjectives are less dangerous like good cholesterol, and adverbs are more dangerous like bad cholesterol, but a steady diet of these modifiers will clog the arteries of your story and slow it down until your audience falls asleep.

Word count:

Editing will reduce your word count, but it is hard to edit what is freshly written. Look at it the next day and your mistakes will become obvious to you. Rearrange, reduce, and eliminate elements until your story is woven tightly and shines brightly.

You can communicate twice as much by using half as many words.

Willie Shakespeare taught us, “Brevity is the soul of wit.”1

Blaise Pascal and Benjamin Franklin are remembered for their wit. This is why both of them apologized in writing when they took too long to say too little.

Blaise Pascal in his Lettres Provinciales of 1657, wrote, “The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter.”

Likewise, Benjamin Franklin concluded his 1750 Letter to the Royal Society in London by saying, “I have already made this paper too long, for which I must crave pardon, not having now time to make it shorter.”

Prove what you say:

A rainbow of people across the internet report that Martin Luther, Mark Twain, and Cicero of Rome made statements similar to the statements made by Blaise Pascal and Benjamin Franklin, but none of those colorful people can offer meaningful documentation.

Martin Luther died in 1546. A biography of Luther published 300 years later – in 1846 –quotes Luther as having said he “didn’t have time to make it shorter,” but the biographer could cite no text left behind by Martin Luther to support that quote.

Mark Twain died in 1910. In 1975 an article that appeared in the Chicago Tribune attributed a version of the “didn’t have time to make it shorter” statement to Twain, but the journalist could offer no text, no chapter, no page number, no contemporaneous witness as proof.

The person claiming that Cicero said he “didn’t have time to make it shorter” cites a book of quotes published in 1824 as “proof” of what Cicero supposedly said 1,800 years before that book of quotes was published. Cicero left behind no writings that contain that quote.

“Do not believe what you read on the internet.” – Albert Einstein

Use active voice:

Passive voice:

“The sword is carried by me,” is passive because the subject – “The sword” – is acted upon by the verb.

Active voice:

“I carry the sword,” is active because the subject – “I” – takes the action.

Sentences spoken in active voice command attention.

Sentences spoken in passive voice are easily ignored.

A child becomes an adult when they say, “I broke the cookie jar,” instead of, “The cookie jar got broken.”

Don’t speak like a child. Let the subject take the action in every sentence you speak and write.

Here’s an Example:

Like the man I mentioned earlier, Matt Willis is a deep thinker, a great strategist, and a good writer. But...