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It’s just business
A little over a year ago, I wrote a guest post for Dan Runcie at Trapital unpacking how Pusha T positioned his career for longevity (and I wrote about it again here). The early years of Push’s career had high highs and low lows, particularly when he and his brother No Malice were stuck in…
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Stand up
Steve Jobs discusses hiring people, in an interview for In the Company of Giants (via the Steve Jobs archive): Over time, my digging in during an interview gets more precise. For example, many times in an interview I will purposely upset someone: I’ll criticize their prior work. I’ll do my homework, find out what they…
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Make a map of memories
Kai Brach writes in the 267th issue of Dense Discovery: When I receive a kind, heartfelt email from a reader, I add it to a folder titled ‘Confidence Boost’. So whenever self-doubt strikes or I’m in a creative rut I consult that folder to be reminded of what really matters: connection. A memory pays dividends…
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The copycat brand litmus test
While you can’t fully graph out the effects of branding, you can certainly show its effects. In other words, there are litmus tests. I’ve previously already covered two—the negative press brand litmus test, and the hotel lobby brand litmus test. I recently came across a third, which I’ll call the copycat brand litmus test. If…
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Celebrate the occasion, the offer is an afterthought
Every year, near the first day of December, Aesop sends an email out to its millions of customers. Its subject line is something along the lines of, “A rare reduction,” “A gift from us,” or “A gesture of gratitude.” It looks something like this: Notice the virtues—thoughtfulness, generosity, rarity—all highlighted. The 15% reduction offer is…
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Sales vs. marketing
My friend Kinan included this ad in the latest issue of his newsletter, MBRK: The different element is the story, of course. The best story will win. A few days ago, I wrote about another great advertisement from Chiat/Day and how the agency flipped the loss of their biggest client into a story. This format…
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Your creative work’s right size
In 1971, an English teacher, a writer, and a history teacher—all in their 20s—borrowed $5,000 from a bank and invested $1,350 each to start a coffee shop in Seattle. They named it Starbucks. 16 years later, an entrepreneur named Howard Schultz acquired Starbucks. The company had opened 16 more stores, on average around one per…
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Dealing with failure
What do you do when you’re helming a blossoming ad agency and you lose an account that’s half your billings and three-quarters of your income? You keep advertising. Chiat/Day partner and co-founder Guy Day wrote this one. His son Cameron Day writes, “It was uncharacteristic of my father to revert to low-brow language. That was…
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Ambiguity, fear, and possibility
In Platonic, Marisa G. Franco PhD writes: Much of friendship is defined by ambiguity; it’s rare that people straight up tell us whether they like us or not. Thus, our projections end up playing a greater role in our understanding of how others feel about us than how others actually feel. Our attachment determines how…
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The alchemy of scarcity
A good chef can make a feast out of scarce ingredients. A good athlete can make a performance out of sparse energy and health. A good artist can make art out of scarce material and time. None of them would prefer to, of course. But they can if they must.