Miscellaneous Briefs

10 Greatest Solo Folk Rock Artists (According to Me)

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Cocktail conversation is wonderful because there is a sort of ironic twist to it. The best conversations tend to be about the most trivial things.

Oscar Wilde seemed to share the same view. He said, “I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their intellects.”

One such conversation, enjoyed recently after drinks with my sister Denise and son Patrick, was about the greatest solo folk rock artists of all time. We decided we needed to name the top ten. Here are mine, in order of greatness:

  1. Bob Dylan
  2. Paul Simon
  3. Van Morrison
  4. Janis Joplin
  5. James Taylor
  6. Leonard Cohen
  7. Cat Stevens
  8. Neil Young
  9. Joni Mitchell
  10. Bruce Springsteen

What do you think?

Miscellaneous Briefs

Memory

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Storing documents in your computer makes it easier to retrieve them, but …

A study at Columbia University headed by Betsy Sparrow found that people were more likely to forget things if they felt they could retrieve them easily via computer.

In one experiment, participants typed 40 bits of trivia (e.g., an ostrich’s eyes are bigger than its brain) into a computer. Half were told that the information would be saved. Half believed it would not. Those that believed it would be saved had a significantly harder time remembering the trivia than those who thought it would be lost.

In another experiment, participants were asked to recall not just the bit of trivia but which of the five folders it was saved in. Most were better able to recall the folder than the fact.

This confirms what I’ve always suspected: The reason I don’t keep track of what our friends are up to is because I have a folder, my wife, who does it for me.

The same is true when we travel together. I never pay attention to street signs because I know she does. Is this a sign of laziness or intelligence? I’d say both. In fact, there is a term for this – the idea that we rely on our family, friends, and colleagues as well as references to “store” facts. It’s called transactive memory.

Miscellaneous Briefs

Discovering Warren Buffet’s Secret

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During my trip to South Africa and Australia last year, my business partner Bill Bonner and I had a conversation that should interest you. For those of you who don’t know, Bill and I worked together to found Agora publishing.

We were speaking about our company’s future. Right now, Agora is a $400-plus million publishing business with high profitability and good growth. By any conventional standards, it is a great business. But Bill is not satisfied. His goal is to make Agora a business that will last a hundred years. Very few businesses are able to do that.

To accomplish Bill’s goal, Agora will have to develop what Warren Buffet calls a “long-term, durable competitive advantage.”

Coca-Cola is a perfect example of what I’m talking about. Coca-Cola has been selling the same product since 1892. It spent money inventing its core product over one hundred years ago. Today, it spends very little money on research and development. It also has low manufacturing costs, since the machinery required to make Coke rarely needs updating.

These factors give Coca-Cola a big, long-term advantage. They can devote all the money they don’t spend on research, development, and manufacturing to marketing. That is how Coca-Cola stays way ahead of its competition.

This got me thinking about investing. Coca-Cola is one of the companies that Warren Buffet invested in many years ago. After losing money by investing in some speculative opportunities, Buffett realized he would be much better off investing in businesses that were more established and had distinct competitive advantages—businesses like Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, and American Express. Berkshire Hathaway, his holding company, owns these kinds of companies. He buys them and holds them. If their share prices drop, he doesn’t sell them. He buys more shares. His goal is not year-by-year profits, but owning more and more shares of great companies.

This strategy is very different from what most professional investors use. Yet, it works. In fact, it works very well. Everyone acknowledges that Buffet is the most successful investor in history.

Miscellaneous Briefs

Three Brains

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We have three brains: the neocortical, the limbic, and the reptilian. As a marketer, it is useful to understand the functions of each.

The reptilian brain is the oldest and simplest of the three. It is responsible for all of our survival instincts, including the “freeze, fight, or flight” response and the sexual impulse. (Any marketing approach that touches on the reptilian brain will evoke a strong reaction.)

The limbic brain is the center of our emotional intelligence. It guides us in a hundred decisions every day — from how far to stand when talking to someone to whether we should buy a new pair of shoes.

The neocortical — the newest part of the brain in terms of evolution — has nothing to do with instincts, emotions, or feelings. It is responsible for logical thinking. It is where we process abstract thoughts, words, and symbols.

Thus, if you appeal to the neocortical with your marketing, don’t expect much. But when selling products related to sex or survival, it stands to reason that you should excite the reptilian brain. And when selling other products, go for the limbic brain.

Miscellaneous Briefs

The Wealth Value of Entrepreneurs

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George Gilder says that the great entrepreneur, like the great artist or the great scientist, creates far more than he consumes.

This is one of those statements you believe or reject depending on whether you identify with the descriptor. As an entrepreneur, I want to believe that it is true. Certainly the man who starts a new business creates jobs and provides education for his employees. And in most cases, his business interacts with other businesses, propping up the economy. But I’m not sure that all entrepreneurs create more than they consume. Some, who develop shoddy businesses that are essentially thieving enterprises, can’t be contributing positively to the common good.

That said, there is a certain sense in it. Athletes and bankers do not contribute more than they consume. Neither do politicians. Teachers do. Who else?

Miscellaneous Briefs

Big Ideas and Useful Emotions

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A “big idea” in marketing will drive the prospect toward a foregone conclusion by stimulating a useful emotion. By useful, I mean useful to the marketer.
A useful emotion is one that makes the prospect want the product.
Many copywriters miss this point.
They feel that evoking any strong emotion in the lead is their job. But if that emotion is not conducive to selling the product, they’ve made their job more difficult.

Miscellaneous Briefs

Seeking Comfort

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There are basically two sorts of people: those who find pleasure in comfort and those who find pleasure in disturbing comfortable notions. You cannot choose which kind of person you are. It is an essential component of individual temperament.

I am a comfort-destroyer. And yet I have many friends who are comfort-seekers. But this is common. Relationships are often complementary.

Ironically, comfort-destroyers eventually make life more comfortable for comfort-seekers because they lead them to products and practices that make life easier.

Miscellaneous Briefs

Focus on Your Strengths

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Some people are intrinsically social … others are intrinsically thoughtful.You can’t change these proclivities and you shouldn’t try. Instead, you need to discover them and make use of them. I have known extremely successful people whose only talent was in socializing.

But socializing won’t make you rich … strategic networking will.

Likewise, Rich Schefren and I are intrinsically thoughtful. But thoughtfulness won’t get you rich … strategic thinking will.

  • Step One: Discover your hidden talent.
  • Step Two: Unleash it.
  • Step Three: Direct it.

Miscellaneous Briefs

Deep Thinking

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Today’s post comes from my good friend and neighbor, Bob Irish. Read his compelling argument below.

I mowed the lawn today, and after doing so I sat down and had a couple cold beers. The day was really quite beautiful, and the brew facilitated some deep thinking on various topics.

Finally I thought about an age old question: Is giving birth more painful than getting kicked in the nuts?

Women always maintain that giving birth is way more painful than a guy getting kicked in the nuts.

Well, after another beer, and some heavy deductive thinking, I have come up with the answer to that question. Getting kicked in the nuts is more painful than having a baby; and here is the reason for my conclusion.

A year or so after giving birth, a woman will often say, “It might be nice to have another child.”

On the other hand, you never hear a guy say, “You know, I think I would like another kick in the nuts.”

I rest my case.

Miscellaneous Briefs

More on Big Ideas

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A Big Idea, in the information marketing business, must be more than just catchy and suggestive. In other words, information marketers must do more than create David Ogilvy’s idea of a Big Idea.

A Big Idea for Ogilvy was a cowboy smoking a cigarette while perched on a horse. That works for selling cigarettes but it wouldn’t work for selling books and newsletters and other information products. In the world of information publishing, a Big Idea must contain within it an exciting, arresting thought – a thought that directly or indirectly promises something that the prospect desires. It must also be immediately ascertainable, intellectually stirring, and emotionally compelling.

A Big Idea instantly drives the prospect toward a foregone conclusion by evoking a useful emotion. A useful emotion is one that makes the prospect want the product. Many copywriters miss this point. They feel that their job is to arouse any strong emotion in the lead. But if that emotion is not conducive to selling the product, they’ve made their job more difficult.

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