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ローンチ:影響力の武器

ローンチ:影響力の武器

よし、リストがあって、お客さんになりそうな人たちと一緒にコミュニケーションができている。でも、どうやって「なりそう」を「なった」にできるのでしょうか?

僕はまだ自分でしたことがないけど、ウオーカーさんは「影響力の武器」をお勧めしてくれる。どういうことでしょうか?

「影響力の武器」という本の中に、6つの主な武器が書いてある。それらの武器で人を動かせる。その「武器」をある程度に悪く書いてあるけど、本当はよくも、悪くもない。人間は基本的に、いつも情報を一生懸命探す時間がないので、心理的な近道が必要なんだ。高いもののほうが価値がある、希少なもののほうが価値がある、みんながよく評価しているものが価値があるとかの心理的な近道になる考え方が、一般的に役に立つだろう。逆に、完全に使わないほうが大変だろう。

もちろん、武器として悪人がいるけど、自分が持っている価値のあるものを売るために、使っても何も悪くない。逆に、お客さんを手伝っているってことになる。

じゃあ、その6つの影響力の原則は何でしょうか?

  1. 相互
  2. 一貫性
  3. 好み
  4. 権威
  5. 希少さ
  6. 総意

でも、ウオーアーさんはそれらの原則しか書いていないわけじゃない。なので、上の6つの原則を少し説明した後に、ウオーカーさんは追加で書いた原則についても話す。

1.相互
人は子供の頃から「何かもらったら、何か返す」という原則が教えられる。本能になる。相互はとても役に立てて、基礎的な原則なので、相互をしない人はいろんな悪口で言われる。

人の相互性を発揮する方法:

価値のある物事をあげる。
価値のある物事を諦める。

2.一貫性
人は意見・意思を公開したら、その意見・意思と一貫した行動を取る強い傾向がある。電話で「選挙で投票するでしょうか?」と聞いたら、「はい」という人が多い。それで、投票する人数が確実に増える。なぜなら、「はい」と言った人たちは自分が嘘つきや偽善者だと考えたくない。

人の一貫として行動したい心を発揮する方法:

自分の意思を公開してもらう。
小さなお客さんにしてもらう。
どんな素晴らしい人になりたいことを思い出させる。

3.好み
人は誰でも信用するわけではない。誰を信頼する?好きな人。どんな人が好き?

  1. 自分と同じような人。
  2. 魅力的な人。
  3. 自分をほめる人。
  4. 一緒に協力した人。
  5. 自分が好きなことと関係がある人。

人に好かれる方法:

誠実な関心を寄せる

4.権威
人は権威を持っている人を信頼する必要がある。みんなは無限な時間がないので、いろいろな業界の専門家を頼るしかできない。

人に自分の権威を示す方法:

証明書を飾る。
自分ができた商品を見せる。
制服を着る。

5.希少さ
なかなか手に入れられないものは価値があると思う人が多い。ある物事のことに詳しくなかったら、値段を使って買うかどうか決める人が多い。現在にざらにあるものは将来に希少になって、手に入れるチャンスがなくなりそうだったら、買う!ってあまり考えずに決める人が多い。

希少さを利用して、人を選ばせる方法:

自分の時間を高く売る。
時間限定のセールを行う。
いろんなレベルの商品を出す。
お客さんを努力させる。

6.総意
みんながしていることは間違いだってことが少ないだろう。人気な商品は価値があるだろう。自分の業界の中に人気な道具を使えば、誰も文句を言えない。

総意を利用して、人の選択をしやすくする方法:

人気な商品をアピールする。
過去のお客さんの意見を示す。
ブランド品を出す。
自分のお客さんをアピールする機会を作る。

以上は「影響力の武器」という本の中に書いてある原則。でも、ローンチのウオーカーさんは以上の原則を含めて、他の原則を紹介してくれる。でも、このブログで以上の原則の説明だけで足りると思う。

じゃあ、リストに、どうやって影響力の原則を利用すればいいのか?

ローンチ:リストを作る方法

ローンチ:リストを作る方法

じゃあ、物語を語ったら、どこで誰に話すか?

結末から始めよう:メールイングリスト。

えっ、どういうこと?って?

そう、メールで物語を語るのだ。リストの中に、自分のお客さん、もしくはお客さんになるかもしれない人たちが登録しているので、そのリストで物語を語る。

僕はおかしいと思った。僕はメールマガジンの登録を避けるか、消す。お前らのメールは要らん!っていつも思う。みんなもそうでしょう?誰が誰も知らない人のメールリストにとろくするのか?誰が迷惑メールを求めるのか?まさか、ね?

ん、でも、違うね。僕はほとんどのメールマガジンをアンサブスクライブするけど、登録するやつもある。

ミスタードーナツ。

僕はもともと太っている人で食いしん坊なので、ドーナツを毎週のように食べていた時がある。新しいドーナツがあれば、すぐに食べたくなっていた。まあ、普通にそんなに印象的なドーナツが出なかったけど、見た目はおいしそうで、普通においしかった。コーヒーと一緒に食べたらもっとおいしくなるやつもそんなに変わらないやつもある。大体、クリームは要らない。僕は重い奴が好きなので、一番好きなのはオールドファッショングレイズだね。チョコはいいけど、日本のチョコのスイーツはアメリカと違って、軽い甘さがあるので、日本のチョコはあまり食べたくない。逆に、日本風のほうを食べたい。お茶味のドーナツとか、ね。アメリカではジャムドーナツがあるけど、知っている?イチゴやベリージャムが中に入っているやつ。あ、プリンドーナツもある。アメリカのプリンは日本のプリンと違うけどな。

おっと、何の話ていたっけ?

あ、そうだ、メールマガジン。

みんなは僕のようにドーナツが好きでドーナツのメールマガジンに興味ないだろう。でも、僕はミスドファン。ミスドのドーナツでもコーヒーでも大好き。このブログの投稿をミスドでミルクが4個を入れたコーヒーを飲みながら書くことが多い。

僕はただの人ではない。ミスドにとっては、大事な繰り返すお客さんだ。

あなたも僕のようなファンを探している。簡単ではない。だけど、世界が大きい。大事なファンが絶対にいる。探せ!

あっ、でも、リストがないよ!どうしたらいいの?って?それは大変だな!しょうがない、初めの一歩を教えてあげよう。

リストを作るために以下の作戦がある:

  1. 宣伝。GoogleAdsとか使って、自分のサイトに人を集めて、サイトでリスト登録フォームで登録者を集める。
  2. 実際な宣伝キャンペーンをする。知っているでしょう。ポースター。パンフレット。ティッシュを配る人。
  3. ソーシャルエディア。ツイッターとかで会話で参加する。自分のオリジナルコンテンツを共有(!)する。世界に自分が持っている価値を広げる。

どちらにも利点と弱点がある。GoogleAdsはターゲティング広告できるので、使えば、サイトを見てくれる人は多くなるだろう。お金がかかるけどな。実際な宣伝キャンペーンは安いけど、ターゲティングしないので、いっぱい出さないと、自分のお客さんに接触しないな。

でも、ソーシャルメディアは興味深い。最初にあまり役に立たない。ネットワークを作らないと、なにも役に立てない。しかし、あなたは自分を世界に見せている。自分が作られる価値のあることを共有している。会話で参加している。小さな会話でも、大きい会話でもな。それで、注意を引いて、あなたに興味を持ってくる人が増える。

うまくフォロワーを増やしたら、一番有効なファンを集める方法になるかも!みんなは口コミがすごくいいマーケティングを知っているでしょう?自分のファンがフォローして、リツイートしたりしてくれたら、お客さんがもっと増える可能性が高くなる。

利点はまだまだある。ソーシャルメディアで、お客さんやお客さんになるかもしれない人と直接にコミュニケーションができる。それはなかなか強力な機能だよ。僕はザ・ローンチを読む前に、ソーシャルメディアが作るポテンシャルが分からなかった。お客さんとうまくコミュニケーションができるようになったら、お客さんを味方にできるようになる。

どういうこと?なんでそんなにすごいと思っているのか?メーリングリストはどうなったんだって?

ローンチ:物語

ローンチ:物語

何を共有するのか?価値のある物事は何?貧乏の私は何を共有できるのかって?

ちょっとした物語を教えてあげる。

昔々、ある少年は壁に囲まれていた村の中に住んでいた。壁の外に炎の山や巨大な塩湖があると聞いた。壁の外の世界の夢をいつも見ていた。

でも、鬼も外にいた。壁は少年を中に閉じこんだけど、夢と鬼も締め出した。

それは、ある日、鬼は壁を破壊して、少年の家族を食った。鬼が家族を食っている姿を見ていた少年は鬼に変化した。一匹残らず、鬼を食った。そしてついに、聞いたの通りの巨大な塩湖を見つけた。足が涼しくて気持ちいい青水を触りかけたら、彼の緑の目が水平線を見つめた。

目が見えなかったけど、ドキドキしていた心臓が感じていたのは、もう脱出したはずの冷たい壁なんだった。

向こうには鬼がいる。
水は彼の周りパシャパシャ滾った。沈まないで、ずっと水平線に向けた。
自由になる。
自由になる。
自由になる。

じゃあ、質問がある:少年は自由になれると思う?

たぶん、あなたはこう思っている。「マイカ、あの、これはネットマーケティングに何の関係があるのか?」

関係しかない。なんでインターネットマーケティングを勉強しているのか?メールのリストを作ってお客さんが買ってくれるように納得するのが大好きだから?

それとも、僕の妻のようにネットマーケティングに別に興味がない。そのあなたに質問がある。なんで他人の会社の中に働きたくないのか?なんで自分の撮影のビジネスを営業したいのか?次のお金はどこから、いつから来るかわからないことがワクワクしてたまらないのか?撮影をそんな好きだったら、なんで大きい組織で撮影をしないの?

つまり:なんで少年が鬼を食った?お腹が空いていたから?

人間は生まれた時に奴隷なんだけど、自由になるデザインがある。自由になりたいって意思を表現する方法はそれぞれあるけど、みんなの中にその意思がある。芸術家は作品を作っているときに自由の気持ちになる。エンジニアは大切なプロジェクトの計算をしているときに自由の気持ちになる。著者は書いている間に何も背負っていない感じになる。しかし、みんなは鳥の籠のような壁に囲まれているような感じがある。目覚ましが鳴る時に起きないといけない。上司に大切にされていなくても、上司の命令に従わないといけない。自分のファンが好きじゃなくても、ファンを満足させる圧力を感じる。

なんで?お金。お金の奴隷になっているので、自分がしたくないことをする圧力を感じる。

本当のあなたの働きと性格が好きな、本当のフォロワーを知っているあなた、本物のファンを見つけたあなた、本当のお客さんを持っているあなたは、自由になれる。不思議で完全に理解できない方法で他人の人生を変える能力を持っているあなたは遠慮なく本当の自分になれる。

奴隷から自由の人になった物語で自分のお客さんをインスパイアーができる。「話す」ことができる人はどこでもいるけど、「見せる」ことができるは珍しい。お客さんに見せたら、お客さんはどうやって自由になれることを理解できる。

じゃあ、貧乏のあなたは何をみんなに共有できるの?

自分の物語。

「でも、みんな自由になりたいって思っていないよ」って?

もちろん、それはそう。例えば、僕のお母さんのようにパンの生地を作るためにミクサーを買いたい人は別に「自由になりたい」と思っているわけじゃない。でも、それは的外れだ。お母さんはミクサーを買っていない。「このパンがおいしい!やばい!お代わり!」っていう旦那さんと子供の言葉を買っているんだ。ということは、もっといいお母さんになる可能性を買っている。

なので、とりあえず、「物語」という言葉を考えたらいい。

The Art of the Deal

The Art of the Deal

Anybody learning about success wants to hear stories about the successful. We talk to successful friends and family and study their behavior, looking for their secrets. However, for those with high ambitions, friends and family often don’t model the level of success we are looking for. They may be successful in many ways, but not in the precise way that scratches our itch.

Billionaire President Donald J. Trump provides an undeniable example of life success in his book, The Art of the Deal. While Trump is a unique character with an exceptionally high tolerance for pressure—making his level of success difficult to replicate—his story has some lessons for those of us aspiring to do great things. Here are some lessons I learned from The Art of the Deal.

  1. It’s important to talk to lots of different people and get their opinions.
  2. To take on vicious people, you need to be vicious yourself.
  3. Attention is everything.
  4. Feelings don’t care about your facts.
  5. Play the games people want to play.
  6. Relationships don’t need to be deep to be meaningful.

It’s important to talk to lots of different people

One of the most important things that Trump does is talk to lots of people. He says that asking everyone for an opinion is a natural reflex for him. Learning the feeling of the public at large is an important part of his success. He once owned an apartment complex. After buying and renovating it, it became very successful.

One day, Trump was walking around the place and asked one of the areas residents how he was. The man whispered to Trump that he should sell the apartment. When Trump asked why, the man said that the neighborhood was declining. Lots of bad folks were hanging around. After looking around town and talking to more people, Trump sold to a sloppy company that didn’t do the same. The apartment began to lose residents shortly after the sale.

Trump has filled this book with the many accounts of his relationships with other people. Sometimes, he says things like, “nearly everyone I talked to opposed the deal” or “everyone I talked to agreed”. Trump talks to anybody and everybody. If you want to achieve higher levels of success, you have to talk to more people.

 

To take on vicious people, you need to be vicious yourself.

In business, Trump says that he tends not to trust people. That’s probably because people in business can be vicious. When it came to building in New York city, Trump says it took total focus, a kind of neurosis, to be successful. But, Trump says, he loved to go against them and beat them.

Trump often had to deal with businessmen and politicians that would lie or undermine him. He had several fights with the mayor of New York city, Ed Koch. Trump won every fight and loved it. He once had a falling out with Barron Hilton, who sold Trump a Hilton hotel which Trump called the Trump Castle. Trump wanted to resolve their problems over lunch in NYC. Barron said he would be delighted to have lunch the next Monday. Monday morning, Trump received a letter informing him that he was being sued by Barron. Trump filed a counter-claim exceeding Barron’s claim.

One time, Trump hired an apartment manager named Irving. Trump describes Irving as follows:

Irving was sixty-five years old and a real character. He was one of the greatest bullshit artists I’ve ever met, but in addition to being a very sharp talker and a very slick salesman, he was also an amazing manager. Irving was the kind of guy who worked perhaps an hour a day and accomplished more in that hour than most managers did in twelve hours.

Irving was the most capable person for the job, but there was one problem: upon investigation, they found out Irving had a long history of theft. How did Trump feel about that? He decided to take a risk.

With Irving I had a dilemma: he was far and away more capable than any honest manager I had found, and so long as he was in charge, no one under him would dare steal. That meant I only had to keep my eye on him. I used to kid Irving. I’d say, “We pay you $50,000 and all you can steal.” And he would act all upset. If I’d caught him in the act, I would have fired Irving on the spot, but I never did. Still, I figure he managed to steal at least another $50,000 a year. Even so, I was probably getting a bargain.

If you’re not vicious, it’s difficult to imagine making that kind of judgment call.

 

Attention is everything.

In a section called Get the Word Out, Trump says that it’s important to draw attention to whatever wonderful product you have. He prefers to do things that are a little controversial to gain the attention of the media. The media, by nature, wants something sensational. He writes that “people may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do.” In interviews, if he is asked to defend himself, he instead reframes the issue in a positive way, effectively turning free, negative press into positive press for him.

Previously, I’ve learned about the importance of attention from Mike Cernovich, Scott Adams, and Robert Cialdini’s work. Trump’s story provides ample evidence to support them.

More and more, I’ve come to realize that attention is the currency on which all human relationships are transacted. Attention is something that Trump has in unusually large quantities. His store of attention is so vast that it allows him to juggle complex business deals and personal media defense while maintaining his close relationships and managing his empire, all without going crazy or dropping dead in exhaustion. His success, I believe, is not only a function of his tolerance for conflict, but also of his store of attention he can give others, as well as his own voracious appetite for attention. He is an attention generating machine.

Attention looks like it will be the main topic of Cernovich’s next book, Audacious. I anticipate that Trump’s vast stores of attention, which he regularly empties and refills, may make a cameo appearance in Audacious.

 

Feelings don’t care about your facts.

There are many stories in Art of the Deal in which Trump talks about belief.

When the board of Holiday Inns was considering whether to enter into a partnership with me in Atlantic City, they were attracted to my site because they believed my construction was farther along than that of any other potential partner. In reality, I wasn’t that far along, but I did everything I could, short of going to work at the site myself, to assure them that my casino was practically finished. My leverage came from confirming an impression they were already predisposed to believe.

In other words, the facts didn’t matter. In fact, we almost take for granted that getting people to believe false things is both the norm in business dealings, and that it’s unethical. That may not be an entirely unfounded stereotype. After all, as I wrote before, Trump himself tends to distrust business people.

However, what is or is not a false thing is often not clear. Take the example above. After negotiating a contract with Holiday Inn’s, they scheduled a Board of Directors meeting at the build site for the casino Trump was going to build. Trump writes:

Rose [CEO of Holiday Inns] scheduled his annual board of directors meeting in Atlantic City so that the board would have an opportunity to see the proposed site and also to assess our progress in construction. It was the latter that worried me, since we had yet to do much work on the site. One week before the board meeting, I got an idea.

 

I called in my construction supervisor and told him that I wanted him to round up every bulldozer and dump truck he could possibly find, and put them to work on my site immediately. Over the next week, I said, I wanted him to transform my two acres of nearly vacant property into the most active construction site in the history of the world. What the bulldozers and dump trucks did wasn’t important, I said, so long as they did a lot of it. If they got some actual work accomplished, all the better, but if necessary, he should have the bulldozers dig up dirt from one side of the site and dump it on the other. They should keep doing that, I said, until I gave him other instructions. The supervisor looked a little bewildered. “Mr. Trump,” he said, “I have to tell you that I’ve been in business for a lot of years and this is the strangest request I’ve ever gotten. But I’ll do my best.”

 

One week later, I accompanied top Holiday Inns executives and the entire board of directors out to the Boardwalk. It looked as if we were in the midst of building the Grand Coulee Dam. There were so many pieces of machinery on this site that they could barely maneuver around each other. These distinguished corporate leaders looked on, some of them visibly awed. I’ll never forget one of them turning to me, shaking his head, and saying, “You know, it’s great when you’re a private guy, and you can just pull out all the stops.”

 

A few minutes later, another board member walked over to me. His question was very simple. “How come,” he said, “that guy over there is filling up that hole, which he just dug?” This was difficult for me to answer, but fortunately, this board member was more curious than he was skeptical. The board walked away from the site absolutely convinced that it was the perfect choice. Three weeks later, on June 30, 1982, we signed a partnership agreement.

Question: Was Trump acting unethically? After all, he was purposefully trying to make the board of directors believe he was further along in construction than he really was. The fact was that he was still two years away and still had nothing to show anybody. Was he lying?

Trump calls what he did “truthful hyperbole”. In the world of building, Trump was the rare person that could build on time and on budget. He had a long reputation for doing so. However, that meant that even if Mike Rose, CEO of Holiday Inns (who had come to Trump to make the partnership), trusted Trump’s abilities, Trump had to convince a group of reasonably grizzled veterans that he could pull off a miracle. The law of numbers says that at least one of them is going to show some skepticism. To prevent any delays from the board, Trump put on a show to put all doubt to rest. It was a show of truthful hyperbole.

The fact was that Trump really had nothing to show. Managing the feelings and emotions of the board, which were tuned for skepticism, bullshit detection, and disappointment, was the key to Trump’s success in that deal.

Was it unethical? Well, if he had failed, then it would have been reasonable to say that he was misleading the board to commit fraud. As it turns out, construction finished on time and under budget. Trump worked a miracle. He convinced the board, through truthful hyperbole, to relax and make a good deal.

Truthful hyperbole inhabits a gray zone of human behavior that few people have the stomach or desire to occupy. However, Trump practically has his home base set up in a gray zone. This is a high level technique that you can only deploy if you have a long history and are confident you can bring the same, consistent results.

Getting people to believe things you want them to believe has many uses. Let’s talk about Irving, the shady apartment manager. Trump writes,

I’ll give you an example of how Irving worked. You’ve got to understand that we are talking about a short, fat, bald-headed guy with thick glasses and hands like Jell-O, who’d never lifted anything in his life beside a pen, and who had no physical ability whatsoever. What he did have, however, was an incredible mouth.

 

As I mentioned, in the early days we had a good number of tenants who didn’t believe in paying rent. Sometimes, Irving would go out and collect himself. He’d ring the doorbell, and when someone came to the door, he’d go crazy. He’d get red in the face, use every filthy word he could think of, and make every threat in the book. It was an act, but it was very effective: usually they paid up right then and there.

One day, however, Irving had an unusual encounter with a woman and her daughter while on his rounds. Then…

About an hour later, Irving and I were sitting in his office when this huge guy, a monster, maybe 240 pounds, burst through the door. He was furious that Irving had cursed in front of his daughter, and he was ready to strangle him for coming on to his wife. The guy had murder in his eyes.

 

I expected Irving, if he had any sense, to run for his life. Instead, he started verbally attacking the man, flailing and screaming and chopping his hands in the air. “You get out of this office,” he said. “I’ll kill you. I’ll destroy you. These hands are lethal weapons, they’re registered with the police department.”

 

I’ll never forget how the guy looked at Irving and said, “You come outside, you fat crap, I want to burn grass with you.” I always loved that phrase: “burn grass.” And I thought to myself, Irving is in serious trouble. But Irving didn’t seem to think so. “I’d fight you any time you want,” he said, “but it’s unlawful for me to fight.”

 

All you had to do was look at Irving to know those hands were hardly registered weapons. But Irving was very much like a lion tamer. You’ve seen these guys, maybe 150 pounds, who walk blithely into a cage where there’s a magnificent 800-pound lion pacing around. If that animal sensed any weakness or any fear, he’d destroy the trainer in a second. But instead the trainer cracks his whip, walks with authority, and, amazingly, the lion listens. Which is exactly what Irving did with this huge guy, except his whip was his mouth.

 

The result was that the guy left the office. He was still in a rage, but he left. Irving probably saved his own life, just by showing no fear, and that left a very vivid impression on me. You can’t be scared. You do your thing, you hold your ground, you stand up tall, and whatever happens, happens.

Obviously, Irving wasn’t getting anyone to believe that he was dangerous. However, he effectively got the other man to believe that it was dangerous to attack Irving. Changing the 240-pound man’s anger into fear was a product of changing what he believed. At first, he believed he could intimidate Irving, and he believed that threatening Irving was worth his time. Irving showed no feelings of intimidation, and he reminded the man that it probably wasn’t worth it to start a fight.

Understanding and managing people’s beliefs and emotions is absolutely critical to success. You can’t brush them off as irrelevant to reality because beliefs and emotions are real to the person that has them. People often forget or ignore facts and are controlled by their feelings. People will even become even more defensive if they are presented with facts that prove them wrong. Their feelings don’t care about your facts. If you want peaceful, quick, amicable resolution to conflicts or to get good deals done fast, it’s often better to appeal to emotions rather than facts.

 

Play the games other people play.

A philosopher that I respect named Stefan Molyneux believes, as I do, that states are unethical entities that should be abolished. Taxation is money taken against the will of the taxed through the use of force. It is legalized theft. Money the state has is not its money, it is the money of those that the state has stolen from.

Furthermore, we are angered when we see how taxes are used to engage in war and imperialism abroad in our name. We believe that it’s unethical to engage in any form of aggression at any level. When our money is stolen from us and used to kill people, we are disgusted and infuriated. Our taxes are blood money.

Typically, us anarcho-capitalists prefer to boycott the democratic system because we view it as inherently corrupt and evil. It is the dictatorship of the 51% and participating in the system legitimizes and maintains the credibility of the state. We typically would stay on the sidelines during political elections.

Yet, typical of Molyneux, he did something that most other anarcho-capitalists didn’t do: he engaged in political activism during the 2016 US presidential elections. Our choices were between the evil we know, Hillary Clinton, versus the evil we didn’t know, Donald J. Trump. He saw the lies and sheer, overwhelming negativity and bias against Trump in the media. He realized that the election of Trump would be like a battering ram to the forces of power that supported the welfare/warfare state. If Trump were elected president, the media’s legitimacy as unbiased arbiters of truth would be damaged, if not outright torn down. If the people could see through the lies and Trump could defeat the political and media elites, it could be the beginning of a turnaround in human history. We might finally be able to turn the masses toward liberty and virtue, little by little.

At the very least, it was possible that we could avoid more wars started by blood-thirsty ghouls in Washington.

Molyneux’s activism was unpopular with anarcho-capitalist purists. However, many did cheer from the sidelines as Trump brought a fury of punches like a gattling gun to the media establishment which they hated almost as much as the political establishment. Yet, many still preferred to boycott the system, rather than try to reform it. They enjoyed the show, but it was still just a show to them. Nothing would change with a Trump presidency anyway. The establishment wouldn’t allow it.

Whether they were right or not, I don’t know. However, Molyneux’s activism was undoubtedly a deciding factor in Trump’s victory. Whether Trump did anything else good afterward, his mere defeat of Clinton was enough to make it worth it for him. Using the system to defeat the system worked.
I was apathetic to the elections until Molyneux began his activism. However, Trump’s election showed that it was possible to use the system to get the message of liberty out into the world and into the attention of the general public. How many millions of Trump loyalists were exposed to Molyneux’s peaceful parenting and philosophy material? How many people we nudged closer toward a freedom-mindset?

It was not the first time, however, that Trump had shown that success lay not in boycotting or attacking the system directly, but in playing the same game everybody else was playing. Trump speaks at length about how he and other New York City builders had to play politics to get zoning changed, tax wavers, low-incoming housing subsidies, grants, etc. If you want to be a successful builder in any major city, you have to play the game.

That game includes getting some tax advantage. Subsidies are tax money given typically to corporations to give them a competitive advantage. Anarcho-capitalists call those subsidies blood money. Trump calls them a part of doing business.

Yet, Trump’s argument and role modeling is undeniable. Not only was he successful thanks to tax waivers and low-income housing subsidies, but following the early successes in his career, he managed to give the government in New York a black eye several times. He showed not only how ineffective or how corrupt it was, but he showed how corrupting it is. He modeled the ideal behavior and outcomes one might see in a truly free economy like Molyneux and I envision it.

And he could not have done so if he hadn’t taken blood money.

And if he had not taken that blood money, we might stuck in another war thanks to Hillary. Instead, Trump transformed that blood money into peace talks with North Korea, canceled trade deals, and renegotiated deals with other countries. We have yet to know what other anarcho-capitalist-friendly actions Trump may take thanks to taking blood money early in his career.

Trump shows that there is value in playing the game even if you hate the game and the players. Flipping the table or going home does nothing but subvert any possibility of changing the course of history.

 

Relationships don’t need to be deep to be meaningful.

Trump’s life is a whirlwind of human interactions. At the time of writing, Trump would have 50-100 phone calls a day and talk to dozens of different people about complex deals or simply to thank them for their help. No doubt, as president, things have not slowed down. It is impossible to have a “deep” relationship with so many people. You also cannot predict whether a relationship will be long-lasting or fleeting.

However, you can still have meaningful relationships with people even if they aren’t deep or long-lasting. Trump hired a company called Cimco to rebuild a famous ice skating rink in NYC follow long government delays. The build took four months. The relationship Trump had with Cimco was short but sweet. He doesn’t mention any long talks between himself and the CEO. To my knowledge, Trump hasn’t built any other ice skating rinks. He may go back to Cimco in the future if he needs a lot of ice, but otherwise, their relationship ended four months after it started.

Yet, they did something important together. To this day, he can see the rink from his home in Trump Tower. It’s busy with activity. His short-term fling with Cimco brought real meaning and value to the customers who enjoy skating there.

In my life, I’ve often seen creating a “real” relationship with someone as requiring great effort and emotional investment. Yet, I’ve also mostly experienced only short-term relationships. I’ve often felt that it was pointless to talk to or try to get to know people since I would only know them for a short time. That’s a feeling that I’m trying to reform.

Trump shows a great example to follow. Every relationship has great potential, just like every person. From the customer that warned him about pending disaster at his apartment, to Dennis Rodman who went to President Trump to tell him to talk to Kim Jung Un, to Trump’s own lawyers and business partners, every relationship contains great potential. Despite Trump’s dim view of businessmen in general, he shows that there is great light, virtue, and strength hidden in humanity. It’s worth the effort to explore each human in the hopes of finding, or creating, a better humanity.

 

Critique

Now personally, I don’t like to judge other peoples’ work by what I believe it should look like. People like to criticize technology, TV shows, games, etc. by a standard that only exists in their heads. You’ve heard it many times before: They should have done this thing I like! Why doesn’t it have this totally awesome and useful cutting edge technology at bargain bin prices yet?! Why didn’t my favorite characters get married at the end?!

Rather, I like to judge a work on what it does and enjoy it for the value it brings. However, I do have interests and preferences that others might share. Instead of telling you what I think was bad about the book, I will tell you what the book did that I didn’t find of value to me. Maybe you might like it, though.
From the above references, you can probably see that The Art of the Deal is well written. It made boring business and lawyer talk interesting and exciting. I was happy to read to the end.

What you haven’t seen, however, is the many, many different names that are jammed pack in nearly every story. That is especially true in the first section of the book which details a week’s worth of activity in Trump’s life. I honestly skipped about 80% of that section. That probably says more about me than about the writing, but my mind simply became numb to all of the data thrown at me all at once. Even the later stories could be difficult to keep track of due to all the people and organizations that come up. Again, probably not something bad about the book, just an annoyance I had to deal with. Maybe I’m just not CEO material?

At the end of the book, Trump kind of summarizes the current condition or results of all the different deals and conflicts he was involved in at the time of writing. One thing I would have appreciated is a maybe a timeline showing the history of all of Trumps activities throughout the book. Making deals, building skyscrapers, and political battles take time. The book is organized around the deals and conflicts Trump was involved in, but much of Trump’s work was happening simultaneously. A timeline at the end could have given a nice bird’s eye view of everything and how everything progressed.

Also at the end of the book was a picture section. However, as someone who did not see the news or pictures of people and buildings in Trump’s life, I would have appreciated seeing the pictures during the telling of the stories themselves. Of course, if I had looked closely at the table of contents and known there was a picture section to refer to, I could have used it as a reference myself. But, my Kindle sent me straight to the first chapter, skipping the table of contents. Maybe I’m just a lazy bastard, but being asked to do a bunch of navigating just to keep the story straight sounds like a mistake on the author’s part.

Images of the characters involved in the story of Trump’s many dealings would have been nice, too. I can see why many of them, like Trump nemesis Ed Koch, wouldn’t have appreciated Trump making money with their images, so there was probably some practical, legal reason why they weren’t included. Still, it would have been nice.

 

Conclusion

In spite of my small complaints about the book, I felt it was well worth my time. Whether you’re interested in understanding the mind of Donald Trump, or are interested in learning lessons for success, The Art of the Deal should be on your reading list.

Launch

Launch

Launch is an online marketing guide written by Jeff Walker. In it, he describes his Product Launch Formula, a method for selling anything online.

Or is it?

Yes, Jeff talks about all of the elements of building and using a email mailing list to launch new products and businesses. However, what the book really describes is an application of the lessons learned from Dale Carnegie, Robert Cialdini, Norman Vincent Peale, and Mike Cernovich. It combines the positive, high-energy mindsets from Peale and Cernovich with the lessons on influence from Carnegie and Cialdini. Then Jeff tells you how to make money with those lessons. And after you’re done reading, you’ll feel prepared to begin making your first list and planning your first of many launches.

Jeff begins by giving his story of going from stay-at-home dad to making six-figures in a week. How? He had a list.

The key element to the formula is having an email subscriber list. Using the list, you will communicate directly with people who have already shown an interest in you and the products/services you provide. The communication will be a series of emails over a period of around a week to ten days. The communication is what Walker calls a Sideways Sales Letter. One of the best ways to get people to buy things is to create anticipation. The SSL builds anticipation prior to a product launch. The way it creates anticipation is by providing a story and high-value content, such as instructional videos or free tutorials, that provide real value to people before they’ve even bought your product.

That last sentence hides a secret. The secret is an abundance mindset and an understanding of one of the pillars of influence: reciprocacy. If you adopt an abundance mindset—a belief in the abundance of value all around and in us—then you are much more likely to give away high-value things away for free. Generosity is a defining feature of the Product Launch Formula. If you are generous to your potential customers, they are more likely to buy. People tend to reciprocate kindness with kindness, value with value.

Of course, it isn’t only the free goods that do all the heavy lifting. Jeff spends chapter five talking about what he calls “mental triggers”. If you’ve read other books like Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends & Influence People, or Robert Cialdini’s Influence, then you are already acquainted with the contents of this chapter. He talks about authority, reciprocity, trust, etc.

In addition to telling the story of his first launch, he gives several other Case Studies that demonstrate other people using his methods to launch their first products, businesses, and gain financial freedom. After reading those stories, I really felt like the results he talked about were entirely achievable for me in the future, if I am willing to do the work to make it happen.

Jeff also provides details on how to get paid to create content, using that content either as free content for future launches, or as paid products in and of themselves. Essentially, Jeff has given the details of a system for continuous product development and launching that is organic and beautiful. Some of the marketing methods and devices you’ll learn about in Launch include:

  1. Opt-in subscription forms
  2. Squeeze pages
  3. A:B testing
  4. Using ads, social media, word of mouth, and affiliates to drive people to your squeeze page.
  5. Questions to get answers to before launching a new product.
  6. Outlines for pre-prelaunch, pre-launch, launch, and post launch emails.
  7. Seed launches (for those without a product to sell currently)
  8. JV (affiliate) launches
  9. Masterminds (business and product idea brainstorming communities)

On top of the pillars of influence, supported by the foundation of an abundance mindset, sits the Product Launch Formula. It is the actualization of that knowledge in the business world.

Do you have a business and want to give it a boost? Buy this book.
Do you have a product that you want to sell? Buy this book.
Do you want to be free? Buy this book.

For those that read until the end, in this video, I talk about what Jeff calls the Seed Launch.