I blame my parents. They gave me a pleasant and carefree childhood. How selfish of them.
Had they been more forward-thinking, they would have put me to work early — washing dishes after dinner, taking out the trash for my allowance, maybe even a part-time job at the local shoe-shine stand.
As it is, I never had to work until after puberty had had its way with me and then left me alone. By that time, it was too late.
I grew up lazy.
In spite of my best adult efforts to become fluent in “work,” I find that whenever I try to speak that language, I have a heavy accent and the whole thing seems unnatural.
But this email is not about me. This email is about you. Because if you’re looking to become a successful copywriter, it will take work. As Victor Schwab wrote,
“My personal nomination for a heraldic shield for the advertising business would be an obese briefcase, rampant on a field of copy paper.”
Schwab advised young ad men to pack their briefcases full of client papers and take them home for extra work, after work. Because more than talent, more than knowledge of marketing and persuasion, success at copywriting requires work.
Perhaps that thought horrifies you. So let me leave you with something more positive, this from copywriter John Carlton:
Think of yourself as being in a movie — you may not have total control over everything, but you have a lot MORE control than you naturally believe you have.
Write your script the way you want, and then go for it.
Accept reality, but never accept your own lame excuses for not making things happen with as much input from you as you could muster.
The point being, if you don’t like working long hours, you can certainly organize your life in time to avoid that.
If you want to get paid better, you can get there too, and more quickly than you think.
And if, say, you hate working for clients, there are plenty of ways to make a good living today by writing for yourself.
Sure you have to work. That’s reality. But even if you never grow to love work, you can make your life much more like you want than you imagine right now.
By the way, if you want to work at reading a message like this from me, each day, you can subscribe to my daily email newsletter.