Figure it out

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A while back, a dude wrote me to say:

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Hello John,

I am interested in joining your Daily Email Habit, but I have a question.

Do you teach us how to set up the newsletter?

The reason why I am interested in DEH is because I want to build the habit of writing daily emails. So I don’t need anything complicated.

I just want to know how to set everything up and get started.

===

Back when I initially conceived Daily Email Habit, I thought of providing some kind of quick-start guide to the tech necessary to send emails.

I decided against it. I realized didn’t want people who couldn’t figure this on their own to sign up for Daily Email Habit.

Not because I have anything against them personally, or think badly of them.

I just realized that anyone who is already blocked at this first slight hurdle is unlikely to deal well with the hundred and one other hurdles, obstacles, and problems that come up in the process of running, writing, and profiting from an email newsletter. And so I’d rather not take their money.

(To his credit, the dude who wrote me the above did figure out the tech on his own, and did sign up for Daily Email Habit after that.)

There’s a bigger point here:

12+ years ago, I read Joe Sugarman saying that he looks at problems as opportunities. It blew my mind at the time. Since I’m slow on the uptake, it’s still something I haven’t internalized fully.

But how else could it be?

A problem forms a moat that keeps everyone from doing it, whatever “it” may be.

If you figure out a solution, you’re insulated from the competition of billions of other people who might jump in otherwise.

On the other hand, if you choose to sell your solution, you’re almost guaranteed a market, because none of us is as unique as we like to believe.

A problem is by definition an obstacle, and if you remove it, it makes for a freer flow of energy, desire, and value, which money is one avatar of.

Working to solve a problem is energizing, and moves you to action. It also builds a mindset of self-reliance and resourcefulness.

Before you solve your problem, it makes for an opportunity to connect with others by asking for advice, sharing frustrations and setbacks that result in connection and credibility.

After you do succeed in solving your problem, it gives you instant authority and wizard-like status with those who come after you, and an attractive charismatic character to those around you. After all, you appear to be lucky, success comes easy to you, and everything works in your favor.

And maybe biggest of all, solving problems gives you a change of perspective. It forces you to think, get out of your groove, change up a familiar way of working.

And when you do hit upon a solution, it’s likely to be one that generalizes, and that you can reuse for future obstacles or problems, creating a kind of virtuous upward spiral.

All that’s to say, problems really are opportunities. (Thanks, Joe.)

As for the problem of setting up the technology to send daily emails, I’ll only say I use ​Convert Kit​. It’s very newbie friendly (perhaps too much so). That’s all the tech advice I have to give.

And if you solve your tech problems, and then are faced with the problem of what to send your list, that’s what Daily Email Habit is about.

I purposely made it in a middle ground between complete and paralyzing freedom at one extreme… and a templated, paint-by-numbers approach at the other.

There’s already AI — or freelance copywriters — if you want your emails written for you.

Daily Email Habit is there to focus your mind each day in the right direction, and get you in the habit of solving little problems — puzzles as I call them — which build up your brain, your skill, your authority, and your assets. If you’d like to get started today:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

Don’t think of Greenland

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Back in 2019, Internet personality James Altucher ran a crowdfunding campaign to raise $100,000,000 to buy Greenland. He felt Greenland was too important not to be bought.

Altucher is a smart guy. He did his research to back up his claim.

His primary reason for wanting to buy Greenland?

Rare earth minerals, like yttrium, scandium, neodymium, which are used in modern-day technologies such as LED screens, wind turbines, and electric vehicles. Rare earth minerals today almost exclusively come via China, which puts the U.S. in an awkward and dangerously dependent position.

But don’t think of China, and don’t think of Greenland.

Because I read a story this morning in the Wall Street Journal, about how the U.S. is trying to feed its growing mineral hunger — by farming.

Apparently, certain plants are “hyperaccumulators,” and pull out lots of minerals from the ground.

The U.S. has millions of acres of barren, mineral-rich soil.

The minerals in this soil are not of high-enough concentration to deserve being refined by traditional means. But they can be farmed into plants, which can then be incinerated to produce a cost-effective new source of minerals.

If it all works out, farming might become a viable new source of rare minerals for the U.S. economy.

So don’t think of Greenland.

But do think how this story offers a simple, classic, and memorable example of what business and innovation are all about:

An abundant and cheap resource (land in this case)… a new or better process (hyperaccumulating plants)… and a rare and valuable end product (rare minerals).

Also, do think of how this might apply to you and your business.

Because what resource is more abundant and cheap than ideas, gossip, and news stories?

And yet, with a simple enough process, these cheap resources can be turned into rare and valuable end products — sales copy, or marketing content, or even highly priced courses, books, and training.

What is that simple enough process?

Daily emails, exactly like the one you’re reading now.

My email today happens to be based on today’s Daily Email Habit puzzle.

If you’d like to engage in your own “hyperaccumulation” process, and use daily emails to convert cheap and abundant resources into rare and valuable assets, then consider checking out Daily Email Habit today, before tomorrow’s puzzle appears and then disappears.

And whatever you do, don’t think of Greenland.

Here’s the link to take things into your own hands:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

Insurance

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I got a message a couple days ago from Neil Pritchard, who runs Leodis Games, a brick-and-mortar tabletop games store in Leeds, England.

Neil’s not your average brick-and-mortar tabletop games store owner.

He has also used his store to build up an email list, which he has been mailing daily for two years now.

Even though Neil has a long and distinguished daily email streak, without any outside help, he decided to sign up for my Daily Email Habit service. Why?

Neil explained in that message from a couple days ago. In his own words, or actually word:

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Well I can answer that in one word.

Insurance

Having emailed daily for over two years I know that 98% of the time I have something to say. But that other 2%? That’s already 14 days that I’ve stared at the screen and not known what to write.

And quite frankly I’ve sent my least engaging emails, where it’s clear I’ve phoned it in.

So I’ve brought myself some insurance. On those days I not only have that days puzzle to use, but if I’m really stuck months of puzzles & your solutions to spark some kind of idea.

Which is more than worth the criminally low price you’re charging.

===

Neil’s message made me realize I’ve secretly and unconsciously been enjoying the pleasures of insurance myself for some time.

I get a lot of satisfaction in surveying the stockpiles of toilet paper in my bathroom cabinets… doing the monthly backups of all my email and customer lists… having way more cash in the bank than is smart from any rational investing perspective… and always engaging in one or two money-making projects in the background, along with this newsletter.

Maybe you’re something like Neil, or like me?

Maybe you’re already writing a daily email, but you could simply use, or at least enjoy owning, some insurance?

If so, take a look below for more info on Daily Email Habit insurance and benefits.

Current premiums start at just $30/month (and stay there, if you sign up today).

Apparently, this is a criminally low price for the service and peace of mind that Daily Email Habit provides. Here’s the link — and time is of the essence:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

A rule you can take to the bank

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“If you talk less, you’ll sell more, and that is a rule you can take to the bank.”
— David Sandler

What, you’re still reading?

Even though I’ve paid off the subject line?

Insatiable. All right…

I can tell you I’m re-reading David Sandler’s mysteriously titled book, You Can’t Teach A Kid To Ride A Bike At A Seminar.

In case you don’t know Sandler, the man was a sales trainer, and his book is about his sales system.

Sandler was influential enough in the world of actual sales — the world of cold calling, going to prospect’s offices, sitting across the table.

But his ideas are much better known in the world of online marketing because negotiation coach Jim Camp, who influenced a million and one Internet marketers, apparently got most of his negotiation system, often verbatim, by being a Sandler franchisee.

Aaanyways…

Sandler says to talk less. To draw out your prospects to talk. To listen, and to get them to sell themselves.

It’s good advice. I tried it. It worked like magic, back when I used to get on calls with prospective copywriting clients.

It’s great advice for sales copy too.

Back when I was writing sales copy — thousands of words every week of advertorials, and VSLs, and sales emails — I made it a policy to “write as little as possible.”

That didn’t mean to have a VSL of 150 words or a half-page advertorial.

Instead it meant “getting the market to write your marketing for you,” as Travis Sago likes to say. To mirror and feed back things that people in the market already said themselves, in their own words, instead of coming up with my own arguments and language.

So that’s a tip for you. Talk and write less. You’ll sell more.

Here’s another tip. The above tip is great advice if all you’re looking to do is to sell, today.

But if you’re writing a daily email newsletter, particularly one for yourself and your business, then there’s a second purpose to your emails.

This second purpose is more wooly. Much less measurable than sales. It also happens in the vague future, rather than the clear present.

I’m talking about getting people to open your emails again tomorrow, and to give you an honest hearing. About gradually, getting people to see you as an authority, a leader, a trusted guide in all kinds of questions in their life.

Sales today are necessary and nice. But really, all the profits in email are in this long game, in the ongoing relationship, in the back end.

And that’s a rule you can take to the bank.

And now, on to my offer. If you don’t buy it today, I’ll promote it again tomorrow, and maybe I’ll convince you then.

Or maybe I’ll convince you today?

My offer is my Daily Email Habit service. It’s a new prompt/puzzle each day, delivered to your inbox, to help you write your own daily email.

The dual goals for Daily Email Habit are 1) making you sales today and 2) establishing your influence and authority, so you have an asset in your email list that only grows in value tomorrow, and the day after.

If you’d like to get started with those dual goals, and now:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

Arguing with the Dalai Lama

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One time while I was attending university in Budapest, Hungary, the Dalai Lama came and gave a talk.

He sat on stage in a comfortable armchair, smiled beatifically, and spoke for an hour in front of the packed auditorium.

Afterwards, the Dalai Lama took questions.

There was an American guy in the audience I knew well, named Brendan. Brendan was studying environmental sciences, and he was infamous for being loud and argumentative.

Brendan immediately stood up to ask the Dalai Lama a question. It had something to do with environmental policy.

The Dalai Lama nodded assent while Brendan worked his way through his long question. Once Brendan finished, the Dalai Lama started to speak softly once again, sharing his vision.

Brendan listened for a few seconds. Then he got restless. Then he stood up again.

I don’t remember exactly what he said, but he started arguing with the Dalai Lama, in front of the entire auditorium, clarifying his own question, and highlighting important points that he wanted the Dalai Lama to be aware of.

I remember my face getting hot and my arms and legs getting heavy as I sank deeper into my seat, overcome with embarrassment on Brendan’s behalf.

Except of course, that’s not what it was. Brendan wasn’t embarrassed, and he didn’t need my embarrassment on his behalf.

Instead, I was just embarrassed by imagining myself in his situation — getting up to ask my self-important question in the middle of a packed auditorium, and then interrupting to pursue my point further, of the Dalai Lama no less.

It’s a curious thing.

I’ve always hated asking questions in seminars, participating in other people’s talks, groups, and discussions, being put on the spot. Like I said, always get hot, uncomfortable, and embarrassed. Regardless of what I say or what happens next, I come out of it feeling somehow dirty or defeated.

But that part’s not the curious part. I guess that part is common enough.

The curious part is that I’ve actually gone up on stage myself, both literally and figuratively, many times. And I loved it.

I used to do competitive debating. I’ve given talks at conferences. I’ve organized my own trainings and presentations online where I had hundreds of people listening (I hope?) to what I was saying in real time.

That’s the curious part.

Yes, these “stand up and command attention” situations always had my heart beating, my face flushed, and my body preparing to flee.

But inevitably, in every case, I came out of them feeling elated rather than defeated, purified rather than dirty.

What’s the difference?

Why is my instinct to be embarrassed and quiet in other people’s groups and talks and seminars… and to be willing to get up and speak when it’s something of my own, and to even be proud of the fact afterwards?

I don’t know.

Whatever the psychology behind it, the fact remains. I wanted to share it with you.

If you think you are not the kind of person who would ever stand up and command other people’s attention, maybe it’s because you have always tried doing it (or imagining doing it) within the context of other peoples talks, agendas, groups, whatever.

Organize something on your own, with your own initiative… and suddenly that same physical arousal gets interpreted in a positive rather than a negative way.

So much for unlocking the giant within.

Now I’d just like to remind you of my Daily Email Habit service. It helps you start and stick with writing daily emails.

Because yes, an email newsletter is a form of standing up and commanding of attention.

The good news is, it’s something you do for own ends… in a way that you control… and that you benefit from.

To find out more about Daily Email Habit:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

The Secrets Of Growing Up

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I’m in my home town of Zagreb, Croatia, lying on the bed of my AirBnb as I write this.

A moment ago, I was looking around the room, determined to find something to write about. But what?

The strange ceramic crucifix on the wall, which looks like a starfish?

The mysterious unlit match on the ground?

The flowering white orchid by the window?

None of it was good enough.

So I got up off the bed and started rifling through a basket of tourist brochures and city maps in the corner of the room.

It turned out there were a bunch of old books in the basket as well. Among them was what I was looking for:

A 1996 gem called, “The Secrets Of Growing Up: Advice For Boys.”

The cover shows a manic- and aggressive-looking ruffian of about 14, pumping his fist in triumph.

I flipped through the book. A few section headings jumped out:

“What is petting really?”

“From the first tiny hairs to a real beard”

“Can muscles be sinful?”

I broke out in a light sweat, remembering the horror and awkwardness of my teenage years. These days, whenever I wish that I were younger again, I have to remind myself how bad things were back then.

But really, The Secrets Of Growing Up is such a quaint throwback.

There’s a section describing musical styles for boys to consider: techno (“the more BPM, the better”)… grunge (“the terms ‘punk’ and ‘grunge’ mean the same — garbage”)… and hip hop (“the rapper pays much attention to his artfully rhymed texts”).

I guess The Secrets of Growing Up was a useful book in its time?

It must have been. It was published in German originally, then translated to a bunch of different languages and republished in countries across Europe, including Croatia.

But who would possibly need or want or buy such a book today?

There was a time when there were real secrets, or at least taboo topics. Access to information was limited, scattered, restricted.

That’s not true any more.

Over the past few decades, and culminating today with Perplexity and ChatGPT, whatever you want to know or do, you have the information available instantly, for free, wherever you are.

But will you actually bother to seek out the information?

Will you actually consume it when it’s served up to you?

And most of all, will you act on it, and benefit from it?

I’m telling you this in case you KNOW how to write marketing emails… and if you already KNOW the value of doing so.

If that’s the case, do you need another email copywriting equivalent of “The Secrets Of Growing Up?”

My guess is no. And if you suspect I’m right, I’d like to point you to my Daily Email Habit service.

It’s not more information on how to write emails.

In the words of marketing agency owner Eric Mann, who signed up for daily email habit a few weeks ago:

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Thanks for the DEH – without it and the fear of missing out on getting one more day in a row – I’m sure I wouldn’t be doing this at all.

The content isn’t nearly as difficult as I imagined, I assume because I read so many daily emails from so many great copywriters like you and Ben and Daniel T, etc, it almost feels second nature to me now…

It’s the discipline of writing when you don’t have something dripping from your pen – that’s what the DEH solves for me! Thanks again!! 🙂

===

If you’d like to find out more about Daily Email Habit, and get writing for real, today:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

A hard-to-swallow fact about gold and influence

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Imagine the unlikely scenario that you are Marco Polo, the 13th-century Venetian trader. Humor me for a minute.

Say you’re Marco Polo. And you decide, against your mother’s begging and pleading, to set out and seek your fortune in a faraway, exotic land, two continents away.

You pack up your entire life’s savings — an impressive treasure chest filled with gold — and you set off on the difficult and scary journey into the unknown, over stormy seas, vast deserts, and rugged mountain passes.

Finally, you make it. You arrive to the great kingdom, China.

The next morning, you head to the marketplace.

You open up your treasure chest. You take out your gold. You proudly stack it up in front of the Chinese silk merchants.

This is it. The moment you’ve been waiting for, that you worked so hard for.

You wink at the Chinese silk merchants, and you tilt your head at the gold you’ve stacked up.

But instead of the silk merchants showing surprise and delight in their faces, unrolling bales and bales of silk for you to choose from, and bickering and fighting over you, they just stand there and stare at your gold.

“What is that?” they ask.

“It’s gold,” you reply with a tinge of irritation, “the most valuable and prized form of currency!”

The Chinese just shake their heads. “Not here,” they say. “We use silver here.” And then they start to scatter, their interest drawn elsewhere.

That’s a little allegory I heard a few days ago, in an interview with John Bodi, a pickup artist.

Bodi said he uses this allegory to explain some important facts to men. The currency that trades in Man Land, the currency that many men have been accumulating their whole lives — car, career, bicep curls at the gym — is simply not the currency that they trade over there, in that exotic and distant land, where women live.

Is that true?

It doesn’t really matter. This is not a newsletter about pickup.

I wouldn’t even have shared this allegory with you, except that the day after I heard it, I was listening to a seminar by marketing guru Dan Kennedy. And Dan said the same exact thing, minus the allegory:

“A very hard to swallow thing, but I think necessary to swallow, is that these traditional credentials, this attempt to influence by resume and qualifications, or concern about the lack thereof, is completely irrelevant to influencing people.”

Dan was not talking about pickup. He was talking about writing for influence, so you can make money while running the kind of lean and profitable business you want to run.

If you have gold, says Dan, think twice about trotting it out, because it’s not what impresses your audience. And if you don’t have gold, that’s no reason not to seek your fortune as an influence merchant.

Maybe you find this hard to swallow.

All I can say is I’m not trying to change your mind. I’m just sharing an idea that might be useful to you.

It would be a shame to set off on a journey to the Kingdom of Influence, only to find you don’t have the currency they trade there.

The only bigger shame would be not to set off on the journey at all, and to deny yourself the adventures, fame, and fortune that can result, just because you mistakenly believe you need gold to trade there, and you don’t have any on hand.

“Quit teasing Bejako,” I hear you say. “Let’s say I entertain your idea for a minute, which I’m not saying I do. So what is the currency that they trade over there?”

For that, I will only point you to my Daily Email Habit service.

Each day, it gives you daily prompts or “puzzles” to help you consistently write a daily email newsletter. But these are not random, arbitrary prompts.

Instead, I choose the strategically, for the exact purpose of building up your currency of influence online.

Qualifications are not required. Neither is a resume.

And what is needed, that you already have.

In case you’d like to find out what it is, or even start building up your influence treasure chest today:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

Payment plan lapsed buyer stats

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A few days ago, a reader and customer named Alexander wrote to ask:

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Hey John,

I bought your Copy Riddles on a payment plan, but I’ve just recently changed my banks, so I have new details for the charges. I believe I’m due to be charged again in about a week, so I’d like to change the details so you actually get the money you’re owed… Can you let me know how to do that?

Thanks mate!

===

“Well hot damn,” I said. This kind of email early in the morning definitely cheers me up.

Not that I’ve really had much cause to be worried.

The fact is, over the past six or so months, I have sold 100+ things on payment plan, whether of my own products or affiliate offers.

To date, I have had exactly one lapsed buyer.

The rest have all paid as agreed, updating their credit card numbers when they expire. A few particularly diligent souls, such as Alexander, even do it in advance.

Does this mean that all people everywhere have always been and will always be fundamentally good and decent?

Maybe. I don’t know enough people to be able to say one way or another.

But based on my amateur research into the human mind, I do know a few things:

– We all tend to mirror and adapt to the unspoken context or “frame” of an interaction

– Time is a factor in creating a frame of intimacy, trust, and respect

– So is frequency of contact

What drops out at the bottom of this funnel is that the longer you stay in touch with people… the more often you stay in touch with them… and the more you treat them with trust, respect, and intimacy, the more likely you are to get the same treatment in return.

One way to do this is what I personally do, and that’s to write daily emails like this one.

Which brings me to my offer, which helps you start and stick with writing emails for the long term, every day, or at least dailyish. For more information on this way to create the right frame with the people in your audience:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

The BCG Recurring Income Matrix

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At the start of this year, I wrote about three themes I had set for myself. Theme #1 was more recurring income.

To help me (and maybe you) get there, I’ve come up with the BCG (Bejakovic Consulting Group) Recurring Income Matrix.

Maybe know the Growth-Share Matrix by that other “BCG,” Boston Consulting Group. (The imposters!)

Their matrix asks two questions about a product or company — low/high market share, fast/slow growth. The result are four quadrants:

3. ??? | 4. Star

1. Dog | 2. Cash Cow

I don’t want to even dignify those other BCG people by explaining what their stupid animal quadrants are about.

But I do like the matrix idea.

So I decided to create my own for recurring income. My questions about recurring income, the ones dear to my heart are:

1. Does it require personal authority to sell?

2. Does it require personal involvement to deliver?

I thought about the four yes/no combinations. And so I’d like to present to you the Bejakovic Consulting Group Recurring Income Matrix:

3. Hosting on QVC   | 4. Renting out

1. Flipping burgers    | 2. Pushing the sled

Let me explain the quadrants in order:

#1. The lower left is flipping burgers. It doesn’t require personal authority to sell, but it does require personal involvement to deliver.

In other words, this is a regular job, or at least most regular jobs, except those few regular jobs where you’re truly irreplaceable.

Flipping burgers is a steady paycheck, provided by somebody else, as long as you keep working. Fair enough. Unfortunately, due to a genetic disorder, I find myself highly allergic to any prolonged time spent in this quadrant.

#2. The lower right is pushing the sled. It requires personal authority to sell, and also requires personal involvement to deliver.

This is most recurring income plays for solopreneurs and small info publishers online. Think paid newsletters, paid memberships, coaching, etc.

I call it pushing the sled because it’s like the sled at the gym — you gotta put in a lot of effort to get it moving, and as soon as you stop, it stops.

That might sound like a raw deal. But because it requires personal authority to sell, it tends to pay better per unit of work compared to flipping burgers. (Plus, if you’re the type to enjoy discipline-and-punish activities like Crossfit, you can even convince yourself that pushing the sled has salutary effects.)

#3. The upper left is hosting on QVC. It requires personal authority to sell, but doesn’t require personal authority to deliver.

This is where you trade on your good name, your charisma, or your previous success to promote something that will pay you for a time to come.

My best example of this is George Foreman, who allowed his name to be put on a grill and who appeared in infomercials to promote the product. The result was $200M in royalties and licensing fees into George’s pocket over the years.

This might seem out of reach for mere mortals. But if you have an audience, it’s really what recommending a specific tool in a crowded category is about (eg. ​Convertkit, sign up for it because it’s what I use​). Also, I’d put recurring income like copywriting royalties into this quadrant.

#4. Finally, the upper right is the “renting out” quadrant. It doesn’t require personal authority to sell, and it doesn’t require personal involvement to deliver.

I thought of calling this the “cheating” quadrant because that’s how it can feel, at least if you’re coming at it with a perspective like mine, of selling info products via daily emails.

But really, this quadrant is familiar enough. If you have a lot of money already, it’s what rental income or stock dividends are all about. If you don’t have a lot of money yet, well, there’s ways around that that still make living in this quadrant possible. But that’s really a topic for a $5k course.

Final point:

You can move from quadrant to quadrant.

If you appear on QVC once to endorse a product, that appearance can be recorded and replayed over and over, which basically puts you into the renting out quadrant, as long as somebody else drives viewers to the recording.

If you’re pushing the sled now, you can eventually delegate or automate the delivery and move yourself into the QVC host position.

And if you’re in the flipping burgers quadrant, you can jump straight to renting out quadrant if you have the money or know-how… or you can build up your personal authority, so you can go to the #2 or #3 quadrants.

On that last note, if you would like to build up your personal authority, I have a recurring service to help you do that.

I am still creating this service by hand, day-by-day, instead of automating or delegating, putting me squarely into the #2 quadrant.

Maybe that will change in the future. But for now, I keep pushing the sled, because I tell myself it’s good for me.

In any case, if you’d like my help in building up your personal authority, so you can sell things that pay you over and over:

https://bejakovic.com/deh

I was an idiot then, but today I’m much more mature

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Two fingers on my right hand are crooked — the ring finger, and the pinkie.

They are crooked because back when I was a junior in college, I cut myself in a freak accident involving a butter knife, which I attempted to stab into the wall in a fit of rage.

(I was an idiot then, but I feel I’ve really, really matured since.)

This momentary, stupid action turned out to have major consequences.

I did serious damage to my fingers. I had to go to the ER to get the bleeding taken care of immediately.

A few days later, I had to go into a three-hour surgery to actually fix my fingers, since I’d managed to cut through the tendons.

After surgery, I had this big strange cast on my arm, which had wires and springs that were glued to my fingernails, to keep my fingers bent at exactly the right angle.

I had to walk around the university campus for months with this monstrosity catching everybody’s attention.

Inevitably, every fifteen steps or so, some college bro would stop and stare at me in wonder. “Dude… what happened to your hand?”

After the first dozen times of getting asked this question, I started to glare at the question asker with daggers in my eyes. If I said anything, I’d bark back, “I CUT MYSELF!” My friend Sam, who was my roommate at the time, would just walk alongside me and chuckle at my canned, hostile response.

But let’s get to work. You may have heard of Cunningham’s law, which says:

“The best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question; it’s to post the wrong answer.”

It’s not just on the Internet. It can be like that in the real world too.

Questions are supposed to be this miracle sales tool to get people to open up and share their innermost secrets. And they can be. But there are certain situations where questions don’t work, simply because they’ve been asked too many times, or because the person is too guarded.

What to do in those cases? Here’s Bejakovic’s corollary to Cunningham’s law:

“If people don’t want to answer your questions, then make an assumption or statement, regardless of how wrong.”

That’s a bit of a tip if you ever find yourself in situations, sales or otherwise, where doing the right thing normally, asking questions, gets people to glare at you or maybe bark a 3-word answer and then clam up.

Instead of asking them, “What happened to your hand,” just say, “That looks like an injury caused by a butter knife.” If you’re right, you look like a wizard. If you’re wrong, you find out the truth.

Anyways, it’s time for me to go to the gym and work out a bit, to keep my boiling rage under control. (Just kidding. Like I said, I’ve really, really matured.)

If you’d like my help writing daily emails — sometimes on strange topics, which nonetheless serve a purpose — then consider my Daily Email Habit service.

The next prompt goes out tonight at 12 midnight PST. To find out more about Daily Email Habit, or to sign up in time for that next prompt:

https://bejakovic.com/deh