I once wrote a list of 10+ ways to inspire people. Each way came from a piece of copy that made my heart beat faster and my breathing quicker.
On occasion, I still come across a new way to inspire, one I haven’t noticed before. For example, take a look at this section of an old sales letter:
No man can read Wells’ without realizing that the whole purpose of existence is growth — that life is dynamic, not static. That it is ever moving forward — not standing still. That electricity, magnetism, gravitation, light, are all but different manifestations of the same infinite and eternal energy in which we ourselves live and move and have our being.
Wells gives you an understanding of your own potentialities. You learn from it how to work with and take advantage of the infinite energy all about you. The terror of the man at the crossways, not knowing which road to take, is no terror to the reader of Wells. His future is of his own making. For the only law of infinite energy is the law of supply. The ‘life-principle’ that formed the dinosaur to meet one set of needs and the butterfly to meet another is not going to fail in your case. You have but to understand it — to work in harmony with it — to get from it what you need.
This copy was selling a book called The Outline of History. The Outline of History! How boring can you get?
And yet, the copy above is inspiring. At least to me. So I asked myself why.
My best answer is that it talks about growth, infinity, destiny. About massive and awesome forces, and how they are inside us and all around us.
These aren’t ideas I see discussed in sales copy a lot today. (The sales letter above was from 100 years ago.)
Still, growth and infinity and destiny might be worth keeping in your inspiration quiver… and pulling out on occasion when you have a tough and woolly beast to bring down.
For example:
Have you thought recently about the pulsing, never-stopping growth of the entire world of commerce? How the interconnected mesh of billions of human beings, doing deals, all across the globe, is constantly expanding? And how money — the trillions of dollars and euros and yuan out there — is just a measure of the action and reaction you can motivate in other people?
I’ve thought about it.
And that’s one of the reasons I’ve decided to work as a copywriter. So I can learn to motivate action in other people… and to do it at an almost unlimited scale.
And in that vein, I have an offer for you today.
Starting next week, I will be promoting my Copy Riddles program, because a new run of this program will kick off on September 20.
As you might know, Copy Riddles gives you the fundamental and unavoidable rules of how to motivate action and reaction in other people.
How to get them bothered and unsettled with desire…
How to get them to lie awake at night, puzzling over the paradox and intrigue you’ve put in their heads…
How to quiet the critical devil on their shoulder, which is whispering in their ear that your offer can’t possibly be as good as it sounds.
So if you like, you can join Copy Riddles next week to find out all that stuff. As I said, I will be promoting Copy Riddles all week long, at full price.
Or you can choose to join Copy Riddles right now. For a 29.1% discount off the official price. Just head to the page below, and apply the coupon code GROWTH&INFINITY at checkout. The price will adjust automatically.
This offer is only good until tomorrow at 9pm CET. You can think of it as my way of saying thank you for your reading this post now, all the way to the end.
So if you’re ready to start working in harmony with the great pulsing law of human desire… and to get from it what you need, from here till eternity, at a 29.1% discount… then here’s where to go: