For the past 14 months, ever since December 2021, I have been patiently going through Parallel Lives. That’s a heavy, dusty, four-volume e-book, equivalent to some 1,900 print pages, of biographies of famous Romans and Greeks.
I’ve been patiently going through Parallel Lives so I can bring you insights that have stood the test of time.
Take Lycurgus, the legendary lawgiver of Sparta. He did such a good job training his populace that they became bees, ready to sacrifice themselves fully for the collective good of the hive. And not only physically, by sacrificing their bodies.
Lycurgus got the Spartans to gladly sacrifice their honor and burn their egos, while being told to sit down and shut up.
Example: A noble Spartan named Paidaretus was rejected when he tried to join the Three Hundred, the Spartan royal guard of honour.
Paidaretus went away rejoicing. “Wow!” he said. “I am a good man, and yet the city has 300 men better than myself. What good fortune!”
You might say this anecdote shows the power of identity. It does that, but it shows something else also.
It also shows the power of a change of perspective.
Paidaretus did not just sacrifice his ego and his honor to the welfare of his city. He did not just do it willingly. He actually felt joy over it.
That’s the power of giving somebody a change of perspective. A different way of looking at the exact same situation. Failure becomes joy, humiliation is transformed into hope.
If you’re wondering where I’m going with this, it’s to sell you something. Well, to give you a new perspective on gladly opening up your wallet.
Six days ago, I got a message from a marketer named Adrian Chann, who had recently bought my Copy Riddles program. Adrian wrote:
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I realized why your emails (and sales pages) are addicting: they are packed with a-ha moments. It’s more entertaining and enriching to read your emails then watching uninspiring Youtube videos marketers who rehash the same advice without any additional insight.
I’m a huge Ben Settle fan and open up nearly every single one of his emails, yet I ended up buying something from you rather than him (not that it is a competition). The a-ha moments you created are what got me to gladly open up my wallet!
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Maybe you got no a-ha moments from today’s email. Or maybe you did.
In any case, if you’d like to get Copy Riddles yourself:
https://bejakovic.com/cr/