“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure ought and six, result misery.”
I recently finished reading David Copperfield, a book written some 175 years ago by Charles Dickens.
I read David Copperfield based on the strength of that quote, which is spoken by a character named Wilkins Micawber, and has become popularly known as the Micawber principle.
The Micawber principle pretty much sums up my own attitude to money, try as I have to care more about getting rich for the sake of getting rich.
But today’s email is not about money. Rather, it’s about influence.
Dickens introduces Wilkins Micawber by saying the man had “no more hair upon his head (which was a large one, and very shining) than there is upon an egg.”
Micawber’s clothes were shabby, but he carried a “jaunty sort of a stick” and a quizzing-glass (something like a monocle) on the outside of his coat. (“For ornament, I afterwards found,” Dickens adds, “as he seldom looked through it, and couldn’t see anything when he did.”)
As becomes clear throughout the book, Mr. Micawber loves pompous language… swings between despair and perfect cheerfulness in the span of a meal… and is always in debt, and is always running away from his lenders. Hence the Micawber principle, which Micawber advises others to live by, but cannot follow himself.
But let me get to the point of this email:
I hadn’t realized this before, but Charles Dickens is famous for his characters. In fact, he might be the most famous novelist of all times, in all languages, when it comes to distinct, memorable characters.
Besides Mr. Micawber, there’s Ebenezer Scrooge, Oliver Twist, Tiny Tim, the Artful Dodger — dozens and dozens of famous characters, many of who have passed into popular culture and even the English language.
So what?
So I’m telling ya, read Dickens for character… and then apply the lessons to yourself.
As Dan Kennedy said once, the basis for influence is invention.
Specifically, Dan said that people who write for great influence — he was talking about people who write for business purposes, as he does — turn themselves into personas, into fictional characters.
And by the way, Dan adds:
“The good copywriters are frustrated fiction writers and read fiction.”
So read Dickens. Or read some other fiction, which is built around distinct, memorable characters.
And then, add a quizzing glass to your outfit, even if you seldom look through it and cannot see anything when you do… and even if it’s only there in your writing, and not in reality.
Now here’s the Bejakovic principle:
“Twenty four hours, one email written and sent out, result happiness. Twenty four hours, no emails written or sent out, result misery.”
Only difference is, unlike Mr. Micawber, I manage to live by my own principle. And if you’d like my help in achieving lasting happiness, and maybe in turning yourself into a fictional character in your emails: