Burning down the temple

On July 21, 356 BC, a Greek man by the name of Herostratus set fire to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus.

The temple, which was one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, burned to the ground.

Herostratus was captured. Under torture, he admitted that he had set fire to the temple in an attempt to immortalize his name. The torturing continued. Herostratus died. And he didn’t just lose his life.

His name. The thing he had cared more for than his own body. It was at risk of oblivion.

Because the rulers of Ephesus passed a “Damnatio memoriae” law. They wanted to erase all memory of Herostratus’s name, and discourage others from following his example. The punishment for breaking the law was death.

But it didn’t work. You can’t keep a good arsonist down.

And so today, 25 centuries later, we still know of Herostratus and what he did. Had he never burned down the temple, he might have lived a more pleasant and natural life. But who would ever know him, or that he had lived?

Yesterday I promised to tell you about a few great ideas I’ve learned from Ben Settle. Well here’s one:

Go inside the temple. Walk up to the altar. And start a fire.

You know, I’m not really being literal when I say that. I’m just telling you to identify the sacred precepts in your industry… turn them upside on their head… and burn them down. A few examples from Ben’s emails:

* Why the customer is always wrong

* If someone asks you about your refund guarantee, don’t waste time answering. Simply delete them from your list

* Insanity is NOT doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results

Back in the days before I was fully sucked into Ben’s world, it was these kinds of statements that drew me in. Shock, controversy, dissonance.

If you burn down the temple, then like Ben Settle or Herostratus, you will be hated by many people. And you may come into conflict with established authorities. But your name will be known.

Do I hear you crying out?

“Waaah! But I don’t want to be no-no-notorius!”

Sigh. All right. So let me spell it out, in case you’re not ready to burn anything down yet.

The point, as Rich Schefren likes to say, is that different is better than better.

People have a hard time figuring out who’s really good… and who’s just ok good… and who’s not very good at all. But they have an easy time recognizing who’s different.

​​And that’s all you need to get attention. You don’t have to burn the temple down. You just have to be different. You have to be the Australia to somebody’s Bolivia — which might not make sense to you, unless you read my post yesterday.

But wait. If you thought you were off the hook, and that you wouldn’t have to court controversy and infamy… there’s more.

Because there are other reasons to burn the temple down, which go beyond simply getting attention.

Burning down the temple can be at the core of your business.

It can allow you to have long-term success that nobody else is having… regardless of how much cheap attention you or they are getting.

Do you see what I mean yet? You probably do. But I have a few more of these great ideas I got from Ben Settle in mind. And if you like, I might share this particular one in a future email. If you’d like to read then when it comes out, sing up for my newsletter here.