Ready Fire Aim

Why every project I’ve ever launched has failed

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I’ve tried launching a dozen or more projects or businesses over the years. With the one exception of my copywriting service business, they’ve all failed.

When I look back on what happened, the conclusion is clear:

I focused on making a great product, hoping that would be all the marketing I would need. It was not.

I just launched another project last week (my email newsletter on corona travel). So I want to remind myself, and perhaps you also, of the advice of a very successful entrepreneur.

This is a guy who has launched or helped launch dozens of multimillion-dollar businesses… including one that’s gotten to the billion-dollar level.

The amazing thing is he’s been willing to share much of what he’s learned about starting and growing a business. He’s even taken the trouble to write it all down in an A-Z book, so you dont have to hunt for his wisdom across various interviews, or buy $50k+ coaching or masterminds.

The entrepreneur in question is Mark Ford. His A-Z guide on lauching and growing a business is called Ready, Fire, Aim. And here’s what Mark says:

“For most entrepreneurial businesses, it is enough to have the product and customer service just okay at the outset. Perfecting them can be done a little later, after you have gotten feedback from your customers.”

Aha. That’s where I’ve been going wrong. So what should I, and maybe you, do instead at the outset? Here’s Mark again:

“To be a truly effective entrepreneur, you must become your business’s first and foremost expert at selling. There is only one way to do this: Invest most of your time, attention, and energy in the selling process. The ratio of time, creativity, and money spent on selling as opposed to other aspects of a business should be something like 80/20, with 80 percent going towards selling and only 20 percent toward everything else.”

Speaking of selling, here’s a pitch:

I write an email un-newsletter about marketing and copywriting. If you’re interested in starting or growing a business, you might find it valuable. Here’s how to subscribe.

Specializing on the cheap for new copywriters

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A few days ago I saw the following question on a copywriting forum:

“Just starting out. How niche is too niche? I know that the more niche you are, the more high-paying clients you’ll get. But if you’re too niche, then wouldn’t it be hard finding target clients?”

When I was starting out, I had the same question. Largely because I had heard the same advice — you gotta niche down if you want to be successful.

Here’s my attitude about this topic, now that I’ve emerged on the other side of the newbie-to-successful-copywriter underwater passage:

If you’re just starting out, then you should be in the exact niche that the job you are applying to is in.

For example, when applying for a job to write case studies for a medical clinic, you say, “I specialize in writing case studies for the healthcare market. Here are two relevant samples.” (If you don’t have the samples, write them then and there.)

The point is you don’t have to mention that you also specialize in finance, tech, and pet food… and that you will also write emails, sales letters, and supplement packaging copy.

The time to genuinely specialize — meaning you would actually turn away work because it’s not something you want to do — comes later, when you have some experience… when you know what the market wants… and when you have an idea of which way you want to develop. Or as Mark Ford wrote in Ready, Fire, Aim:

“It’s almost always better to get into a new industry on the cheap by figuring out how to test the waters without committing yourself to an unproven idea.”

Not what you were hoping to hear? Then you probably won’t be interested in joining my daily email newsletter.

The “Attractionist” lure for weak negotiators

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My sophomore year in college, I had a girlfriend who loved me so well she ran off to live in Japan.

I bought a plane ticket to visit her during Christmas vacation. But I was careless with my travel arrangements. I booked my flight for the day before the final exam of one of my computer science classes.

The ticket was nonrefundable. And expensive.

My only option was to go talk to the professor. Maybe I could convince him to let me take the exam early.

As I said, this was a computer science class.

The professor teaching it was a beady-eyed automaton who thought in C code and expressed himself with the preciseness of a computer printout. At one point, there was an entire website, created by current and former students, dedicated to the man’s inhuman, Terminator-like nature.

I mustered all my courage and showed up to his office one day.

He was in there, wearing the same short-sleeve button-up shirt he always wore. It had seen so many washes that it had become faded and paper-thin. His nipples regularly poked through during lectures in the cold engineering building.

“Professor Terminator?” I said from the door to his office.

He swiveled around in his chair and focused on me with his cold and fishy gaze.

I explained my nonrefundable ticket predicament. Would there be any chance to take the exam early? Or late? Or anything?

Without saying a word, he swiveled back towards his computer and started typing and clicking. He pulled up the course syllabus.

“The syllabus clearly states the final is scheduled for December 6!” He faced me again. Through his expressionless mask, I sensed he was furious that I would approach him with such a disturbing and illogical request.

I explained that in that case, I would have to miss the final and probably fail the class. He threw up his arms — how was this his problem?

So I tucked my tail between my legs, thanked him for his time, and left. My heart was beating at around 200 BPM. I felt defeated and ashamed.

Throughout my life, I’ve had a few wins like this. They made me think this is how negotiations and sales always go. And I wanted no part of it.

I bet there are a bunch of people out there just like me. Because if you look around, you will see a growing number of copywriting and marketing gurus catering exactly to weak and feckless negotiators.

I call these gurus “Attractionists”. They promise that you can create your freelance copywriting business without ever needing to sell. All you need to do is “attract leads by giving value,” “be human,” “know your worth.”

I’m sure people can get to the point where they are so in demand that they never have to negotiate. But my feeling is, you’re unlikely to jump from zero to total success, and completely bypass the phase where you need to do some selling. As Mark Ford wrote in Ready Fire Aim:

“To be a truly effective entrepreneur, you must become your business’s first and foremost expert at selling. There is only one way to do this: Invest most of your time, attention, and energy in the selling process. The ratio of time, creativity, and money spent on selling as opposed to other aspects of business should be something like 80/20, with 80 percent going towards selling and only 20 percent toward everything else.”

Now here are some good news:

As you go through life, you don’t have to be in hopeless negotiation situations like I was above, where your only hope is for the other side to take pity on you.

You don’t have to be powerless.

And you don’t have to be afraid of facing disagreement or having a conflict of interests with the other side.

Negotiation, persuasion, and yes, sales, can all be learned. I’ve done it. And I’m an anti-natural.

If you too are naturally reluctant to negotiate or sell, then I recommend Jim Camp’s book Start with No. For one thing, it’s an effective system, particularly if you are looking for long-term success rather than quick “wins”. For another, being accommodating and non-confrontational by nature can actually be an asset to you if you use this system.

One final point. Once you learn the basics of how to negotiate, you can choose to make it less of a daily concern in your specific business. But in my opinion, it makes sense to do that from a position of power, and not out of fear.

Anyways, if you want to check out Jim Camp’s book, here’s the link:

https://bejakovic.com/start-with-no

Money don’t love Spruce Goose

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On a beautiful day exactly 72 years ago, Howard Hughes put down the telephone and took hold of the controls.

He was piloting the largest flying boat ever built.

I’m talking about the Hughes H-4 Hercules, aka the Spruce Goose.

In spite of the nickname, The Goose was mostly birch. That didn’t stop it from being enormously expensive for the time, and with good reason. As Hughes put it:

“It is over five stories tall with a wingspan longer than a football field. That’s more than a city block. Now, I put the sweat of my life into this thing. I have my reputation all rolled up in it and I have stated several times that if it’s a failure, I’ll probably leave this country and never come back. And I mean it.”

Well, I guess Hughes didn’t mean it all that seriously. Because he didn’t leave the country, even though, by all practical measures, the Goose turned out to be a failure.

After all, once Hughes lifted The Goose above the sparkling waters off Long Beach, CA, it flew for less than a minute, for less than a mile.

That was its one and only flight.

And even this one lousy flight came well after the end of World War II, even though The Goose was designed to be a war transport plane, and even though the whole point of building The Goose out of spruce (or birch) was the wartime restriction on materials such as aluminum.

So yeah, the Spruce Goose remains a great illustration of a massive, optimistic, and very impractical and useless project.

The point being, don’t be like Howard Hughes.

Because money don’t love Spruce Goose.

Money loves speed.

(I’ve tried to track down who coined that saying, but I don’t have a definitive answer. The farthest back I’ve been able to go is to direct marketer Joe Vitale, who is mentioned in Mark Ford’s Ready Fire Aim as promoting the idea that fast is more profitable than perfect.)

Of course, I’m not saying to cut corners and be sloppy in your work.

​​But if you put the sweat of your life into one project, and roll up your whole reputation into one thing, odds are you’ll wind up with a multi-million dollar goose on your hands. And the bitch won’t even fly.