A couple days ago, I promoted a book by marketer Denny Hatch.
Not, as said in the email, because I read the book or planned to read it.
Instead, I recommended the book based on the strength of Denny’s reputation, as well as on the endorsement of one of my own readers, Jeffrey Thomas, who felt so strongly about this book that he worked with Denny to bring it back to life after many years of being out-of-print.
I honestly recommended Denny’s book as well as I could without reading it. I gave my (rather unique) reasons why I won’t be reading it, and I gave reasons why you should. From what I can tell by my Amazon Affiliates portal, I actually drove Denny some sales.
Good deed? Bad deed?
Well, turns out Denny Hatch was subscribed to my newsletter.
Turns out he read that email from a couple days ago.
Turns out he unsubscribed today. And not only did he unsubscribe, but he wrote in to tell me so:
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Why fhe unsubscribe:
February 17, 2026 by John Bejakovic
“Today I will recommend to you a book that I have not read and that I have no plans on reading.” [the first sentence of the email I sent to promote Denny’s book]
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I’m not foolish enough to let a good “reason for unsubscribing” go to waste, even if that reason comes from a respected elder in the field.
So let me draw what lesson I can from this. It’s the most basic and fundamental lesson of them all:
Make people feel okay. In other words, make them feel seen, acknowledged, and respected.
And vice versa. If you make people feel unokay — ignored, dismissed, or disrespected — then even if you are somehow, objectively, but-why-can’t-you-see-it doing right by them, it won’t matter none.
They won’t be happy, and they will even feel the need to get back at you, to get the last jibe in.
This is such a fundamental law of human nature that I put it as Commandment I in my “10 Commandments of Con Men, Pickup Artists, etc.” book.
I’ve read that book, and I recommend it to you based on my own reading. But ok, I also wrote that book, so maybe that doesn’t count for so much.
Instead, let me share a bit of recognition and acknowledgement I just got regarding that book.
It comes from a successful online educator in the finance space. He just signed up to my list a few days ago, after reading my book and opting in for the bonus chapter. He simply wrote:
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I’m reading your book now for the 2nd time. Amazing what you can pick up the 2nd time around!
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Honestly that’s the best praise I think a book can get. I’m feeling quite okay right now as a result.
If you’d like to read my 10 Commandments book as well, maybe once, maybe twice, and learn some fundamental lessons about human nature, and how you can use them on occasion to bend reality to your will, and feel okay as a result: