There are some secrets so important, I call them Silver Bullets, because they greatly enhance your success in all areas of life, including marketing. Such is Bullet #13.
Many people associate the number 13 with luck, which is why I saved this message for now.
Personally, I don’t believe that numbers, in and of themselves, influence your luck.
What will? I believe three factors are paramount.
But first, please understand that I’m not talking here about winning-the-lottery luck. The odds of such occurrences are so remote, they’re not worth investing much of your time or money.
You’ll be far more successful—and a lot luckier in life—if you seek good fortune in areas much more likely to pay off, such as seizing opportunities, having an edge in your business dealings, and developing a reputation as someone whose campaigns are consistently successful—often record-breakers.
What are the factors that make such good luck strike repeatedly in your life?
Three Factors That Make You Luckier
- Build up your "risk muscle." In most people, the fear of loss is a much stronger motivator than the desire for gain. Knowing this can be quite useful in boosting your advertising response, as it can be very persuasive to spell out what your prospects will lose by not taking action.
For example, Alan Rosenspan reports that in one study, people who were interested in saving home energy costs were asked one of two questions:
"Did you know you can save an extra 75 cents a day by implementing our recommendations?"
Or....
"Did you know it costs you an extra 75 cents a day if you don’t implement these recommendations?"
Question #2 won by a wide margin because it more directly tapped into our universal fear of loss.
Of course, this fear, unfortunately, stunts our good luck if we live by it too rigidly. Most of the time we tiptoe through life too timidly. Like small children, we cling to the pole of our carousel pony tightly with both hands, afraid we may fall off if we stretch for the brass ring. Is it any wonder we keep going in boring circles, without a big dream to energize our souls each morning?
Those who work with the elderly report that at the end of life, the most common regret is not over what we did, but what we failed to do: the chance not taken, the business not started, the invention not patented, the dream not followed, the talent not nourished, the novel not written, the product not tested, the trip not taken, the apology not offered—so much music that died, bottled up inside us, because we were too timid to let it out. Don’t let this happen to you!
Jim Rohn has said, "If you don’t push timidity into a corner, it will push you into a corner."
The remedy: build your risk muscle, like any other, by using it more often, even in small things. A little more risk adds spice and adventure to life, and can greatly increase your good luck. Fortune favors the bold. A perfect example in marketing: make an offer to your prospects so outrageously generous, only a fool would refuse it. In one daring stroke, you can have a blast, electrify your marketing team, outflank your competitors, seize momentum, wow your prospects, trigger fantastic word-of-mouth, spark some media buzz, and uncork a geyser of new business.
I wish I had learned many years ago this sensible rule from psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers, for whom I once test-marketed a newsletter on successful living: "If you can take the worst, take the risk."
Building up my "risk muscle" is what got me divorced in the first place...
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