According to “the world’s great mail-order copywriter”, there are character traits that will make or break your success as a skilled entrepreneur and marketer…
These 2 things, he says, are more important that offer, audience, or copy itself.
What are they?
Well, have you ever read “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie?
If you haven’t, you should absolutely pick up a copy, delve into it, and mine the riches of knowledge contained therein.
The book appeals to a truly universal human desire…I mean, who DOESN’T want to have friends and be influential? (Probably the Grinch who stole Christmas…but that’s another story).
The book was published in 1936, has sold over 30 million copies, and is widely considered to be one of the most influence American books ever written. To this day, it is still used often in the business world as a primer for how to adult.
The guy who made this book a bestseller (aka, worked on the copy and marketing) is Victor O. Schwab.
He spent 44 years in marketing and copywriting, and left his knowledge in a widely hailed classic, How to Write a Good Advertisement.
Now…according to Schwab, the 2 character traits any copywriter, entrepreneur, marketer (or honestly, any inquisitive human wanting to test something and learn from it) needs are: humility…
…and doubt.
Why those?
Because, as Schwab quotes, humility is the common quality among all great advertisers and copywriters.
You have to acknowledge when you’re wrong. And be willing to own up to that and fix it.
And to find out where you’re wrong, you need doubt.
Doubt makes demands. It “impels the copy man to take the first giant step toward better copy by making him more demanding about his own work.”
These two character traits are the first things you need before even approaching your copy to see how things are.
Of course, there’s also the flipside of doubting everything to the point where you just can’t trust anything you produce.
I mean, that’s happened to me. I believe the kid’s are calling that “imposter syndrome” these days.