Imagine something you want.
It could be investors, a new job, a vote for your party, belief in a mission, a relationship, trust, customers for your product, clients for your service.
Anything.
Will people just give it to you?
No.
So you’ll need to persuade them?
Yes.
Are people persuaded by ideas?
Yes.
Is there any form of persuasion that doesn’t involve communicating an idea in some form?
No.
So persuasion depends on transferring an idea from your mind to their mind?
Yes.
Are words the tool humans invented to transfer ideas with the most precision?
Yes.
Is any other tool as precise?
No.
Can the same idea land differently depending on how it’s worded?
Yes.
Have you ever misunderstood or changed your mind because of how something was said?
Yes.
So do the words themselves, and their order, affect how the idea is received?
Yes
If you could choose the right words, could you land your ideas more clearly and persuasively?
Yes.
If your ideas land better, are you more likely to get what you want?
Yes.
Have you been trained to write well, to do this deliberately?
No.
So are you guessing?
Yes.
Would learning to write well give you more control over your outcomes?
Yes.
And that’s why at the very top of my homepage, in the most visible spot, in the largest font, sits my philosophy.
Control words. Dictate the future.
But very few people follow this logical thread. If they did, wouldn’t books about copywriting and writing well be some of the most sought after books ever written? Wouldn’t we be taught this stuff in school?
Most people never question their writing, believing that simply because they can write, they can write well. Others believe they’re terrible writers, convinced it’s a gift reserved for a creative few.
But as Mark Twain said
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
Are you so sure you haven’t overestimated your ability? Have you ever taken the time to study the psychology of persuasive writing? Or are you so resigned to being a terrible writer that you can’t see a path to improvement, forgetting that writing well is a trainable skill?
Can I ask you for one second to consider that what you know for sure, just ain’t so, and that perhaps the only tool you’ve ever used to make anything happen is the one you never learned to master?
The sad irony is that school rewarded you for bad writing.
Overly flowery language, complex sentences to show off immaculate grammar, and an arbitrary word count to keep you adding word after word after word. You don’t know how to edit or be concise because that’s not what you were rewarded for. Your adolescent ego craved the longer, Latinate word, the one that sounded intelligent. You couldn’t trust the plain, sturdy weight of short, Anglo-Saxon ones. They felt too simple. Too bare. Something must be missing.
You were made to think writing is a romantic, creative pursuit instead of a tool for influence. You were taught to see writing as a solitary pursuit where, if you just thought hard enough, the blank page would transform into masterful prose. And when it didn’t, feedback was vague like be more descriptive or be more analytical. But how?
You weren’t taught how to be engaging, persuasive, or convincing. You weren’t taught the psychology of the written word, or how to navigate human behaviour. You weren’t trained to capture attention because your reader, your teacher, had to read your words. You weren’t taught the useful stuff. The stuff that could translate into building a company, or excelling in a career, or guiding a population.
And so that bad training affects you today.
Your potential is unrealised.
Your vision is blinded.
Your ideas are unheard.
And if you don’t change, two things are true:
- You’re choosing to rely on luck
- And other people will out-write you
They’ll get your client. They’ll make your money. They’ll have your freedom. They’ll land your dream job. They’ll enjoy your pay rise. They’ll launch your business. They’ll become the authority. They’ll secure your investment. They’ll convince your customers. They’ll persuade your prospects.
They’ll dictate your future by better controlling the tools of communication.
On a personal level it should scare you. But beyond individual effects, how has society suffered? How much progress have we curtailed? How retarded are we? How many good ideas were killed by bad copy?
Until I can transfer a thought from my mind to yours with all its intention, context, and perspective, giving you absolute clarity, all I have are words. Shouldn’t we take them more seriously? They are by far the most effective, the most precise communication tool we have. And by a long way. Yet, I’ve met very few people who understand the leverage that comes from an ability with words. And for that epiphany to weigh so heavily, they do something about it.
Our success in life is a direct result of our ability to clearly articulate what we want other people to feel, think, say, and do. Because, of two equally skilled and determined people, the better writer wins.
Everything you want is on the other side of knowing how to write well.