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CHAPTER 6 / MUST YOU INVENT? A POX ON CREATIVITY84 NO B.S. Guide to Succeeding in Business by Breaking All the Rulesto the table can be much more important. Certainly creativity is not required to create extraordinary business or financial success.But It Goes Beyond %u201cNo Creativity Required%u201d; Creativity Can Even Get in the Way of Success!Back to me and the advertising business. And the secret of the %u201cswipe file.%u201d Although I get paid very large amounts of money to %u201ccreate%u201d ads, sales letters, and other media for my clients, I really am not a very creative person%u2014whatever that is%u2014and I do my best to rein in what creative impulses I do have, because clients are much better served by my copying and piecing together already proven %u201cstuff%u201d than by my indulging my creativity. Here%u2019s how world-class direct response advertising is REALLY %u201ccreated%u201d: When I get a new client, I first want to get my hands on everything he%u2019s done and the results, and everything his competitors have done that they%u2019ve continued doing long enough that you can reasonably conclude it is effective. From this, I want to preserve and recycle the most useful ideas, themes, copy, offers, and NOT throw everything out and %u201ccreate%u201d anew, just to demonstrate my ingenuity or to feed my ego. Second, I go to my %u201cswipe files.%u201d For example, I have files of %u201cgreat (proven) headlines%u201d divided up by category%u2014for example, headlines for consumer offers, headlines for business-to-business offers, headlines emphasizing guarantees, headlines emphasizing new breakthroughs, etc., etc. From these files, I choose several headlines than can work for my client. Then I go to my swipe files of offers. And my swipe files of story copy. And so on. Eventually, I have puzzle pieces that I can put in order and that provide the foundation and raw material for an ad or sales letter. Then I smooth it all out. Make the pieces connect. Change words, phrases, terminology to fit the client%u2019s products and customers. I wind up with an ad that has mostly written itself out of %u201cold,%u201d used material. This is not invention. It%u2019s implementation.Now, to be 100 percent honest, I%u2019ve been doing so much of this for so long that I have some very big swipe files stored in my subconscious,