Page 139 - 597 Business Ideas You can Start from Home - doing what you LOVE! (Beginner Internet Marketing Series)

108 The Seven Lost Secrets of Success

Craig: Right. They probably would have kept their thou-
sand dollars.

Joe: If I could have only gone back and said, “Oh, hold
onto some money or invest differently or don’t buy
stocks, especially around October 1929.” But again, this
is 1925.

Anything else that you notice in those opening lines?

Craig: Well, it is exactly what you said. I love that part—
the sudden, indirect nature, and it really sets the tone
for the closing paragraph, which of course we’ll get to.
Well, he is hinting that there is something missing from
all of this material and financial success. Getting the ton-
sils out probably in those days was a much more expen-
sive, complicated procedure than it is today, so that may
not resonate the same way today with us as it did then.
But he’s matching with his audience the sentiments and
feelings that they probably also have, since he knows his
audience.

This was targeted to 24 very specific people. So, he
knows and he’s going right for a target that we’ll see
develop later in the letter. But it’s a perfect opening,
and yes, it’s very indirect, and I think that’s a reason
it’s similar to not having a headline. Also, the opening
paragraph isn’t direct, right for the jugular (in fact, it is,
though, in an indirect way).

Joe: In an indirect way, which is the beautiful part of the
psychology behind the letter. Now, this next paragraph
fascinates me because he says, “But there is another
side to a man, which every now and then gets restless.
It says: ‘What good are you anyway? What influences
have you set up, aside from your business, that would
go on working if you were to shuffle off tomorrow?’”