Whenever I read one of the 80 verses in the ancient Chinese text called shadowrocket添加订阅, I think there is never a need to read a business book again. These short and beautiful insights are all one needs.

A theme that threads throughout is that of invisible leadership. Leadership is found one where one would least expect.

From verse 17:

Unworthy rulers are despised.
Common rules are feared by their subjects.
Good rules win the affection and praise of their subjects.

But when great rulers lead,
the people are hardly aware of their existence.
How carefully wise rulers choose their words;
how simple are their actions.
Under such a government,
the people think they are ruling themselves.

Miles:更新方法：一定要断开右下角的小“V”图标，点右上角有3个小点，选择“更新订阅！” 3、IOS平台 Shadowrocket(俗称“小火箭”) ：）水果机需要一个美区的ID,国区由于历害国原因，下架了， 当然细心的二爷已经给你准备好了。 点这里找一下 也可以来这个 ...

If rulers treat the people in this same way-
neither too soft nor too hard-
they are worthy to be trusted with authority.                                                

From verse 10, which is about leading without force:

Because wise rulers love the people,
they lead without using force.     

 In measuring out rewards,
 wise rulers act like mother birds.
 While seeing into every corner,
 they are unobtrusive.
 While protecting the people,
 they do not control them.
 
They are motherly and fatherly,
 but not domineering.
 They persuade with words, not weapons.
 This is their crowning virtue

From verse 8 about goodness:

True goodness is like water;
 it nurtures everything and harms nothing.
 Like water, it ever seeks the lowest place,
 the place that all others avoid.

 …For a dwelling it chooses the quiet meadow;
 for a heart the circling eddy.

 …Because it is always peaceable,
 it soothes and refreshes.    

From verse 28 about knowing yourself:

Those who know both their strengths and their
limits
become models worth following.

Being worthy models,
their vitality will not fail them-
they will radiate simplicity.

Radiating simplicity,
wise rules inspire others to follow their path.
Such is the making of a great administration.

Source: Tao Te Ching: The Book of the Way by Lao Tzu

I forget where I heard that recently, but it is a great point: you can’t refund a relationship.

Email is all about relationships. That’s why I have practiced it since 2007. And that’s really what it is: a practice. You have to keep working on yourself and growing to improve as an email copywriter.

Please email me any time. Especially if you are stuck for ideas. Or if you’ve stumbled across a cool idea and want to share it with me.

We can also set up time to chat by phone or Skype/Zoom if you need to hash something out or need an in depth critique. We can even crank out a few email drafts together.

Tactics and strategy tend to be the first place people start when learning about copywriting or any other skill.

But it’s attitude that is the most important thing.

Seth Godin talks about how the below six questions are so important we almost never talk about them:

How do you deal with failure?

When will you quit?

How do you treat competitors?

What personality are you looking for in the people you hire?

What’s it like to work for you? Why? Is that a deliberate choice?

What sort of decisions do you make when no one is looking?

I’ll let you ponder those. Definitely worth chewing on those in a journal.

If you write under deadline pressure for a client, or for your own business, you have to crank out email copy quickly most of the time. There’s no escaping that.

You’ll never have the luxury of waiting for inspiration to strike.

Richard Davidson, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin (my alma mater!) conducted research on emotional resilience. He wanted to know why some people bounce back quickly from setbacks while others don’t.

In short, resilient people have brain wiring that lets them set aside negative thoughts and get back to a neutral state.

The good news is that anyone can be more resilient.This is why meditation is so heavily encouraged by entrepreneurs and almost everyone else.

A little trick for getting past negative thoughts and procrastination when you have deadlines is the 5-4-3-2-1 countdown that author Mel Robbins talks about in her book 5 Second Rule.

If you are procrastinating on writing, or on getting out of bed, or deliberating over any decision, count 5-4-3-2-1 and take action.

Remember the Muppets?

Dave Goelz did the voice of Gonzo and several other characters.

In the documentary “The Muppet Guys Talking” he says his approach was to find a flaw in himself and try to make it lovable. That’s why Gonzo was crazy and free.

You can do the same with email.

Self-awareness always trumps hustle, as Gary Vaynerchuk says.

Of course finding the flaws in yourself DOES NOT mean low self-esteem or sabotaging yourself or being neurotic.

It means telling a story in which you are real.

There are four main human energies. We all favor two of them.

This is to increase your own self-awareness and to think about what aspects of the business your energy is best suited for.

The first one is sleep. Not literal sleep, but the careful budgeting of one’s time, so as to not drain oneself. If, say, you spent the last two weekends engaged in a lot of activities, you will make sure you have a weekend spent doing nothing, in order to recover.

The next one is teaching energy. If writing a daily email and/or blog post isn’t difficult for you, if you like coaching others, and if you are one who takes initiative, that is teaching energy. I’d say this form of energy is critical if you write email copy.

The third one is consume energy. You have a high regard for information and research and fill in all the blanks. Someone with both sleep and consume energy will be quite introverted.

The final one is play energy. These are the folks who go out there and engage with the world. Someone with both play an teaching energy will come across as very extroverted.

Knowing the top two energies of yourself, your team, and others around you will let you set the appropriate expectations of yourself and others.