Your Dream Has a Price

FAILURE: Vast Project, Half-vast Commitment

You have a dream, a belief, a hope. But are you willing to spend what it costs, endure what is required of you and fight for as long as it takes to achieve it? Are you willing to die on that mountain?

Unrelenting action is what turns starry-eyed daydreams into steely-eyed objectives.

You say you have a goal.
Let me look into your eyes.
Now tell me what you did today.
— Roy H. Williams, The Wizard of Ads

Have Courage

Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Contrasting in Marketing

Contrasting in marketing is the degree to which your message strikes a clear and unmistakable difference between you and your competition.
— Tom Wanek, Wizard of Ads Partner

Be Adaptable

I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.

— Jimmy Dean

Cost-Cutter vs Entrepreneur

A cost-cutter buys grapes and makes raisins. An entrepreneur buys grapes and makes wine. You’ll never see a person arrive to a celebration carrying a box of raisins.
— Roy H. Williams, The Wizard of Ads

Hang Out With People Better Than You

If you want to soar like an eagle in life, you can’t be flocking with the turkeys.
— Warren Buffett

How To Be Happy

Children are happy because they play.
Adults are unhappy because they do not.
So play more. Without keeping score.
— Roy H. Williams, The Wizard of Ads

Write With Impact

Use half as many words and they’ll hit twice as hard.
— Roy H. Williams, The Wizard of Ads

Dare To Be Bold

A polarizing mission statement forces the reader to choose between two sides of a line drawn in the sand. Rare is the business owner who has the courage to craft such a statement.
— Roy H. Williams, The Wizard of Ads

Change is Never Easy

All change requires a level of pain.
— Jason Fittler

Like-Able Wins

What’s your strategy going to be when you operate a commodity-based business… when you sell a parity product? The answer is pure and simple: Be more like-able than your competitors. In other words, be positively good.
— Tom Wanek, Wizard of Ads Partner

Linkedin

Linkedin is a place, where people I don’t know, recommend me for things I don’t do.
— Craig Arthur, Wizard of Ads Partner

The Cost Cutter

Lower your costs and profit will rise, is the central belief of a cost-cutter. But the cost-cutter never considers the damage to customer experience.
— Roy H. Williams, The Wizard of Ads

Beware the Knuckleheads

Never argue with an idiot. They’ll just drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
— Bertwin Lord, at a meeting of the Worthless Bastards

Don't Make Things Complicated

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.
— E.F. Schumacher

Keep it Simple

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.
— Confucius