Copywriting is the most important entrepreneurial skill you could learn.
There, I said it. You could come up with the cure for cancer, but if you don’t know how to sell it, it won’t move from the shelf.
The opposite is true too. You can write the worst book ever written (50 Shades of Grey), market it with powerful copy, and still make a small fortune.
This is the power of marketing, and more specifically, copy.
Copywriting helps you sell what you produce. If you don’t sell, you go bankrupt. As simple as that.
Effective copy has one secret, one golden nugget that you can apply to business, writing, and relationships to become more successful. I like to think this secret is what sets apart millionaires from the rest of the world.
Ready?
Copywriting teaches you to produce what others want to consume.
Applying This Principle in Real Life
One of the worst commonly given pieces of advice is “do what you love.”
The problem is that as well-intentioned as it is, doing what you love will lead you nowhere. In a capitalist society, it’s not you that decides whether you will be successful. It’s other people.
A musician’s success is determined by the size of the public and the number of songs he sells.
A director’s success is determined by the number of tickets his movies sell. And an entrepreneur’s success is determined by the number of people that buy what he sells.
In a society where others decide whether you are successful or not, you shouldn’t “do what you love”, but do what others love.
Entrepreneurship for selfish reasons will fail. Entrepreneurship for selfless reasons will succeed.
Copywriting teaches you to write what others want to read. By the same token, it teaches you to produce what others want to consume. It forces you to enter the head of your customers, to explore their fears and desires. It trains you to see what they want so that you can deliver.
“Write what they want to read” led to “produce what they want to consume.” This in turn leads to “say what they want to hear”.
The Bottom Line
The biggest lesson I have learned in 2021 is that the most successful people are the ones that take care of other people’s desires and needs first.
They are the entrepreneurs that put customer service first.
They are the writers that write what people want to read. They are the people that listen to their friends and tell them it’s gonna be alright, and that yes, he definitely was an assh*ole and oh my god, I can’t believe you dated him for so long.
The implementation of this principle in your daily life is difficult. You must constantly remind yourself to put yourself out of the picture and leave some space for others.
You need to forget about your desires and take care of everyone else’s desires. You need to stop doing what you love and do what they love.
It’s hard. This is why most people don’t do it. This is why financial, social, and artistic success is only enjoyed by a lucky few hard-working people that put the desires of others ahead of their own.
They are the leaders “that eat last” because they make sure others have enough food before them. They are the founders that wake up at 5h00 to answer their customers.
And this is why they succeed.
Photo credits: Photo by Kimson Doan on Unsplash
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