14 lessons from one of the greatest business books ever penned by the hand of mortal man

I am referring to Dan Kennedy’s late 1990's book: “No Rules: 21 Giant Lies About Success” Just a few lessons I learned, use today, & profit from due to this book: * Dan’s personal experience with one of “Queen of mean” Leona Helmsley’s hotels has had a gigantic and direct impact on how I approach the customer service-side of my own business (including going into great detail about it in an Email Players issue a few years back) * Because of this book I learned very early on to knee-jerkedly (it’s like a “factory setting” for me now) to always, without exception… go against conventional wisdom about anything and everything the crowd deems important. Not just business, marketing, copywriting… but health, politics, finance, and everything in between. And I’ve never once regretted doing so. * Harnessing negativity and realizing the uselessness of positive thinking for getting any real work done. * Choosing what companies I invest in (Learnistic, BerserkerMail, Low Stress Trading, soon a local newspaper… for example). * My disdain and avoidance of all-things cheap-mindedness which has impacted how I price my offers, how I curate my list, and how I know which people to avoid and which to do business with. * My “No coming back” policy for Email Players. * My no refunds policy on all my books and offers. * Not giving a flying rat’s puckering bung hole about email open rates or clicks or what any email goo-roo says, thinks, or does (which has never failed me in email, not one single time I can think of…) * Deliberately mixing business with pleasure — and in my case doing it to such an obnoxious degree I can sometimes no longer tell where one begins and the other ends. * My “the customer is NEVER right” attitude. * My entire “Sociological marketing” approach I taught in the September Email Players issue as well as in my elBenbo Press book that has built my entire operation on my terms, with the exact customers I want, and without having to bend the knee to anyone else for any reason at any time. * My entire business (offers, sales pages, emails, all of it) being plain text in a world of video, audio, and pretty sites. * Selling primarily physical books — and at prices that are not “supposed” to be sold at (that Email Players subscriber Russell Brunson is on record telling me inspired him to start doing the same after reading elBenbo Press, I will add…) * On a less relevant note: I even used a line in Dan's book (“The best part of this book is that it can’t even agree with itself”) as the opening quote for my 9th Enoch Wars novel (Serpent Seed) introduction — to help prep the reader for the totally controversial & even outright heretical (to lukewarm Christians at least) theological opinions inside that novel. Now, to be clear: I got many of the above lessons directly from Dan’s book. But, at the same time, some of them were merely inspired by something I read in his book, that may or may not even have had anything directly to do with the book's content. Sometimes the best ideas come from ‘springboards’ of info that send ideas flying at you from directions you never expected. And that happens with this particular book in spades every time I read it. Anyway, I got all the above out of the 1998 Plume version. It’s beaten & battered & dog eared to the hilt. It’s also nearly impossible to find anymore which is the bad news. The good news? Dan is bringing it back as a totally new and improved version called: “NO BS Guide to Succeeding in Business by Breaking ALL The Rules” I asked him if it is like the original and here’s what he said: === YES, "new" is an acknowledge up-date of the original, 1997. It has held up well. All the key stories have changed; there are seven different, featured people matched to different rules broken. (All 7 clients, of course). Six will be appearing during the March 22 webcast. (NOT selling). The content itself is tighter. 13 "lies & myths"/rules to break. Nothing disappeared, just re-arranged, so whatever you got out of the original is still there to be gleaned. On the March 22 webcast, I am presenting two ADDITIONAL items - one, THE secret of secrets that is THE golden thread through the book and through every person's rule-breaker story, and two, a strategy demonstrated by the book but not in it. You will really, really like it. Overall, I do think the new version is better than the original. === What to do next: Hop on the free webcast Dan is doing today at 11:00 am - 3:00 PM EST. He’s not selling anything on there (other than talking about his book, I reckon…) He’s also not making anyone register or do anything other than show up. Frankly, he’s not even collecting opt-ins to build a mailing list for it or anything like that. And no, I am not an affiliate. I am just spreading the gospel of Dan Kennedy about his newest book. Which is an updated version of one of my favorite business books. That he is going to be teaching about later today here: [https∶//www.EmailPlayers.com/norules]( Ben Settle P.S. Ironically, this email is breaking 3 major “rules” in and of itself: 1. I never mail for people's book launches - not even for good friends, much to their annoyance and disappointment. Because everyone and their mother is always doing a book launch, and if I do it for one I have to do it for everyone who asks, and so I avoid doing it. 2. I don't mail for anyone even if I'm getting paid during launches for reasons I go into in my Affiliate Launch Copynomicon book. Mailing during a launch is the worst time for me to do it and so I don't bother and always wait until afterwards. 3. I don't like sending people to someone else’s cash register since I’m not a charity. But when the Professor of Harsh Reality asks you to help him out you don’t argue with him. You don’t shoot him any sass or back talk. And you sure as hell don’t give him any “lip” — you just do as he says and, as I have found, many intangible benefits you can’t track with a spreadsheet tend to happen. This email was sent by Ben Settle as owner of Settle, LLC. Copyright © 2024 Settle, LLC. All Rights Reserved. No part of this email may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from Settle, LLC. Click here to [unsubscribe]( Settle, LLC PO Box 1056 Gold Beach Oregon 97444 USA