MWM ask the expert
MWM 17
Is it Okay to Borrow Other People’s Stories for Emails? I’m pretty sure it is, if you give credit where credit is due. Keep in mind I’m not a lawyer, but I see other marketers use this method all time, as do I. Check this out…
It’s speculated that he would rather die than be extradited to the U.S. to face charges of tax evasion, securities fraud and money laundering for things he allegedly did in the 2000’s, which is another story.
Two thirsty friends were driving in Alabama on a hot August day when they pull up to a water pump in the yard of an abandoned farmhouse. One of the men starts pumping on the handle of the water pump and the other fetches some water from a nearby stream. In order to get the flow of water going, you have to put some water in. As a great man once remarked, in the game of life before you can get anything out, you must put something in. Unfortunately, there are many people who stand in front of the stove of life and say, ‘Stove, give me some heat and then I’ll put some wood in you.’ In the spring farmers start doing the work that is required to have a bountiful harvest later in the year. We all know the proverb, “you reap what you sow.” You have to do the work up front if you want the results later on. After several minutes of pumping the man starts questioning whether there is any water in the well. He’s getting hot and tired and decides to quit. But the other man grabs the pump handle and resumes pumping. He yells, “Don’t stop now, Bernard; if you do, the water will go all the way back down and then you’ll have to start all over again.” Sometimes it feels likes it too much work to plan, like you will never get there. Unfortunately, if you quit, things will slide back and much of the work will need to start all over again. The tough part is you never know how many times you will need to pump to get the water. But regardless of what you are doing, if you will pump long enough, hard enough and enthusiastically enough, sooner or later the effort will bring forth the reward. Just as you score no run if you stop on third base, you can’t quench your thirst with the water that almost comes out of the pump. Fortunately, once the water starts to flow, all you have to do is keep some steady pressure on the pump and you’ll get more water than you can use.
What interests me is McAfee anti-virus, a mediocre product that reportedly netted McAfee $100 million when he sold his software company in the 1990’s. How did he do it?
This is the story of success and happiness in life, and this is also the story of success in planning. Sometimes it moves quickly and sometimes it takes years. The key is to not quit and keep pumping.
Maybe he was in the right place doing the right thing at the right time. In 1987 he was working at Lockheed as one of several small computer guys trying to figure out computer stuff. No one really knew what they were doing yet, as it was the wild frontier time of computers. He left to form McAfee Associates, an antivirus software company. The problems were two-fold – very few people at the time owned computers, and those who did own computers generally thought computer viruses were urban myths (Computers can’t catch viruses, PEOPLE catch viruses!) Yes, boys and girls, there was a time when computer users were that naïve. Then a little virus names Michelangelo came to McAfee’s rescue, infecting 5 million computers worldwide and scaring people into buying antiviral software NOW, and at ANY price. In the space of a few days demand for anti-viral software went through the roof and McAfee was positioned to take advantage of the market. (If you’ve heard how eccentric McAfee was in real life, you may very well wonder if he didn’t unleash Michelangelo himself to jumpstart his company. While I’ve seen no evidence of that, I wouldn’t rule it out, either. As they say, follow the money, and who had more to profit from the first big computer virus than the company selling the remedy? But I digress…) Two years after Michelangelo, McAfee surprised the business world by stepping down as CEO and selling his shares for $100 million. If he had hung onto those shares until Intel bought McAfee Associates in 2010, he would have become a multibillionaire.
