A Billion Dollar Sales Letter?

This is the most successful sales letter EVER! It generated over 2 Billion dollars in sales! The question you should be asking is how can you leverage this information?

Simple.

Follow the principles behind the letter.

I find it interesting.

Here it is:

Dear Reader:

On a beautiful late spring afternoon, twenty-five years ago, two young men graduated from the same college. They were very much alike, these two young men. Both had been better than average students, both were personable and both—as young college graduates are—were filled with ambitious dreams for the future.

Recently, these men returned to their college for their 25th reunion.

They were still very much alike. Both were happily married. Both had three children. And both, it turned out, had gone to work for the same Midwestern manufacturing company after graduation, and were still there.

But there was a difference. One of the men was manager of a small department of that company. The other was its president.

What Made The Difference

Have you ever wondered, as I have, what makes this kind of difference in people's lives? It isn't a native intelligence or talent or dedication. It isn't that one person wants success and the other doesn't.

The difference lies in what each person knows and how he or she makes use of that knowledge.

And that is why I am writing to you and to people like you about The Wall Street Journal. For that is the whole purpose of The Journal: to give its readers knowledge—knowledge that they can use in business.

A Publication Unlike Any Other

You see, The Wall Street Journal is a unique publication. It's the country's only national business daily. Each business day, it is put together by the world's largest staff of business-news experts.

Each business day, The Journal's pages include a broad range of information of interest and significance to business-minded people, no matter where it comes from. Not just stocks and finance, but anything and everything in the whole, fast-moving world of business. . .The Wall Street Journal gives you all the business news you need—when you need it.

Knowledge Is Power

Right now, I am looking at page one of The Journal, the best-read front page in America. It combines all the important news of the day with in-depth feature report-ing. Every phase of business news is covered. I see articles on new inflation, wholesale prices, car prices, tax incentives for industries to major developments in Washington, and elsewhere.

(over, please)

And there is page after page inside The Journal, filled with fascinating and significant information that's useful to you. The Marketplace section gives you insights into how consumers are thinking and spending. How companies compete for market share. There is daily coverage of law, technology, media and marketing. Plus daily features on the challenges of managing smaller companies.

The Journal is also the single best source for news and statistics about your money. In the Money & Investing section there are helpful charts, easy-to-scan market quotations, plus “Abreast of the Market, ” “Heard on the Street” and “Your Money Matters, ” three of America's most influential and carefully read investment columns.

If you have never read The Wall Street Journal, you cannot imagine how useful it can be to you.

A Money-Saving Subscription

Put our statements to the proof by subscribing for the next 13 weeks for just $44. This is among the shortest subscription terms we offer—and a perfect way to get acquainted with The Journal.

Or you may prefer to take advantage of our better buy —one year for $149. You save over $40 off the cover price of The Journal.

Simply fill out the enclosed order card and mail it in the postage-paid envelope pro-vided. And here's The Journal's guarantee: should The Journal not measure up to your expectations, you may cancel this arrangement at any point and receive a refund for the undelivered portion of your subscription.

If you feel as we do that this is a fair and reasonable proposition, then you will want to find out without delay if The Wall Street Journal can do for you what it is doing for mil-lions of readers. So please mail the enclosed order card now, and we will start serving you immediately.

About those two college classmates I mention at the beginning of this letter: they were graduated from college together and together got started in the business world. So what made their lives in business different?

Knowledge. Useful knowledge. And its application.

An Investment In Success

I cannot promise you that success will be instantly yours if you start reading The Wall Street Journal. But I can guarantee that you will find The Journal always interesting, always reliable, and always useful.

Sincerely,

Publisher

PRK: id
Encs.

P.S. It's important to note that The Journal's subscription price may be tax deductible.
Ask your tax advisor.

© 1994 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Want To FEED The World?

Well....DO YOU?

Here is a start!

I found this website yesterday:

http://freerice.com/

For every word you guess correctly they donate 20 grains of rice!

Now get after it!

What She Really Wants

It is a funny subject to talk about for guys.

We often hear advice from our friends on
how we should behave around the opposite
sex.

I have some friends who act totally polite, when
it reality they are the far from it.

I have other friends who act totally ridiculous.
Yet, they are probably the most redundant
and boring people I know.

At the end of the day, single guys have to figure
out what attracts woman and build a emotional
connect.

Esquire just put out an new article on the subject:

www.esquire.com

How did a 23 year old earn 27 MILLION?

I was reading about the top earners under 25 years of age today.

Check out the link to the article below:

www.forbes.com

Did you say your STILL GOING TO KENYA!

YES!

We are still heading to Kenya.

My sister and I spoke with our friend Kim who has been in Kenya the entire time. She testified that she has not had any problems or any kind since the Elections.

When we touch down I will send an update from Africa.

SPEAKING MY MIND: On the Superbowl!

Let's just clear the airways: This super bowl is
going to be a joke.

Colts pissed away what should have been a great
victory for the ultimate titled match.

I hold the management of the Colts responsible.

What type of organization talks about any-
thing other than playoff the week before the game.

I can't believe Irsay was trying to figure out the
situation with Dungy during that week.

Let the guy focus. He doesn't need any more
stress in his life!

Other than that I don't know what to say...

I am just ticked off about the whole deal!

Updates

I might have to come home for a visit if my grand father continues to get worst.

I talked with him last Saturday. I could hear over the phone how weak he is.

I am praying every day for his return to better health!

Lighter note:

Played basketball for two and a half hours last night.

We went 3 for 2. We only lost the two games by 1 point!

Was the competition quality? Kinda. This group of guys was keen on making BS calls. But that didn't stop me.

I also just launched a new website

www.imnotaguru.net

Check it out!

Haruki Murakami: On seeing the 100% perfect girl one beautiful April morning

I found this story and I thought you might enjoy it!

One beautiful April morning, on a narrow side street in Tokyo's fashionable Harujuku neighborhood, I walked past the 100% perfect girl.

Tell you the truth, she's not that good-looking. She doesn't stand out in any way. Her clothes are nothing special. The back of her hair is still bent out of shape from sleep. She isn't young, either - must be near thirty, not even close to a "girl," properly speaking. But still, I know from fifty yards away: She's the 100% perfect girl for me. The moment I see her, there's a rumbling in my chest, and my mouth is as dry as a desert.

Maybe you have your own particular favorite type of girl - one with slim ankles, say, or big eyes, or graceful fingers, or you're drawn for no good reason to girls who take their time with every meal. I have my own preferences, of course. Sometimes in a restaurant I'll catch myself staring at the girl at the next table to mine because I like the shape of her nose.

But no one can insist that his 100% perfect girl correspond to some preconceived type. Much as I like noses, I can't recall the shape of hers - or even if she had one. All I can remember for sure is that she was no great beauty. It's weird.

"Yesterday on the street I passed the 100% girl," I tell someone.

"Yeah?" he says. "Good-looking?"

"Not really."

"Your favorite type, then?"

"I don't know. I can't seem to remember anything about her - the shape of her eyes or the size of her breasts."

"Strange."

"Yeah. Strange."

"So anyhow," he says, already bored, "what did you do? Talk to her? Follow her?"

"Nah. Just passed her on the street."

She's walking east to west, and I west to east. It's a really nice April morning.

Wish I could talk to her. Half an hour would be plenty: just ask her about herself, tell her about myself, and - what I'd really like to do - explain to her the complexities of fate that have led to our passing each other on a side street in Harajuku on a beautiful April morning in 1981. This was something sure to be crammed full of warm secrets, like an antique clock build when peace filled the world.

After talking, we'd have lunch somewhere, maybe see a Woody Allen movie, stop by a hotel bar for cocktails. With any kind of luck, we might end up in bed.

Potentiality knocks on the door of my heart.

Now the distance between us has narrowed to fifteen yards.

How can I approach her? What should I say?

"Good morning, miss. Do you think you could spare half an hour for a little conversation?"

Ridiculous. I'd sound like an insurance salesman.

"Pardon me, but would you happen to know if there is an all-night cleaners in the neighborhood?"

No, this is just as ridiculous. I'm not carrying any laundry, for one thing. Who's going to buy a line like that?

Maybe the simple truth would do. "Good morning. You are the 100% perfect girl for me."

No, she wouldn't believe it. Or even if she did, she might not want to talk to me. Sorry, she could say, I might be the 100% perfect girl for you, but you're not the 100% boy for me. It could happen. And if I found myself in that situation, I'd probably go to pieces. I'd never recover from the shock. I'm thirty-two, and that's what growing older is all about.

We pass in front of a flower shop. A small, warm air mass touches my skin. The asphalt is damp, and I catch the scent of roses. I can't bring myself to speak to her. She wears a white sweater, and in her right hand she holds a crisp white envelope lacking only a stamp. So: She's written somebody a letter, maybe spent the whole night writing, to judge from the sleepy look in her eyes. The envelope could contain every secret she's ever had.

I take a few more strides and turn: She's lost in the crowd.

Now, of course, I know exactly what I should have said to her. It would have been a long speech, though, far too long for me to have delivered it properly. The ideas I come up with are never very practical.

Oh, well. It would have started "Once upon a time" and ended "A sad story, don't you think?"

Once upon a time, there lived a boy and a girl. The boy was eighteen and the girl sixteen. He was not unusually handsome, and she was not especially beautiful. They were just an ordinary lonely boy and an ordinary lonely girl, like all the others. But they believed with their whole hearts that somewhere in the world there lived the 100% perfect boy and the 100% perfect girl for them. Yes, they believed in a miracle. And that miracle actually happened.

One day the two came upon each other on the corner of a street.

"This is amazing," he said. "I've been looking for you all my life. You may not believe this, but you're the 100% perfect girl for me."

"And you," she said to him, "are the 100% perfect boy for me, exactly as I'd pictured you in every detail. It's like a dream."

They sat on a park bench, held hands, and told each other their stories hour after hour. They were not lonely anymore. They had found and been found by their 100% perfect other. What a wonderful thing it is to find and be found by your 100% perfect other. It's a miracle, a cosmic miracle.

As they sat and talked, however, a tiny, tiny sliver of doubt took root in their hearts: Was it really all right for one's dreams to come true so easily?

And so, when there came a momentary lull in their conversation, the boy said to the girl, "Let's test ourselves - just once. If we really are each other's 100% perfect lovers, then sometime, somewhere, we will meet again without fail. And when that happens, and we know that we are the 100% perfect ones, we'll marry then and there. What do you think?"

"Yes," she said, "that is exactly what we should do."

And so they parted, she to the east, and he to the west.

The test they had agreed upon, however, was utterly unnecessary. They should never have undertaken it, because they really and truly were each other's 100% perfect lovers, and it was a miracle that they had ever met. But it was impossible for them to know this, young as they were. The cold, indifferent waves of fate proceeded to toss them unmercifully.

One winter, both the boy and the girl came down with the season's terrible inluenza, and after drifting for weeks between life and death they lost all memory of their earlier years. When they awoke, their heads were as empty as the young D. H. Lawrence's piggy bank.

They were two bright, determined young people, however, and through their unremitting efforts they were able to acquire once again the knowledge and feeling that qualified them to return as full-fledged members of society. Heaven be praised, they became truly upstanding citizens who knew how to transfer from one subway line to another, who were fully capable of sending a special-delivery letter at the post office. Indeed, they even experienced love again, sometimes as much as 75% or even 85% love.

Time passed with shocking swiftness, and soon the boy was thirty-two, the girl thirty.

One beautiful April morning, in search of a cup of coffee to start the day, the boy was walking from west to east, while the girl, intending to send a special-delivery letter, was walking from east to west, but along the same narrow street in the Harajuku neighborhood of Tokyo. They passed each other in the very center of the street. The faintest gleam of their lost memories glimmered for the briefest moment in their hearts. Each felt a rumbling in their chest. And they knew:

She is the 100% perfect girl for me.

He is the 100% perfect boy for me.

But the glow of their memories was far too weak, and their thoughts no longer had the clarity of fouteen years earlier. Without a word, they passed each other, disappearing into the crowd. Forever.

A sad story, don't you think?

Yes, that's it, that is what I should have said to her.

CRAP!?

Colts make me cry.

London makes me happy.

Midwest STAND DOWN!

So I am in London, UK.

I can't watch anything about sports other than highlights on espn.com

When I woke to see LSU steamrolled OSU, I was pretty sad.

Over the weekend, BSU only saw Rutgers run them over.

Then OSU again is smashed in the BCS championship.

I would have enjoyed watching these games. But after seeing the results, no so much....

More....coming.....later.....

P.S. I've been meeting some local over here. My main man calls himself Da' Ritz!

Watch out now. The kid is putting together a crew!

Ball State Football MUST come up BIG!

Indiana is known across the USA for usually three things:

1. World Champ Colts

2. Basketball Capital of the World

3. Indianapolis 500

Many of the state colleges have excelled in sports like basketball and soccer. But college football in Indiana is some what of a low point. Fortunately, Purdue won. Unfortunately, IU lost. Luckily, BSU plays today!

Some of my good amigos are actually in Canada right now rooting on Ball State.

In my humble opinion, college football in Indiana is transitioning into a better programs. Yet, we need consistency and a run for the whole enchilada!

Update

To my dearest fans:

I have been in London since the 21st of December. From the 21st to the 2nd of January, I spent all my waking moments with my siblings and parents. I can not even think of any other time our entire family had that much daily contact with each other. It was nice while it lasted.

Everyone departed on the 2nd. Once they all left, my body proceeded to die for roughly 36 hours! I am in one of the coolest city's in the world, but I was stuck inside for all that time. Thankfully, I am feeling better. I was supposed to start my internship on Wednesday, then today, so if everything goes as planned tomorrow will be my first day.

One challenge that has come up is my trip to Kenya. With the recent events, I am planning on canceling my trip. However, I am shopping for new destinations. Only time will tell.

Thats whats up!