Don't confuse information with understanding.

Although I spend a great deal of time talking about marketing, copywriting, and how your understanding human emotions allows you to sell to these emotions… much of what I do — at least from my perspective — is rooted in plain old common sense.

Sadly, it’s been my observation that (surprise) most people lack common sense. Not because they’re ignorant or stupid or anything else you might think, but simply because they’re not paying attention to what’s going on around them. They’re not learning from their mistakes, and they simply just don’ sit down and think about things before doing them.

See, it’s been proven that nearly all the best decisions you make, are actually intuitive ones. Not “guesses” or “hunches” based on some sort of inside information you think you’ve got access to, but plain old intuitive common sense.

If you want proof of this, and you’re interested in learning more about intuition, then I’d recommend Malcolm Gladwell’s excellent book, “blink.” The subtitle of the book hammers home exactly what I mean, when he says, “The Power Of Thinking Without Thinking.”

As Gladwell says, “We have virtually unlimited amounts of data at our fingertips at all times, and we’re well-versed in the arguments about the dangers of not knowing enough and not doing our homework. But what I have sensed is an enormous frustration with the unexpected costs of knowing too much, of being inundated with information. We have come to confuse information… with understanding.

… The key to good decision-making is not knowledge, it is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter.”

Earlier today I was having a conversation with a friend of mine. He was concerned, as are all good parents, that his son wasn’t making the right choices. That his decision-making was basically going to bite him in the ass.

The reality of life is that this is how we all learn – by screwing up. We learn best by failing, in essence. By being flawed in some way and messing up as a result.

(Which is why you should run as fast as you can, from any “guru” who tells you they’re “perfect.” Because if it’s true, and they don’t make mistakes, then they couldn’t have learned very much. And if they’re lying, well… you already know how that story ends.)

But we succeed by understanding where we went wrong, and by making changes next time out. We succeed the same way a good basketball team does — by making adjustments at half-time, and then coming out like hungry lions when the third quarter starts.

Miring yourself in information may make you “smarter,” if you can call it that… but understanding the RIGHT information, which ultimately can only come from application, is the only thing that makes you wiser.

If you want to read more about “blink,” you’ll find info here: http://tinyurl.com/4jdbfj

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. Get the inside scoop on “The Dark Secret Underbelly Of Success” this month, along with 15 Free Gifts — watch ’em on the goofy video. Yours free when you try Seductive Selling at http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl

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