How I consult with dead people ...

In 1937, Napoleon Hill published a book called “Think and Grow Rich”. Fascinating read! I would recommend you get a copy of ”Think and Grow Rich“ by Napoleon Hill and “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. Read them both over and over again. Get them etched into your subconscious mind. Become a living, breathing, walking, talking embodiment of them.

In Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill talked about the Master Mind Principle. The idea is that when two or more people come together for a common goal, it creates a new, master, greater mind that is much more powerful than than sum of them all on their own.

And they don’t even need to be alive right now. Napoleon Hill (and maybe Dr. Maxwell Maltz of Psycho-Cybernetics too, not sure) used to have imaginary conversations with their dead role models and ask them for advice. Like Mark Twain or Andrew Carnegie. Or even Abraham Lincoln.

I have such imaginary conversations too, sometimes. With dead people whose work I admire. With fictional people whose lives I find interesting. And, most importantly, with my own deeper self that is wiser and calmer than the frenzied, surface self.

And the content of those conversations is usually fueled by everything you have studied or known about those dead people. Knowledge is knowledge, my friend. The founding fathers of Islam used to say knowledge is the inheritance of the believer. Take it wherever you find it.

Basically, no one succeeds alone. You need your influences. Yesterday, I mentioned some of mine. Ben Settle, John Carlton, Dan Kennedy, David Ogilvy, Gary Halbert, etc.

Here is a more comprehensive list (Still not exhaustive, though):

The main form of master minding and learning for me is BOOKS. Read lots of books, pay attention to the books mentioned and recommended in books by people you look up to. And then find those books and see if you like them .. rinse and repeat.

Oh, and implement whatever nuggets of wisdom as soon as you find them. That’s what converts the knowledge into wisdom, actually!

Stream of consciousness remains my favorite mode of thinking, writing, drawing, painting, art, content creation, everything. Always studying more of it. Including improv.

One of the books I love on this topic is “Accidental Genius”. Highly recommended! And no, the author is not dead.

I found out about it from the blurb of another book on client building. That book had a testimonial by Mark Levy, the author of Accidental Genius. The title just stood out to me. I love it.

Then, Accidental Genius led me to “Writing With Power” by Peter Elbow but I haven’t yet been able to find it.

Similarly, Dan Kennedy’s book “Make ‘em Laugh And Take Their Money” led me to “Humor Power” by Herb True. Both of those books are gold.

And so on and so forth. It’s a bit like Pokémon Go, except you’re on a hunt for books, authors, and wisdom.

I’ll talk about these things in much more detail in the magazine. Grab a copy of the previous issues HERE. But keep in mind that the upcoming issues will be quite different in tone and style (and maybe a bit of philosophy too) than all the previous issues.

Cheers.

Shakaib Feroz.