Roy Cohn's secret 4th rule of winning
So I sat down and watched The Apprentice last night with the lady. (The film, not the show.)
And whilst there was one scene in Mar-a-Lago where, for a split second, it appears as though the President's aura phases in from another plane of existence to show Sebastian Stan exactly how he'd stand...
The real star of the show was Jeremy Strong's portrayal of the infamous Roy Cohn.
For the uninitiated, Roy Cohn gained national attention as a prosecutor in the Rosenberg espionage trial and later as chief counsel to McCarthy during the anti-communist hearings of the 1950s. Ken Auletta described him in Esquire as "A legal executioner - the toughest, meanest, loyalest, vilest, and one of the most brilliant lawyers in America."
High praise indeed.
And while vicious ol' Roy's three rules of winning got a lot of attention, there was a creed by which he lived that seemingly has gone under the radar in comparison. And it's this one that, in my nefarious opinion, can be deployed with great effect by those of us with a marketing disposition.
"Here's the thing, Donald. You played sports, right? So they probably taught you to 'play the ball, not the man,' but you see, in reality, it's the total opposite. You play the man, not the ball. Okay? To get what you want, forget the ball. You get the man. This is a nation of men, not laws."
It doesn't matter what tips, tricks, and tactics you learn about copywriting, email marketing, or even business, for that matter. That approach is playing the ball...
When you should be playing the man - your market.
If you've been suckered into a marketing-first approach and want some pointers on developing a market-first mentality straight from the school of Cohn...
Go here:
James Perkins
