Chapter Three of Claude C Hopkins’ book, My Life in Advertising.
This is the current #PRL selection of books that discuss and teach influence and persuasion. Join #PRL to receive exclusive updates and content to improve your own persuasive powers and understanding of influence!
Hopkins opens Chapter Three with a story. The summer after highschool graduation, Claude C. Hopkins took a job as a school teacher on the weekdays and a preacher on the weekends.
“The saver & the worker get the preference of the men who control opportunities. And often that preference proves to be the most important thing in life.” —CC Hopkins, My Life in Advertising
One weekend his mother’s strict congregation asked him to speak. Claude had developed new ideas about religion, different from his strict upbringing. He knew this opportunity would test his relationship with his mother. Claude spoke at the church anyway. His mom was, let’s say, not happy. She took him to a restaurant and broke up with him.
Photo “Mmm… chicken pot pie” by Jeffreyw, Flickr, CC-By-2.0
With little to his name and no family support, Hopkins scraped together $200 to attend a business college where he learned essentially nothing about business. With that ‘degree’ he followed up an opportunity to bookkeep and run errands at a boot company. Hopkins made a low salary of $4.50 per week at the boot company. Hopkins writes that he needed to skip meals to make ends meet.
One day Hopkins is able to waylay the president of the Bissel Carpet Cleaners company. Seeing his opportunity, Hopkins described to Bissel the difficulties of living on his low salary and how he wished he could afford to eat pot pies for dinner. Hopkins appeals to Mr. Bissel’s emotions and the satisfaction of a hot meal. Mr. Bissel agreed that Hopkins should afford this small luxury, and arranged for Hopkins to get a raise and be paid $6 per week.
In chapter three, Hopkins has these nuggets:
“No man can succeed in any line where he find himself in disagreement & where unhappiness results.” —CC Hopkins, My Life in Advertising
[tweetthis display_mode=”box”]”I consider business as a game & I play it as a game” —CC Hopkins, My Life in Advertising [/tweetthis]
“The saver & the worker get the preference of the men who control opportunities. And often that preference proves to be the most important thing in life.” —CC Hopkins, My Life in Advertising [tweetthis display_mode=”button_link”]”The saver & th worker get th preference of th men who control opportunities” —CC Hopkins [/tweetthis]