From “How to Write Email that GETS RESULTS & Other CEObservations”

Maybe we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot here. I don’t want to come across as some conceited egomaniac with no respect for people whom he thinks are inferior to him. That’s just not true. I’m simply a man who knows the value of being blunt.

Let me speak frankly to you because I feel we’ve built up a rapport in these first two chapters to the point that I can be open and honest with you without you blowing the whistle on me: Beating around the bush and passiveness are occupational hazards. I didn’t make it through the jungles of Vietnam by “talking things out” with Charlie. I didn’t survive my brief marriage to Courtney Love by waiting for her to “love me more.” I didn’t rise to the top of the business world by waiting for idiots to do things “when they have time.” Every success I’ve had is from being blunt.

Believe me when I say that I have nothing against those who want to live a life of freedom from money, those self-sustaining earthy types who put more value on spirituality and nature than money and material things, those who would rather eat berries from a bush than market or sell and eat steak. In fact, these people are our subsidiary Timber Strand’s best customers. (“If you don’t chain yourself to a tree with Timber Strand, you really don’t care, do you?”)

I respect a man who would rather teach people in Africa how to farm than sell my latest farm-fresh deodorant, teach people how to read rather than how to make something read well in the fine print. If you can find that little corner of the world where you can live in harmony with people and do what you think you were put on this Earth to do – far away from the corrupting forces of the Internet, advertising and possibly electricity, I say, “Go for it,” and make the world a better place while you’re doing it.

But I, like most of you, decided a long time ago that I wanted to play the game. In this game, there are winners, and then there’s the rest of you.