Just Dumb Ass Stupid
Someone I’ve never heard of by the name of Howard Stein write me to tell me that “my logo is awful, low grade 1970s” and that if Bentley used such poor practices you’d never know you were the owner of a fine car. (Forget that illogic for the moment, because the value makes the brand. My logo could be a tree frog—I hear them nightly here in Fiji—and it wouldn’t matter to my success.)
He wanted to provide better typography for me! And he told me he had listened to my audio and read a book of mine, so he was a “paying customer.”
I told him the people meeting me here in Fiji and paying a hell of a lot for my advice over their careers were paying customers and he was a book owner. I suggested that he hadn’t learned from my audios and book that this was a relationship business and that you don’t sell anything by insulting the buyer and his team.
But I told him to put up or shut up: Send me an example of his superior work.
But Howard Stein then told me I’d be “the client from hell” and he had nothing to send. That’s because Howard Stein attempts to be a bully, belittling people to convince them he’s better than others. But when you simply stand up to a bully, the bully always melts, Alabama asphalt in August.
Don’t let people like Stein intimidate you. Knock them back down the bank, under the bridge, and into their holes. They are just trolls and they don’t reach past the knees of truly talented people.
Tim Wilson
So let me get this straight, because he bought a book, listen to an audio, that makes him a paying customer?
Well, then, if that is the case, I have over a dozen of your books, read your newsletter regularly, catch every episode of Writing on The Wall and have attended functions where you spoke for free.
By that account, I should be able to take the Vette out for a spin. Let me know when I can, I promise to have back before midnight with a full take of gas.
Also I promise to write up an in-depth report on how it handles so you can drive it better.