Persuading Terrorist Cowards
After the tragic terrorist attack yesterday in NYC (where I am now), leaders were quick to say it was an act of terror and the perpetrator was a coward. Both terms are persuasion mistakes. I’ll tell you why.
The North Korea Reframe
North Korea is building nukes and ICBMs to prevent the United States from attacking. Meanwhile, the United States does not want to attack North Korea. And yet we find ourselves at the brink of nuclear war while not actually having a root problem on which we disagree. They don’t want to be attacked and we don’t want to attack them. Doesn’t that seem solvable?
Low Public Approval of President Trump Yet Unusually High Consumer Confidence. Hmmm…
How did we get to a place where The President of the United States has historically low approval at the same time we have recent highs for consumer confidence?
Almost everything President Trump does has an impact on the economy, and on consumers. That includes national security, immigration, taxes, health care, budgets, treaties, government regulations, and international relations. If the public is optimistic about the economy, that is normally the same as having confidence in the president. At least on the big-ticket items.
The types of presidential actions that have lower impact on the economy include court appointments, opinions on confederate statues, NFL kneeling, transgenders in the military, birth control funding, unpresidential tweets, poorly-executed disavowals, hyperbole that fails the fact-checking, seemingly unnecessary political attacks, and all manner of obnoxious presidential behavior. The majority of citizens disapprove of President Trump on at least some of those topics.
I don’t think we’ve ever seen something like this before. A majority of citizens disapprove of President Trump while simultaneously having confidence he’ll get most of the big stuff right and the economy will reflect it.
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Win Bigly – Available for pre-order
My new book, Win Bigly, is available for pre-order wherever you buy books:
Win Bigly is a tutorial on weapons-grade persuasion, using as a backdrop the personal story of how I used my knowledge of persuasion to predict a number of unlikely events during the 2016 election. You’ll have a new superpower when you are done with it. And you’ll never see reality the same way again. (In a good way.)
If you liked my book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, you know it taught you how to persuade yourself toward success (essentially). Win Bigly teaches you how to persuade others. I hope you use your new powers for good.
Win Bigly is some of my best work. You’re gonna like it.
Leadership is Breaking Out All Over
I know you prefer my written blog posts, but I’m recording the audiobook for Win Bigly all this week and only have time for some Periscope fun. This one is about leadership breaking out all over. If you want some optimism with your coffee, here it is.
My periscope on Leadership breaking out.
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Win Bigly will be available Oct 31st. If you see any exploded heads that day, those are not Halloween decorations.