Wayne Dyer has an excellent success story because he had several "coincidences". Unlike most, however, these coincidences were mostly all manufactured intentionally.
Wayne Dyer went and followed his intuition after teaching for 40 years or something. He decided to quit his job for what he felt was his "purpose". He had a message he felt he had to tell. So he found a small publisher that would publish him and they said that they would start with 2000 copies. He asked what would happen if he sold all 2000. They assured him he wouldn't, but after pressing them they'd told him they'd move him up the list and he'd get more exposure so they would promote him more.
“In mathematics, two angles that are said to coincide fit together perfectly. The word “coincidence” does not describe luck or mistakes. It describes that which fits together perfectly.”— Wayne W. Dyer
Unknowingly to the publisher, Wayne BOUGHT every single copy of his own book. He figured he'd get a portion of the money back and also be able to make up for it later, plus his main goal was to get his message out, not make money.
Upon doing so the publisher began moving him up the list of best sellers from the publisher and doing a little more to promote him. Meanwhile he had 2,000 copies of books he had to get rid of. He filled his RV with his book and went around radio stations as well as calling them up and went around the US using local radio. He'd call them up to talk and leave his name. He wasn't trying to force it or going with the purpose of promoting. He had the idea that if more people heard about him and had a positive experience they'd want to learn more... He never even mentioned his book by name, because he wanted it seem like a "sign" or a coincidence that people came across his work just after they heard him on the radio and wondered where they could find more. He repeated this for every local radio station in a particular area.
Meanwhile he had several relatives call and even disguise their voice and call again asking a specific bookstore if they had his book in store. Just afterwards, he would come in as his own distributor saying something like "Hey I have my book I'm trying to sell, you can have the first 50 copies on me, here's my number and the publisher's number if you want to order more". They were amazed at the timing and often said something like "People have been calling about your book all day long! What a coincidence!" And of course it was. It just happened to be a manufactured coincidence.
Most likely some of the local customers that were planning on going to the bookstore in the next week had listened to the radio and some of those that did would have heard him, and he'd have their attention. "What a coincidence, I just heard this guy on the radio!" They'd likely think to themselves or say outloud. "Everyone has been asking about this book, just the other day about a dozen people called asking for it" the owner may also say. "This guy must be popular, I better put the books in a more premium location" The owner probably would think to himself.
Wayne Dyer would repeat this across all radio stations in an area and all bookstores in an area until his books were gone. Well do this 40 times and the books are all in bookstores in areas that have had lots of local radio coverage of him. If 40 bookstores around the US sell these books and many of them put them in the most obvious place because they think it's in high demand, a lot of people will take a look at it. Some will buy it. Some of those 40 stores will sell out. At this point the store owners that happen to sell out will reorder a lot more than they would have. There is a manufactured appearance of even higher demand (he's not always going to be on the radio station just before people come in). So once they order it they're going to try to sell them as well, and because they think it's a hot seller they are going to put it in front or by the cash register where everyone can see it. It will become a self-fulfilling prophecy and sell out.
Additionally, people that buy it and think "what a coincidence" might read that book and have another coincidence in their life that matches with the book or that meets their needs. These people are going to tell the store as if their prayer was answered, and their friends and family are going to respond positively and perhaps even retell that story. Word of mouth will likely spread at least some, and some people that never would have known about this book AND never even heard of Wayne Dyer or even were one of the few that heard the radio may actually go out looking for it without any need for the book to be in a premium spot. They may share the story with the owner, or tell someone else if they like it as well.
I believe the publisher had another 5,000 after the first 2,000 and Wayne Dyer may have even personally bought a large amount or even all 5,000 books of the next order but after that, they started selling on his own. Well you may say... that's incredibly expensive. Write a book, buy the books, leave them for free... Wayne was living out of his RV at the time.
But Wayne Dyer wasn't necessarily trying to make money from this book, but establish himself and his name and more importantly do what he could to get his message out. It just so happens that attention was needed to do so and in the process he gained a lot more attention. He became a best selling author and larger publishers with better promotion and more credibility and distribution to bookstores wanted Wayne to write a book for them next, so he wrote several more books after that and did what he could to make media appearances. The totally phantom and manufactured "best new author" title where he was literally buying all of his own books just happened to give him more attention and credibility and labels of "fastest growing author" which lead to more sales that were legitimate and plenty of real attention on him after that.
He would also continue with the promotion. He would contact anyone and everyone he could to try to get his face and/or voice out there. Many times he was enormously optimistic and would contact the same people as much as possible. I think one of his stories he wanted to get on with Johnny Carson or the major talk show host at the time like that and he kept pestering anyone and everyone he could. They finally said "If you call again, I'm going to block your number" He may have even came back in person and said "You didn't say I couldn't visit, but here's my number I really would like to get on the show and here's a copy of my book". As it turns out, shortly after the host was on an airplane and sat next to someone reading his book, and she couldn't stop talking about how wonderful it was.
The talk show asked his secretary if she would try calling him or to find out if he's worth interviewing and she probably flipped out. "That's the guy who's been calling me every day trying to get on your show for the past 3 weeks!" The talk show host could easily mistake a frustrated and annoyed but slightly shocked secretary speaking energetically with a high pitched voice as enthusiasm instead of frustration because she wouldn't have wanted to seem too negative in front of her boss. "What a coincidence!" The talk show host probably thought gleefully, "I'm going to have to get him on the show now!".
Now Perhaps Wayne Dyer himself or someone he knew worked very hard and found a way to make sure to get a seat next on the plane and gave it to her wife and told her to read the book or something. That isn't what happened, but if it was it would still be seen in the talk show host's view as a "coincidence" despite being obsessively persistent, coordinated (and borderline stalker) behavior. It would still be seen as "lucky" to many. But it's really the result of specific causes that were DESIGNED to look like a coincidence. But even if this was just a "random person", you have to figure the chances of this happening with over 2,000 books out there (or 10,000 as this may have been later on) were much better than if he had gone another route. Also, to the talk show host who wasn't annoyed with constantly receiving the calls, it was at least just a funny story, at most was some sort of sign and great coincidence as well as an impressive display of persistence.
The person who happened to turn on the radio on the way to the bookstore and happened to see the book available from the talk show host who left his name would see it as a coincidence and perhaps a "sign". The book stores would see it as a coincidence. The talk show hosts might have been visted at the exact moment they were looking for guests or content (perhaps after much persistence and perhaps by research and perhaps by intented timing. Or perhaps it was just the method of suffering thorugh dozens of rejections like any door to door salesman. The point is, all these COINCIDENCES were intentional intersections of making sure everything was done to be at the right place at the right time.
So let's repeat the quote from Wayne Dyer that this article started with:
“In mathematics, two angles that are said to coincide fit together perfectly. The word “coincidence” does not describe luck or mistakes. It describes that which fits together perfectly.”— Wayne W. Dyer
You can direct your intention towards finding a way to be the perfect fit if you think from the perspective of the customer. If the customer happens to walk in a bookstore and see the book of the person he or she was just listening to on the radio and just thinking of buying the book, that would fit perfectly aligning the product and the buyer up without actually trying to "sell it" or manipulate them into buying it.
Well, as the story continues Wayne Dyer became one of the best selling authors in the nation multiple times, he's been on TV and radio all over the world, he's been a major selling force in the "self help" industry and he also has been one of the top fundraisers of all time on telethons to raise money for charity.
Now there are other ways to be in the right place at the right time. Knowing a potential market or solving a potential problem that isn't being solved or finding an audience that perhaps doesn't even know it wants a product that doesn't even exist yet is a skill as well and that is one additional thing that helps you get in the right place at the right time. There are many skills in marketing, advertising, persuasion, sales, influence, press releases, various forms of attracting attention that can help you get in the right place in the right time.
But if you start to treat luck as a skill, you will find ways to put yourself in a position where success will happen as a direct consequence of specific intended actions. The mere belief creates an open enough mind that you may start to look for ways to create coincidences, and the person who believes that luck is obtainable is more likely to find it. Believe you are lucky with all your emotion and imagine it so, and it may become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Luck to most people is not a skill because they don't understand that coincidence can be manufactured. Generally those who expect good things to happen for it have confirmation bias and spot the opportunities that will lead to positive outcomes. They simply notice it and do something about it.
What steps are you going to create today to directly plan coincidences so you can be more successful now that you have learned the secret of luck?
No comments:
Post a Comment