Walk anywhere with me, and you'll notice something a little odd: I do whatever it takes to get on your right side. That's because I lost most of the hearing in my right ear when I was a boy.
Best thing that ever happened to me.
By nature, I talk far too much. But I have had to work at listening, because I cannot always hear. That's a great lesson to learn if you're a copywriter.
So I've been able to learn from a lot of very smart people about a lot of very complex topics--computers, telecom, chemistry. And I have made clear, engaging stories from those topics.
B-TO-B
ABOUT
DAVE
JUST
FOR FUN
HOMEPAGE
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A Few Kind Words
Thinking Aloud
WAR STORIES
My Left Ear
Telling Facts
Message In A Bottle
Talking to a person, going from the general to the particular. Catching them off-guard with a few facts they didn't know I had. Probing to see what makes the head tilt, the voice rise. Finding the interest inherent in all things, if you just push them far enough out of equilibrium and filter them through five monosyllables:
"What's in it for me?"
And when it hits home ... well, that's why I put up with the committees, the approval headaches, the lousy hours. Because it's a great high to capture some wild, elusive truth that can excite people, compel them to act.
It isn't all that hard, if you have the ear for it.