What I present here today is not written by me … rather it’s a Monday Morning Memo which was published earlier this year by a gentleman who decades ago was given the “handle” of The Wizard of Ads, Roy H. Williams!
Prior to his visiting us at XM Radio in 2003, I had not even heard of Roy Williams nor read a single Monday Morning Memo, which I have done regularly ever since.
Roy grew up in Oklahoma and found that he was gifted at creating advertising messages and campaigns that truly “connected” with persons who would benefit from the services being offered. Since then, he has devoted his life to working with entrepreneurs, owners, and managers of small businesses, helping them to effectively advertise and promote the products and services they offer.
And, he and his wife, Princess Pennie, are the founders of Wizard Academy, a school for entrepreneurs that sits atop a plateau overlooking the city of Austin, Texas. On the campus as well is Chapel Dulcinea, an open-air chapel that hosts dozens of wedding ceremonies every year.
People worldwide have been reading Roy’s Monday Morning Memo every week now for more than 25 years.
The cool dude with the goggles sitting at the right above is Roy’s constant companion, Indiana Beagle. If you click on him, it’ll take you to a rabbit hole where you’ll find who-knows-what, but don’t miss it. (Most weeks, the rabbit hole has many levels … not sure about this one, so keep clicking!)
But first, take time to read and digest Roy’s message — it’s quite deep, so will require some time and pondering:
Twenty-three years ago, roving reporter Rotbart* said to me,
“You are three different people.
- There is the person you see when you look in the mirror.
- There is the person other people see when they look at you.
- There is the real you, the person no one can see but God.”
Objective reality exists. I do not dispute it. Rotbart’s argument – and mine – is that you and he and I are not equipped to experience it.
I live in a perceptual reality; a world that I perceive.
You live in a perceptual reality; a world that you perceive.
You see your own actions in the forgiving light of your motives, intentions, and regrets, while the “you” that is seen by others is shaped and shaded by their preferences, prejudices, and perspectives.
John Steinbeck speaks of this in his preface to East of Eden,
“The reader will take from my book what he brings to it. The dull witted will get dullness and the brilliant may find things in my book I didn’t know were there.”
Steinbeck knew that we tend to see what is already within us.
On May 1, 1831, an unspecified writer for The Atlas in London wrote,
“We cannot see things as they are, for we are compelled by a necessity of nature to see things as we are. We can never get rid of ourselves.”
Twenty years ago, my friend Kary Mullis challenged my musings about perceptual reality in front of a roomful of people. He said that his belief, as a scientist, was that “real” things can be measured, tested, and weighed. “Real things exist,” he said. “If it is not physical, it is imaginary.”
I said, “Are emotions and opinions and beliefs real?”
Kary described scientific method and Koch’s postulates, (the four criteria designed to establish a causative relationship between a microbe and a disease,) while I dragged a barstool to the front of the room. Holding up a copy of his book, Dancing Naked in the Mind Field, I said, “Kary, would you be willing to sit on this barstool and read the dedication page to us?”
As Kary read the page he wrote to his wife, Nancy, his voice tightened and he stopped speaking as tears rolled down his cheeks. I said, “Keep reading, Kary. It’s all imaginary, remember?”
When he could speak again, he admitted I was right, and that a whole world of reality exists beyond the reach of physical science.
Kary Mullis was a highly confident genius who was willing to change his mind.
Persons like Kary Mullis are exactly the people Desmond Ford was talking about when he said, “A wise man changes his mind sometimes, but a fool never. To change your mind is the best evidence you have one.”
Kary is gone now and I miss him deeply.
The world of 2022 needs more people like him, and quickly.
Roy H. Williams
Well, did this message speak to you? I’d love to hear your reaction.
Did you click on Roy’s sword-carrying, goggled friend Indiana to explore what’s deep in the rabbit hole?
REMEMBER … You can run with the big dogs or you can sit on the porch and yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap!
*As for “roving reporter Rotbart,” at the end of every Monday Morning Memo, Roy provides a link — MondayMorningRadio.com — to a conversation that Rotbart recorded with a business leader or other person of note.
