How to Go from Good to Great — and Enjoy the Rewards — In 4 Easy Steps

A colleague had asked me to revise a sales letter he’d commissioned. He called it “run of the mill.” He wanted me to “bring it to life.”

Sarah was an accomplished copywriter. If I had to rank her against her peers, I’d say she was, at that time, in the top 20%. She’d earned the right to argue with my changes, but she didn’t. The pride she had in herself had brought her so far as a writer already. In this case, at least, she wasn’t going to let false pride halt her progress.

False pride is a very common problem among copywriters — no, among every sort of writer. But when writers believe — or desperately want to believe — their writing is above reproach, they damage their careers because they can no longer benefit from learning from others.

And now we come to the second moral of this story: The only good way to improve a skill is to practice it. Reading about it is certainly helpful. Talking about it with people who are experts may work, too. But no amount of reading and talking will do nearly as much as regular, focused practice.

Human beings are designed to get better through practice. Everything we ever learn to do — from walking to talking to writing concertos — gets better through practice. Practice makes our fingers move faster, our hearts beat stronger, our brains think smarter.

here’s the program for greatness:

• Have pride in yourself — enough pride to expect that at any given moment, you will do the best job you can.