Life of an Investor

11 November 2009

Trickery in Marketing

So yesterday I was minding my own business, reading my latest pickup from the library: The E-Myth Enterprise by Michael Gerber. In chapter 4, I begin to read a detailed description of a set of brothers (Sol Weissberg and Marty Weissberg) who are called to take over their father’s (Morris Weissberg) army-navy surplus store after he passed away. Both brothers hated this store because of the childhood that it took away from them as they spent hours unpacking boxes, cleaning the floors, moving displays and other mundane tasks. They also hated what it had done to their father. The store was his life.

I don’t mean to retell the entire story as this is not the point of the post and I don’t wish to receive cease and desist letters from Michael, but I just wish to get across the gist of what Mr. Gerber has done here. Now back to the story. Eventually one of the brothers started dreaming about what the store could become if they put a little work into making it welcoming and amazing. They started making changes, big changes, including a large sign on the roof that said “FLYING HIGH & FIELDSTONE GREEN!”. No, I don’t know what it means either. The author then goes on to say that this store was grandfather of a sporting goods/camping/mountain-climbing empire with stores everywhere. He goes on “Can you guess what that chain, that empires, is today? You’d probably be wrong.”

He’s right, I was wrong. I had several guesses, but I decided to take the easy way out and ask Google. I searched for everything that I could think of: “Marty Weissberg”, “Sol Weissberg”, “Morris Weissberg”, “Weissberg’s Army-Navy Surplus Store”, even “FLYING HIGH & FIELDSTONE GREEN!”. I could not believe that I wasn’t able to find one useful result from any of these searches. Did this place really exist? My top guesses were Cabela’s and Bass Pro Shop, so I visited the history pages of each of their websites… no dice. My last resort was to visit the author’s website and ask the question directly. To my amazement, here is the response that I received:

Matthew – There is no store. There is no Marty and Sol. They are all a figment of my imagination. Having said that, they represent every small business owner I have ever met in one way or another. They are you. And if they are you, then what are you waiting for? You can choose Marty’s Path, or Sol’s Path, or their father’s Path. Your choice. If you choose Marty’s Path, enroll in my December Dreaming Room now, and come begin it. Your Heart, your Soul, your Spirit must be in it. Love, Michael Gerber

All I can really say is “Wow”. I felt a little bit betrayed that I was emotionally drawn into this story of hope and dreams come true only to have my belief dashed against the rocks. Oh well, I’ll get over it. All in all though, Mr. Gerber was probably a bit of a genius in this regard. I wonder how many people have done the exact same thing as I did after reading this story and ended up getting a response directly from the author. How many times does an author get the opportunity to directly contact his readers after they read the book? This was an up-sell opportunity and I guarantee you that this was the plan all along. Plus, he got me to blog about it and expose all of my many readers to his books and include a link to his website. That’s known as free advertising.

Maybe I will save some people the trouble of contacting the author. Maybe others will find my post when searching for the answers to the riddle of who this great company has become. Let’s see if I can become the top result when people search for “FLYING HIGH & FIELDSTONE GREEN!”. I can guarantee that as of the time of this writing, Google has no results for that search term. This is the dream of an SEO consultant. If anyone else out there has an interest in marketing (specifically viral marketing in this case), let me know what you think in the comments section below.


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9 Comments currently posted.

Chris Sumpter says:

OK, that’s just bizarre. Maybe this guy will build some business in this way, but it tends to make me distrust him.

Tinamarie DeStefans says:

I did exactly the same thing!! I didnt even finish reading the book, just that chapter and I had to know who it was. Thank you, I did google it, and yours was the answer I found. And to know you got the answer straight from the author is amazing. Thank you for your post! God Bless.

Amanda Dawson says:

I had ordered two E-Myth books before reading this one from the library, and will probably return them. Not telling the answer was, quite simply, cheating the reader.

If the author wants readers to contact him by email, he should invite that.

Lying is not okay, and saying ‘You’ll probably be wrong” is even more than lying–it’s an arrogant way of saying “I’m smarter than you, and you don’t even know it.”

John Dowling says:

I’ve read a couple of Gerber’s books and I’ve had a bit of a nagging suspicion that he was a bit of a shyster, insightfull in many ways, but still a shyster. You’d have to think that if he really has helped improve hundreds of businesses he would have a true story he could use and not have to make one up.

Joyce Sen says:

lol! ^_^ I’m glad u posted up your experience! I was so curious too & searching the ‘net for the answer after reading his book.

It shows how resourceful u r. it was nice to get the real answer from Mr. Gerber.

Many blessing 2 u & may u have more financial blessings from your websites. Thanks ^_^

Paul M says:

Congrats on 1st placement on Google! I did the same search when I read the book many months ago. Was just skimming the book last night and remember it bugging me so I Googled today. Like the other responders I feel cheated by Gerber and am glad I didn’t waste any more of my time (again) trying to rise to the unfair (and dirty trick) challenge that Gerber baited his readers with. How could we NOT accept the direct challenge at our ability to ferret out the company name?

Fran Y says:

Actually, the comment was pure genius. A little low maybe. There are just a few of us that are posting here but I’m guessing that there are hundreds if not thousands of folks that did the same thing. There’s no reason to be upset by it and we should learn to think outside the box when it comes to marketing and sometimes being a litlle outrageous will produce fantastic results. Marketing doesn’t have to be boring. It can be thought provoking and imaginative. Way to go on getting Google’s top spot!

Damon Segal says:

You avid me lots of digging thanks

Marianne P says:

I, too googled flying high and fieldstone green. Yours was the first response it pulled. I appreciated your blog which answered all my questions immediately.

I have read all of the E-Myth books and have learned and grown from them. IIf nothing else, I am motivated when I read these types of books…and I like feeling motivated!

I understand peoples feeling of being ‘decieved’ by the fictitious company. I personally don’t feel that way. Mr. Gerber accomplished his goal with the story, We have all taught through stories and we have all BEEN taught through stories since childhood. They help us understand concepts.

Why waste energy being upset about how he presented the concept? My energy is better spent identifying the concepts and tools that have been presented to me that can help me improve my business and my life.

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