Sep 3, 2018
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. is among the most famous of all US Supreme Court justices. He was born to a prominent boston family, and graduated from Harvard Law School in the 1860s. He then prepared a series of lectures that were published as The Common Law in 1881. Holmes served on the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts from 1882 until his appointment to the US Supreme Court in 1902.
During his 30 years serving on the country’s highest court, Holmes became known for his “clear and present danger” argument for the limitation of free speech, illustrated by a reference to a person falsely shouting “fire!” in a theater. Holmes retired in 1932, just after the start of the Great Depression. He has remained among the best-known of all of those who have served on the Supreme Court.
Holmes was a prolific writer, and is quoted frequently. My favorite of his quotes, though, is particularly powerful: “I would not give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.” If this isn’t immediately clear to you, think of complexity as a bell curve. Things are simple when you don’t know much about them, become increasingly complex as you become more knowledgeable, and finally become more simple again as you gain wisdom.
Tune in to this episode to understand more about how this works. You’ll also learn about the differences between knowledge and wisdom (and how this relates to the complexity bell curve), why you should search for the key objections instead of trying to make a sale, the four levels of consciousness, and much more!
In This Episode:
[02:17] - In today’s episode, Alex will cover three key insights into becoming a highly skilled ethical influencer.
[03:58] - Alex shares the story of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. and his “clear and present danger” argument about free speech.
[05:54] - We hear Alex’s favorite quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes, and what it means.
[08:26] - Alex used to think that experience came with age or time, but has changed his mind, he explains.
[10:54] - We learn about the differences between knowledge and wisdom.
[12:51] - Alex shares a story about Frank Kern involving the FTC, and Frank’s transition from knowledge to wisdom.
[15:16] - When Alex is training sales teams, he goes through four different personas with them.
[17:49] - Alex tells his salespeople to go out and search for the key objections instead of trying to make the sale.
[20:26] - We learn one of Alex’s techniques for forcing his thoughts into greatness: copywriting rather than writing.
[20:46] - The Alexism for this episode is this: there is no such thing as a self-made success.
[21:46] - Alex talks about the four levels of consciousness, starting with unconscious incompetence and ending in unconscious competence.
[24:55] - We hear about the coach who Alex believes is the greatest in the NBA today.
[26:08] - Alex provides a quick review of the insights that he has explored in this episode.
[27:38] - Speaking of reviews, please take a moment to leave one for Alex and this podcast! Take a moment to click on this link, then leave your biggest takeaway from this episode as a review. While you’re there, please leave a star rating too!
[28:21] - In honor of this 25th episode of the podcast, Alex is giving away a free gift: his book Alexisms! Tune into the episode to learn how to get your free copy.
Links and Resources:
Skipio - where mass business texting gets personal!
The Common Law by Oliver Wendell Holmes