Posted by: Daniel Levis
July 28, 2010
Issue #976

Dirty Harry is a Rotten Pig …

Dear Web Business-Builder,

I did something I rarely do this week. I went to the mall and bought myself some new shirts.

Mostly my wife buys my clothes. If it were up to me I doubt I would even shave, let alone get dressed. 

Anyhow, when it was time to wear one of my new shirts, I noticed there were no pockets. Where in the hell are the pockets!? Who ever heard of a button up shirt without pockets?

About then I said to my wife, "Run out and grab me a new wallet, would you honey?"

"Oh you can’t buy those anymore," she said.

"Say what?"

"All they have now is those man purses you strap onto your belt. You’ve seen them haven’t you?"

Good grief. What’s happening to this world?

Well of course, the times, they are a changing.

In a lot of ways, I think, society is devolving.

Is that a word?

I think so.

Let’s play with it.

The world today is on a devolutionary spiral. Yes, that’s it.

Instead of valuing strength and individuality and independence, with real stakes, our increasingly androgynous world is descending into a mindless social media inspired follower-following-follower fantasy land where you cannot fail.

Where in the past, adults produced – or starved. Today, they play farm on Facebook. 

Call me a Pre-Neanderthal, but I just don’t fit in. I like to observe, but I swear I’m becoming more alien by the day.

My role models are Clint Eastwood-like characters like Dirty Harry and the man with no name.

Terribly politically incorrect these days, I know.

But I think there’s still a lot we can learn from the man and the characters he played. Not to be model citizens of the social media age, of course, but certainly as entrepreneurs.

For starters, the man was virtually immune to criticism. In his early career, directors demeaned Eastwood as amateurish. "He didn’t know which way to turn or which way to go or do anything".

Other Hollywood fairies were critical of the way he talked, calling him cold, stiff, and awkward. One of his fellow actors called him a hayseed: Thin, rural, slow, with a prominent Adam’s apple.

Nowadays, one little word of dissent from the virtual rabble is enough to send people running home to Mommy, but not Clint.

He persisted, auditioning for no less than 9 different bit parts before finally landing a minor role. How many androgens nowadays are ready to go through that kind of rejection? Who wants to put in the effort?

Young Clint worked like a banshee.

By day as "the super" at the apartment building where he lived … pumping gas by night … acting school … auditions.

Gradually, through sheer iron-willed determination, he kicked and clawed and scratched his way into a living as a b roll actor, appearing in dozens of forgettable TV spots.

Finally, he won a small part as an aviator in the French picture, Lafayette Escadrille.

Then he played an ex-renegade in the Confederacy in Ambush at Cimarron Pass. At the premiere, he’s quoted as saying "It was sooo bad. I just kept sinking lower and lower in my seat and just wanted to quit".

But he allowed himself to suck, pulled himself together, and persevered. How uncharacteristic in our modern day world.

It took Clint five long years of struggle to finally hit pay dirt, playing the role of Rowdy Yates on a new television series called Raw Hide. Within weeks Rawhide hit top 20.

From that point forward, Clint’s career accelerated. He accepted a low paying role with an unknown Italian director named Sergio Leone. The film was a Spaghetti western called, A Fist Full of Dollars.

Critics loathed it.

They called it "excruciatingly dopey" and "the most expensive, pious and repellent movie in the history of its peculiar genre".

With this film, the dark brooding character archetype that so many in my generation relate with so strongly began to emerge. Eastwood played "the man with no name" in what became a trilogy.

After A Fist Full of Dollars, came For a Few More Dollars, and then the film that would become Clint’s breakthrough performance, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

"I wanted to play it with an economy of words and create this whole feeling through attitude and movement. It was just the kind of character I had envisioned for a long time, keep to the mystery and allude to what happened in the past. It came about after the frustration of doing Rawhide for so long. I felt the less he said the stronger he became and the more he grew in the imagination of the audience." – Clint Eastwood

To create "the look" Eastwood bleached and roughed up a pair of black jeans he purchased on Hollywood Boulevard, wore a distinctive Spanish style hat, and sported a leather bracelet and two Indian leather cases with dual serpents containing the trademark black cigars. And so he became …

The anti-hero

"The loner, operating by himself, without benefit of society. It usually has something to do with some sort of vengeance; he takes care of the vengeance himself, doesn’t call the police. Like Robin Hood. It’s the last masculine frontier." – Clint Eastwood

This fiercely independent character archetype found its expression repeatedly in such greats as Hang ‘em High, The Outlaw Jesse Wales, Unforgiven, Two Mules for Sister Sara and of course the Dirty Harry series. And as they say, the rest is history.

Eastwood and his signature character embody the entrepreneurial, take-no-prisoners spirit so crucial for success.

"Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino play losers very well. But my audience like to be in there vicariously with a winner. That isn’t always popular with critics. My characters have sensitivity and vulnerabilities, but they’re still winners. I don’t pretend to understand losers. When I read a script about a loser I think of people in life who are losers and they seem to want it that way. It’s a compulsive philosophy with them. Winners tell themselves, I’m as bright as the next person. I can do it. Nothing can stop me." – Clint Eastwood

A control freak of epic proportions, Eastwood insisted on creating his own rules … eventually setting up Malpaso Productions where he directed and produced many of his own films. He even wrote the musical score for a couple of them.

At 80 years old, he is still active, has never tired of taking risks, and endured as many box office flops as he has enjoyed blockbuster successes.

So what business and marketing lessons can we infer from this story of an American legend?

Nobody is born brilliant: The superstars in your field make it look easy, but they were once as inept as you are now. Nothing worthwhile comes without repeated failure, and disappointment, and the willingness to carry on in spite of it.  

Humiliation is the price of victory: If you’re not out there trying your heart out, knowing full well that you suck – you’re never going to be successful. There comes a time when learning and practicing must give way to getting your teeth kicked in on the mean streets – the sooner the better.

Don’t be afraid to ruffle a few feathers: Clint was a constant target. If it wasn’t artsy fartsy film critics, it was women’s groups, or cinematic censorship Nazis. Feminists in particular were outraged by Dirty Harry and protested outside the 1971 Oscars, marching up and down the street, holding up "Dirty Harry is a Rotten Pig" banners. The question you’ve got to ask yourself is this: If you’re not pissing somebody off somewhere, what are you doing wrong?

Work is NOT a dirty word: Getting good takes effort. Don’t go along with the spoiled rotten losers that make up the majority today. Cherish every moment of your labor with the knowledge that so few are willing to do what’s necessary to win.

Own your own media: One of the most alarming things I see happening in marketing today is the amount of time and effort people are pouring into acquiring friends and followers instead of subscribers and customers. Why are people so excited about building lists for Facebook and Twitter instead of lists of their own?

Keep taking risks: Realize that whatever success you have today is fleeting. You can’t hold on to success any more than you can suck in a deep breath and hold it in. If you’re not willing to risk your current success by constantly reinventing yourself in a relentless quest for new success, you’ll eventually lose it.

I’m sure there are more, but these a six pretty dang good ones.

Comments on this article? Criticisms?

Go ahead, make my day.

Until next time, Good Selling!

Daniel Levis
Editor, The Web Marketing Advisor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE

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23 Comments »

1. Comment by mark — July 28, 2010 @ 10:41 am

   Daniel…I’m really trying to wrap my head around the mood swings in this post.

2. Comment by Jon — July 28, 2010 @ 1:24 pm

   Oh Boy Daniel, I hate to break this to you but you sound a typical grumpy old man!

   Now, before all your fans get up a posse to lynch me, that’s not a derogatory term, but a target market, a very special subset of the baby boomers. In many ways it’s a target market typified by the Clint Eastwood character, and I think he’s great too. (By the way, you missed out ‘Grand Tourino’ - one of his best!)

   Yes, there are lessons from his characters and his characterisations. Secretly, there are many who would like to emulate or even be those people or Eastwood himself. But it takes constant attention to detail. You can’t be Clint Eastwood for five minutes-a-day and still expect to get a Clint Eastwood character style life.

   No, it takes applying Eastwood-isms all day and every day. Your list is a great start for that, but real aficionados will be constantly making their own list, trying it and re-inventing it until they have it right.

   For the copywriters, how do you communicate with those folk?

   Okay, I bin real nice to ya now, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to be sharing warm soapy showers together. I gotta go build the boat in my basement.

3. Comment by Steve — July 28, 2010 @ 1:40 pm

   I with on this one Daniel. I have a framed picture of Clint as “The Outlaw Josie Wales” hanging in my bedroom. Reminds me that being a man and doing right sometimes means you have to stand when other run, duck or hide.

   I’ve often wanted to say to many other of my male counterparts in my profession (I’m a fitness pro, BTW) who whine about a lack of business or success in their craft, “Does your husband whine this much as well?”

   I’m quite frankly sick of men being feminized, and look to strength, conviction and determination as the standards in my own business. People, at least in my experience, respect a man who pulls no punches with honesty, integrity and credibility.

   I’m not in the business to make money, I’m in it to create value. I do that through concise and distinct action, consistency and effort. The more value I add, the more money I take to the bank.

   And my Eastwood-esqe demeanor hasn’t hurt my bottom line in any way.

4. Comment by Ed Estlow — July 28, 2010 @ 1:54 pm

   Someone carve this post in stone…

5. Comment by Damon Monty — July 28, 2010 @ 2:03 pm

   Finally a proud american on the screen and off the screen.
   Clayton I have to agree with you. Clint is my favorite actor. Clint’s best role I thought was Heartbreak Ridge, but Dirty Harry was a close second.
   Damon

6. Comment by Ernie Wozunk — July 28, 2010 @ 2:21 pm

   Daniel Levis: The article, “Dirty Harry is a Rotten Pig” was so apropos! I’m a 49-year-old man and the way you articulated it has nothing to do with you being a “grumpy old man”. It has to do with being a man’s man and forging through, obliterating obstacles and not succumbing to them. What you said needed to be said to this upcoming generation as badly as a man underwater needs a breath of air! The younger guys in this generation need to understand that the men who founded this country did not spend time in the salons getting manicures, but were grappling with lassoing and raising cattle(i.e., creating opportunity). I pray that we can revisit our history to reaffirm that those who preceded us are exactly the type of man you describe. Keep up the good work. Take care and God bless. Ernie

7. Comment by Kendra — July 28, 2010 @ 2:22 pm

   Daniel, this is a great post. You’re so right. Our world is changing…not always for the good. But we have to be out in front so we can control as much of what happens to us as possible. Thanks for this great blog post. K

8. Comment by Raphael Dorr — July 28, 2010 @ 3:00 pm

   Daniel,
   I always enjoy your words of wisdom. Clint Eastwood is one of my favorite actors. So much so that my wife bought me a Smith & Wesson .44 Mag like the one he used in the Dirty Harry series. Most people are unaware the .44 Mag was a lackluster selling product for S&W until Eastwood used them in his movies. After Dirty Harry was released S&W had three shifts running to produce enough .44 mag Model 29’s to satisfy the demand. I think this is a reflection of how many men identified with his character, they too wanted to be like Clint Eastwood in their personal lives. No BS, take charge, problem solving males who are in short supply in this feminized country we live in today. Keep up the good work, it resonates with more people than you may think.
   Raphael Dorr

9. Comment by james — July 28, 2010 @ 3:11 pm

   “I tried being reasonable, I didn’t like it

   Hollywood, as everyone knows, glamorizes physical courage. . . . if I had to define courage myself, I wouldn’t say it’s about shooting people. I’d say it’s the quality that stimulates people, that enables them to move ahead and look beyond themselves.”

   clint

   p.s

   “Go ahead, make my day”

10. Comment by Ron Schmidt — July 28, 2010 @ 3:29 pm

    Daniel,

    First off, let me say that I’m wondering why the heck I’m not in your coaching and mentoring program(s)?

    Each week I read your posts first thing, which turn out to be superlative marketing and business lessons, and then think to myself, man, there lots of pain here and lots of failure to have learned all that you have in your mastermind head.

    As the saying goes, you can’t put a young head on old shoulders. So who cares if the world’s changing, change is the only thing that’s constant. LOL

    Learning from 80 year old Clint Eastwood is brilliant because he was his own man, got and got knocked down and criticized but what was of primary importance was that he kept getting up.

    Your point about “owning the media” was well taken Daniel. That’s a monstrous business secret right there that some will jump right on like a dog on a rag, like white on rice, while others will be talking about the Clint Eastwood character. LOL

    Some will “get the brilliance of Daniel Levis, his unique view of the world, both his experiences and pain” and will be taking at least one brilliant idea from this post directly to the bank!

    Gotta have your mailing address Daniel - so that I can send you a couple of those plain nice corporate button down Oxford cloth shirts with one pocket - none of that “plaid stuff grumpy old men wear like I’ve seen you wearing in your videos, way not cool and not ‘corporate enough’”, yikes! Daniel”.

    Just kidding of course. Tongue in cheek.

    Keep up the great work!

    Ron

    And Daniel, don’t forget the mailing address, okay?

    Why waste time at the mall? It’s too confusing to find something you’d want there anyway. LOL

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12. Comment by Ray Khan — July 28, 2010 @ 3:41 pm

    Thanks for telling it like it is, Brother!

    As for the “Man Purse”………………well, just what
    is this world coming to??????? Puhleeezzzzzzz!!

    Ray

13. Comment by John g. — July 28, 2010 @ 4:19 pm

    You’ve put words to everything I’ve been brooding over the past few months! Just a few days ago, I wrapped up a journal entry having written a single line:

    “When did it become cool be weak?”

    Mind you, I’m a young-ish guy so can’t really be labeled bitter or grumpy. Just a guy that’s damn near repulsed by the fad of groveling and half-stepping and deferring. And the pervading delusions that all those profile pix on Facebook are actually friends and/or customers.

    As Hank Moody would put it, it’s becoming a world full of dial tones. Where’d all the strong individuals go?

14. Comment by Steve Nickse — July 28, 2010 @ 4:49 pm

    Yeah well - frankly Clint Eastwood and John Wayne must have worked hard to get where they did but in no way were their characters any kind of hero or upstanding role models. They played jerk renegade killers with frozen hearts for the most part.

    Survival of the fittest has always been the rule and those who will survive business today are not the toughest, meanest cold-hearted hombres you ever knew. The ‘fittest’ have always been those able to adapt to changes around them better than their comrades. If you want to survive you have to adapt to an ever changing environment. Josie Wales never did that, he just mowed everybody down - hardly a good example of adaptation. The legend lives on but that’s just it-he’s only a legend.
    What will you be?

15. Comment by C S Radhakrishnan — July 28, 2010 @ 5:35 pm

    It is in fact a serious matter of concern that the Instant Coffee culture has pervaded the world of Business,with every one wanting or offering instant success,without a modicum of effort!These people do not realize that Instant Coffee wouldn’t be instant, but for the labor that preceded the marketing,converting the Coffee Beans into the’Instant” usable product. Like the magician who practices for days before he pulls off the Instant magic on stage, every enterprise has to go through the work phase,visibly or invisibly, but inescapably.

    I follow the Total Package column mainly to feed off your and Clayton’s Down to Earth tips.I won’t hide the fact that I try and imitate both of you in my Copy writing efforts. Thanks a lot

16. Comment by D Bnonn Tennant, Ace Web Copywriter — July 28, 2010 @ 7:26 pm

    Daniel, maybe this is kind of obvious coming from me, but thank you for getting up and saying this.

    Being concerned about the emasculation of society, and all that brings, has nothing to do with being a grumpy old man. I’m 27, and I agree with you wholeheartedly. Not that Dirty Harry and his ilk were perfect role models by any means—but they embodied characteristics of masculinity which seem to have become quite unfashionable these days. Independence. Bravery. The willingness to stand up, fight, and take some hard knocks.

    While I’m glad I live in a relatively peaceful and affluent society, it does seem that it’s led to strong male role models being distrusted, and strong masculine characteristics being considered undesirable. And that’s led to a lot of people growing up into soft, entitled, dependent nancy-boys instead of men.

17. Comment by Paul Guzman — July 28, 2010 @ 9:24 pm

    Daniel, every generation has de-volved. My father basically said the same thing but used John Wayne as the example. And his father used another example.

    It’s been going on since the beginning of time. Man-Purse? I’ll never use one but maybe my grand-kids will. So what, if that’s what it takes to “evolve” maybe things will get better or maybe not. But, we never know until we have gone through it.

    Clint Eastwood is a good actor/director and he took his knocks and continued on…who hasn’t? We all aspire to get better at whatever it is we want to do.

    “I’m as bright as the next person. I can do it. Nothing can stop me.” – Clint Eastwood”

    The above quote could be me, you or anyone who has the guts to go through what he has gone through.

    Paul

18. Comment by Scott — July 29, 2010 @ 4:07 am

    Nice choice in the number of points there Daniel. Except maybe if it was five you could have used the line about it being five or six. I forget exactly how it goes. I just remember the attitude.

19. Comment by Patrick Powers — July 29, 2010 @ 4:32 am

    Hey Daniel. If you are a grumpy old man I want to be one too. I definitely don’t want to join the whiny crowd. Thanks for the reminder to continue to push forward in the face of adversity. Brilliant post.

    Patrick

20. Comment by walter daniels — July 29, 2010 @ 3:30 pm

    I agree with the statement that we need to stop worrying about what everybody else thinks. A problem that Steve Nickse seems to have in comment #14. Yes, the characters were often emotionless, but that was a reaction to those who worry too much about what others think.
    It’s like the characters in Movies/TV shows that are “unmanned” by touching their wives’ purses. I am secure enough, and have been for nearly 30 years, to hold a woman’s purse for her. Just as I am secure enough as a man that I can play children’s games with my adopted granddaughter, or children that look up to me. I have held a teenage girl on my lap, and cried with her, because she needed comforting.
    So often, when I see the weak willed behavior of people, I want to use the phrase. “Man Up, or Woman Up,” as the case might be. It is not weak to show honest emotion. Women, are a softer breed than Men, but not a whimpering victim. Men do not often show their emotions, but they can.
    In advertising, I often see the weak willed, over emotional unisex character, with no character, doing something because “everyone else is.” They drive a vehicle, for no other reason that it’s the “proper type,” not because it’s right for them. Men drive “He man vehicles,” because they look tough, and are afraid to get them dirty. Women buy clothes/shoes for no other reason than they are the in fashion. There are “reality shows,” where the “host” abuses people, making them grovel, or submit to put downs, in an effort to the host’s new BFF.
    I’m like you. I want the advertisers. and TV/Movie shows to stop catering to the tiny minority that are afraid of their own shadows. It’s why so many have lousy numbers of viewers, readers, or ticket buyers. So called “News” media have become poorly disguised opinion pieces, not objective reporters.
    The NY Times, whines about losing money, and stopped reporting years ago. So have many major magazines that sold us on the weak willed unisex types. Then, they wondered why strong willed Men and Women, proved so popular.
    My advice to Least and Left Coast copywriters, is to get out in the heartland you despise so much. See what real men and women act like. Stop thinking that men who prance around, or women who bully everyone in sight, are the real people. If you want to sell to the real majority of people, see what we are really like. Otherwise, prepare to become extinct, as no one buys your products/services.

21. Comment by Susan Connors — August 1, 2010 @ 9:34 pm

    Hi Daniel - our world is different now that is for sure.

    I love Clint as well and can still remember one of my favorite pieces of movies ever.

    There was an relative of the apes called Clyde and Clint was driving. There were these bunch of bad guys coming up behind them, with some on the inside of the car. Clint said Left Clyde (perhaps right) and you see the fist come out, a baddie hits it then its a dominoes effect. People falling off their bikes everywhere. I was a fairly young person when this was made - not that 40 is old

    With work being able to be yourself and have a distinct voice or opinion can be plain and downright scarey. Its ok to be yourself - as lets face it their is only one of us - even identical twins are not the same exactly.

    To speak up and count- take a stand - write something outside your comfort zone, be interested in something no one else wants to take on - getting new clients, writing for different media - all this takes courage and its the little steps that make up the bigger picture.

    Watch a child grow up, watch them learn to crawl then walk. How many times do they fall over and get back up again and eventually learn to run and walk and climb? They still fall down, sometimes cry and other times could not care less about the gravel or rocks still inside the cuts on their knees. AS humans we get knocked down, if we can remember this kind of analogy learning to walk then it may help
    not to be so down on yourself when your copy flops or something does not work out.

    All the best,

    Susan

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23. Comment by Shmayad David — August 4, 2010 @ 2:01 pm

    I think you went a little far with trying to make Eastwood the role model of the entrepreneur, but knowing how to persevere - yes, this is definitely a major part of his character’s appeal.

    But for me, it is more about integrity. I am what I am regardless of what you think I should be. I think this is also part of his characters, and a great part of what brings him the respect he gets to this day. I think this integrity is also an important thing to learn. I will market my true unique value, and not the fad of the week.