David: Hello. Welcome to another edition of Lexicon Late Night here, as always, with my esteemed colleague, Justin. 

Justin: Sawasdee khrub.

In Lexicon Late Night we talk about the greatest storytellers of all time, and this one has stood the test of time. Mark Twain is the great American writer. Even to this day, the Mark Twain Prize is given out to the greatest comedic minds of our time. So tell us a little bit more about Mark Twain, Justin.

Justin: Yeah, well, Mark Twain, which is actually a pen name, his real name is Samuel Clemens. As you said. I think most people have heard of him and know him. He’s the greatest American author of all time.

David: One of the best mustaches of all time.

Justin: The best mustache. Well. Who’s, uh, Saddam Hussein? 

David: I’d say Nietzsche.

Justin: Okay, good. Okay. Yeah, sure. Debatable there on the mustache, but not on the greatest American author point. But today we’re going to do something a little bit different, actually. So obviously, Mark Twain most famously known for classic novels: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and then even more famously, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Very beautiful writing and colorful language in that novel. But he’s also famous for his quotes. One of the most quotable people of all time, which is why we have our clipboards here for this episode.

David: Him and Churchill, top two.

Justin: Yeah, sure. And we’re going to do a little bit like we did for the Orwell episode where instead of really doing a deep dive into his most famous works and what people can learn from them, we’re just going to take some of his greatest quotes and then dive into what business leaders can learn from these quotes that are still true today.

David: Yeah, and I guess a bit of historical context is useful too. These quotes are timeless. They’re as relevant today as they ever were. But he was in like deep segregation period, right.

Justin: Slavery period.

David: Yeah. Like it was a hateful time to be in the world. And I mean, he’s enlightened even from our modern perspective. But imagine how far out of the game he must have been back then.

Justin: Yeah, absolutely. And again, referencing our Orwell episode, Orwell got all of the questions, the big questions of the 20th century, right. Mark Twain got all the questions or the main question in America of the 19th century right.

David: And I think that’s why Twain and any of the people we ever talk about, they last. You know, because there’s always a storyteller out there. You know, there’s Sabrina Carpenter, no offense Champ, might not be remembered 50 years from now.

Justin: Okay, odd reference for an episode about Mark Twain, but sure.

David: Well, it’s the people that in their own time maybe they weren’t fully appreciated because what they were saying was universal. And those truths that are always true, often in the zeitgeist don’t feel true.

Justin: Yeah. It takes moral courage to be able to say that.

David: Yeah, to be anti-slavery in the peak slavery era is pretty ballsy.

Justin: Right, when most people were pro-slavery. Anyways, so this is why we have our clipboards. So like I said, we’re going to get into some famous quotes. And there’s three in particular that we think can provide lessons for business leaders in their own storytelling and marketing today. But before we do that, let’s just rattle off a couple of classic Twain quotes, because there’s so many we could discuss. We’re not going to get into these ones, but these are just good. “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.”

David: Even more true in the social media age.

Justin: Yeah, absolutely. Misinformation, disinformation, innit? And then a good one for all the husbands out there: “If you always tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” 

David: Yes. 

Justin: See telling the truth there.

David: Not a husband here.

Justin: Right, sure. Well, better to just be quiet. Okay. This is one of my personal favorites. I’m not sure who he was talking about, but it was some kind of enemy of his. A guy that he didn’t like, who passed away. And then, somebody asked Twain, what are his thoughts on this man’s passing, and he said, well, “I didn’t attend his funeral, but I approved of it.”

David: Got a few of them.

Justin: Sure. And then, finally here just for the setting the table quotes: “Censorship is telling a man he can’t have steak because a baby can’t chew it.”

David: Very also relevant today.

Justin: Yeah.

David: Very like free speech thing, right?

Justin: Yeah. Absolutely. Totally. Yeah. Just because someone can’t handle these ideas doesn’t mean… What I love about this one is speech is way… It’s not just about the right of the person to say what they think. It’s the right of me to hear them say it, even if I completely disagree with them.

David: Yeah. I mean, this might end up slipping now because I think we’re going to go for this for a while. Yeah, go for it. That’s really the, I think it was probably quite bad in his era, but I feel like it got better in like after the Second World War, like 50 years or so. Free speech seemed to be like, okay, we almost went the way of the Nazis. Let’s encourage free ideas and make sure that the bad ideas don’t rise up again.

But it feels like in this era everyone is so sensitive, probably because of social media and the echo chamber aspect of it. But you really need to hear the bad ideas because like they’re probably bad ideas so like just let them burn themselves out.

But if you make it like taboo, then those things still rise in popularity, because they’re seen edgy and people are always, especially young people, they want what’s banned.

So I’m really a great believer in just like let everything play out in the public and let the best ideas win. And social media is very like, it’s creating extremism on all sides by just like shutting down any anything that’s controversial. Everyone’s offended all the time.

Justin: Well, I mean, X is a free for all at this point. American History X now.

David: Yeah, but as you were alluding to, like the only free speech that matters is the one that you don’t like.

Justin: Yeah. Otherwise what’s the point? And these are arguments that we have already adjudicated. Like we’re going to do an episode on John Stuart Mill or at some point, but.

David: It’s just a basic principle of the West, right? Like, yeah, I don’t want to hear this stuff. I hate it. It’s disgusting. It’s annoying. But we live in a free society. You can’t have a free society and then have particular elements that are not free.

Justin: Right. And you’ve already mentioned this, but like, we seem to have forgotten that that’s what led us down this very dark, dangerous path in World War Two. And and now we’re going. Okay, well, I don’t like these ideas. Well, no. Sorry. The alternative is much worse.

David: Yeah. And most people in the middle just don’t say anything. So it’s just these extreme people fighting all the time. Because if it was you or I out on the internet would be like, ban these boy bands. End this K-pop.

Justin: Yeah, sure. Yeah. And I mean, okay, now we’re going to go off on this whole tangent, but I hear things that offend me every single day.

David: Sure.

Justin: And I don’t complain that I have to hear them. So sorry, folks, if you’re going to have to hear some ideas that annoy you. And on my previous point of like, it’s my right to hear this. You know Ann Coulter? She came to the University of Ottawa. I was going to Carleton University, but same city. And there were threats of violence, credible threats of violence. And there were protesters gathering at the entrance of the building, and they weren’t going to let people in, to hear what this lady had to say. Now, I think she’s odious. I don’t like her. I disagree with her. But in my English Literature class the next day, this came up and my professor was saying, like, I’m going to cancel my subscription to the Ottawa Citizen, saying that this is anti-free speech. What about the student’s right to free speech and protest. Them preventing me from going to see this lady I disagree with. How is that speech? Like, who are you to tell me that. I’m not grown up enough to hear Ann Coulter’s ideas. And, I’m not even going to agree with her. If nothing else, but to just listen to her dumb ideas and strengthen my own positions and figure out better arguments to counter her stupid arguments.

David: Yeah, and I love a good debate. Like when we saw the Malcolm Gladwell thing, right? I’m a massive, I think I’ve read all of his books, but when I saw him debate and defend his ideas, I was like, oh no, I think I’ve been misled here. Actually his ideas are not that good. He’s just a good writer. To have someone actually have to defend their core principles against someone who disagrees with them. And if they can defend them and then they resonate, that’s awesome.

But I think this is, again, a bit of a tangent here. But that quote, it’s a great example of what a meme actually is. That resonates through time because it speaks to a core principle. It speaks to a core idea of what it means to be a Western citizen or living in a democratic country. Memes are, from Richard Dawkins’ original definition, just ideas that travel through time. They replicate like a gene, they replicate and they they keep going.

Justin: Right? Yeah.

David: The fact that this is still going.

Justin: Because they help you adapt and survive.

David: Yeah, they have a purpose that that keeps things alive, which is storytelling. Cave paintings told a story, as the quotes.

Justin: Boom, okay. Put a bow on that.

David: That’s the longest intro.

Justin: I’m going to look forward to reviewing and picking the snippets for this video. We didn’t even intend to do this. That’s our longest intro, for sure. Okay, quotes to actually discuss.

Okay, so “I didn’t have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one instead.” Great quote. I love it. It’s counterintuitive. Most people would say it makes no sense, I didn’t it was him to be honest, that quote.

Justin: Yeah, you’ve heard it before.

David: But it’s so right. Like mastery is concise.

Justin: Brevity is the soul of wit, as they say.

David: As with any art form, you kind of have to be a master to break the rules. And people who are not expert communicators tend to waffle. They tend to use these big words, these long sentences, and they say a thousand things when you only need to say one thing.

Justin: And really, they’re just grandstanding or filibustering.

David: Yeah, exactly. Good communication is simple. I want you to do this. Right.

Justin: The Grunt Test.

David: The Grunt Test, exactly. Yeah.

So obviously he’s a great writer. He nailed this ages ago. But in terms of lessons for business, we just see this all the time. Like, it’s good for us, I guess, where we exist is for this reason. But people who…

So our main business area is professional services companies, B2B companies and their main business area is writing very long, detailed reports about stuff that are super wordy and super technical. It’s very hard for them to transition into what we do. Where what we’re doing is trying to be considerate of the reader. So make it concise, easy to understand, full of detail, but flowing nicely.

Justin: Yeah. Packed with actual information.

David: Yeah. Hemingway had a similar quote. Not similar in the sense that it was a very Hemingway, but it was “write drunk, edit sober.”

Justin: Right, okay. So saying that it’s difficult to be short. So let the free flowing drunkenness take you where it leads. But then the real work begins when you have to condense it and make it concise.

David: Your first draft should be long and possibly rambling, just getting everything down there. But then you cut, you trim, you focus, you delete, you combine. That’s good writing.

Justin: Yeah, absolutely. I’m now hyper self-conscious that we’re not being concise on this particular point.

David: Okay. But the in terms of length at least, Longer is not always better, Justin.

Justin: Right. Thank you.

David: That’s what they tell me.

Justin: That’s not what she said. All right. All right, here we go. Okay, let’s get back to it. All right, comedy.

David: A question that we asked a lot from our clients is I’m going to record a podcast. How long should it be? I’m going to write an article. How long should it be?

Justin: What’s the answer to that?

David: However long it needs to be. Exactly. How long is a good song? It’s the same question. A good book is never long enough. A terrible movie is never short enough. It should be its perfect length.

Justin: Yeah, absolutely. And just another point on this. There’s a time and place for long-form content, and that’s not in your LinkedIn caption. So when you’re writing a caption on, it’s funny to take a Mark Twain quote and apply it to best practices in LinkedIn caption writing but simple, plain language. Get to the point, get people’s attention, and then people who actually want to read the full story can go check out your white paper on your website. Go check out the full video. Whatever the piece of content may be. But when you’re communicating on social media, keep it brief. Keep it concise.

David: But even in a white paper, the same rule applies.

Justin: Sure.

David: We’re fortunate, but we’re really perfect for that job. Call Lexicon. Because, like Joe Sugarman, the classic copywriter from the 50s and 60s, it was all about the slippery slope communication style, right? Very concise, very focused. Every single sentence matters. Yeah. And that’s a sales copy. But by mastering that practice of writing, you really can apply that anywhere. So even a white paper, it shouldn’t be boring. It should be useful. Packed with information and informative.

Justin: Yeah, absolutely. Was it Joe Sugarman? The whole point of the title is to get you to read the first sentence, the whole point of the first sentence, to get you to read the next sentence, and so on.

David: Yeah. So writers don’t learn this somehow. This is not what you learn as a copywriter. Like I studied English Lit. So did you.

Justin: Yeah. Well, because we all have word count assignments in university or in the newspaper.

David: Maximize the length. But I’d rather learn Sugarman than Shakespeare, to be honest, like, it’s way more useful.

Justin: Yeah, absolutely. So just to recap here, what’s the lesson for business leaders?

David: So the lesson is in terms of keeping it short and concise.

Justin: Keep it short and concise.

David: But like, AI feels like it’s a shortcut to do that for you. But it’s really not. AI waffles more than a human does.

Justin: Yeah, well, the other thing too is, more doesn’t mean better. And if anything, you’re exposing yourself for not actually providing any real information. So if you’re being discourteous to your audience or to your readers by just giving them a whole bunch of waffle, as you said earlier, that’s of no value whatsoever. So first of all, you have to have something to say. But if you if you do have something valuable to say, get to the point. Say it as concisely as possible. Exactly.

Okay. Thank you. Good. Let’s move on. I don’t know why I said thank you there. My pleasure.

But okay, let’s move on to the next one.

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.”

That’s right. You can only be brave when you’re scared. Being brave doesn’t mean that you’re not scared. I think that’s from the Lion King.

David: Nice. I’ve seen a similar quote from the book, one of the guys who was in The Pacific HBO series wrote a book on the Second World War. With the Old Boys. I think it’s called. Anyway, he has the same quote, but in a different concept. He was talking about it in terms of duty.

So obviously, I can’t imagine anything more terrifying than being on the boat about to land at Normandy. Can you imagine the fear that you would be going through there? But you really have. You have no choice because you have a duty. Like, for those guys. The big idea, the concept, saving the world, it’s pretty good.

Justin: Pretty good story.

David: Pretty good as a duty. And we don’t all have such noble intent, but we do all have things that we’re trying to achieve. And life is scary. Like running a business is scary. Working can be a challenge, but…

Justin: I feel very challenged right now.

David: Just like kind of being scared is normal. It’s not. It doesn’t make you weak or anything. It’s just that’s part of life. You just have to learn to show up.

Justin: Yeah, and embrace it for sure. Slight tangent. I can think of something scarier than showing up on the beaches at Normandy is being on the Soviet side the other way where, you don’t even have a gun, and they’ll shoot you if you retreat.

David: Yeah, we could probably go on this for a while. It’s a lot of scary things that have happened.

Justin: In the Soviet Union?

David: Or in the world, over history.

Okay. But yeah, if you’re running a business like you have a duty to take care of your employees, they have families, as does you, as a business owner.

But yeah, fear is… You have to almost learn to like Zen style. You have to like, fear is part of the yin yang. It’s not a negative thing. It’s not a positive thing. It’s healthy, in a way. Like it’s motivation. Like if you’re scared of something, it means that you need to put more work. You need to prepare better. You need to be ready.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it’s the comedians say this all the time. It’s like, oh, well, if you’re nervous, it’s a good thing. It means you care.

David: Exactly. Like in life, the more you grow, the older you get, the hurdles get higher. That’s a good thing. Like, it means you’re testing yourself. You’re pushing yourself. You’re developing your career and yourself.

The idea that life should be easy, I don’t think. I don’t think it’s a good thing if life’s easy. It’s probably not that fun. You want to be just outside your comfort zone. Always.

Justin: Right. Yeah. Always pushing. It’s the pursuit of happiness. You’re always kind of on the cusp of getting there or something that you’re striving for, rather than something that you’re actually achieving.

David: Yeah. So his quote is almost like biblical. I get what he’s saying there, but it really is practical day to day existence. Like there’s a lot of scary stuff going to a job interview, going to a pitch, coming up with your own business. They’re all, this is scary.

Justin: Everything scary? Yeah. What? Our calm demeanor, notwithstanding. What about storytelling or content creation? Is there any any lessons that we can take from this quote and apply it to to that?

David: Totally. I think most people are afraid to post on LinkedIn, even. Like to put themselves out there to actually be vulnerable. It’s not vulnerable at all. It’s a persona that’s a famous word from every single episode. Sure. You have to put yourself out there and you don’t have to be sharing all your personal secrets, but you have genuine business insights that people could learn from, and you could help them. Share them. Like get out there. And it is scary to be public facing. It is scary to have people potentially give you a negative comment. But on the other side of that is very, very positive things. It’s success. It’s developing your network. It’s getting a better job, it’s growing your business like fear exists because it’s the kind of classic evolutionary fight or flight thing. But if you fight, you can win. If you flight, you don’t.

Justin: Right, absolutely. And even something like this is a point we’ve brought up in other videos, just like appearing on camera as a business leader. Maybe it’s not within your comfort zone, but doing that is the best way to show your audience that you have genuine expertise, that you know the struggles of your potential clients, that you’ve helped other people like them succeed in the past, and that you’re potentially a good partner for them in the future. And in a world of AI generated… this sentence seems like it was AI generated… In a world of AI…

Justin: No, no. I’m still human. No but seriously though, like with all this AI generated slop out there, there’s nothing more valuable than you getting in front of people or getting in front of the camera, or putting yourself out there, and speaking and showing your genuine expertise.

David: Totally. And if you’re not willing to stand up for your business and promote your business, why should anyone believe you?

Justin: Yeah, exactly. Then you should not be in business. That’s what I say.

Okay. Last one here.

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.”

David: Sure, well.

David: I guess Americans have never had passports, so we. Sorry. You’re not American?

Justin: No, I’m not, but this always bothers me. It’s like Europeans brag about how they travel so much. You could. You know, and I’m Canadian. You can spend a full day and a half driving through Ontario alone, whereas you guys do that and you’re through seven different countries.

David: Sure. So anyway, the lesson is.

Justin: Not the point.

David: That’s why it resonates.

David: Yes, absolutely. For everybody even going for…

Justin: Even within your own country, traveling.

David: Exactly. Yeah. Going to the next town, meeting different people. Obviously, you and I live in a different country. We’ve experienced this. It’s hard to…Exposure is the best cure to any of these things, is the point he’s making. Yeah, absolutely. It’s hard to be a racist if you’re around people of different races and they’re cool. Once you meet people, they’re cool. They’re always cool.

Justin: Yeah, yeah.

David: So yes, we can definitely say from our own perspective and one of our clients, AIP, this is what they do to encourage people to to travel, to be interns in different countries to get that exposure not just to professional life, but to different cultures. By being exposed to different cultures, you become a better person because you can incorporate what you’ve learned from them into your own life.

Justin: Yeah, and it even makes you understand your own country and your own culture better. Learning new things, experiencing new cultures and new people. It’s just going to make you a better person in the end.

David: Yeah.

Justin: So this is turning into a kind of a corny, obvious point.

David: Yeah. Corny middle aged guys podcast.

Justin: Yeah, sure.

Justin: But okay, so but the lesson for business leaders here, how do we connect that?

David: Well, it’s very similar to the previous point in the sense that. So I often meet people who are shy to use LinkedIn and also consider LinkedIn just to be social media.

Justin: Right.

David: They think it’s like Facebook.

Justin: They think it’s like Facebook.

David: Yeah. And like we’ve all used Facebook. Maybe the younger kids haven’t even heard of it these days. The young fellas. But, LinkedIn is not Facebook like Facebook is for my auntie, my grandma. Like it’s family and friends.

Justin: It is weird to send a potential client a Facebook friend request or, Instagram.

David: Yeah, because it’s personal stuff, right? It’s not even a persona.

Justin: I don’t want the client seeing my bikini pictures.

David: I’ve seen them, they’re pretty good.

Justin: Pretty good? You follow me?

Justin: Often clients will say, you know, I don’t want to connect to people that I don’t know, which I think it’s a massive mistake.

Justin: Why is that?

David: Because LinkedIn is the world’s biggest networking event. Like, it’s not the place for you to share memes with your uncle. That’s not what it’s for. Like Facebook is for that. Yeah, by all means. That’s the real you. That’s the you behind the scenes. That’s the you at the weekend.

Justin: But LinkedIn is the you Monday to Friday.

David: Yeah, absolutely. Your name and job title are right there. Right. It’s you in your professional capacity.

David: It’s in the name of the bloody platform too, you’re linking into professionals. Yeah. So you should treat LinkedIn like it’s a massive networking event. You should be connecting to every relevant person in your networks or your existing clients, former clients, potential clients, business partners, and then anyone that could be a client, every single CEO in Thailand, or every single Marketing Director in the eastern seaboard.

Like you’ve got to get out of your comfort zone. You’ve got to travel outside of your network. Digitally.

Justin: Yeah, it’s handing out a digital business card, and you can do 400 of them per month. So what kind of networking event can you actually do that at?

David: Yeah. And the same with a physical networking event too of course, right. Like, if you’re going to grow your career, either setting of a business, or just working for a business, network is essential, especially in Thailand, right. It’s your net worth.

Justin: Yeah. I knew you were coming with that.

David: Yeah. So yeah. And again for introverted people, I think I’m an introvert. Okay.

Justin: I wouldn’t say so, but

David: sure.

Justin: You’re quite gregarious.

David: Yeah. But it’s where do you get your energy from. You know, so introverted people being in public exhausts them whereas extroverts, they gain energy from it. So after I’m at a networking event, I’m exhausted for, like, two days. But anyway, the point is that especially for introverts, they don’t want to go to these things. They they don’t want to expand the network. They don’t want to talk to people. Massive lost opportunity. Because the more you meet people, the greater your network goes.

And again, the more you meet people. They’re all like us. No one’s that. That’s one of the things that we’ve learned from doing this for so long is that if you meet some super fancy CEO, they’re still just the dudes.

Justin: He still might be nervous and looking for someone to talk to.

David: Yeah, he’s an expert in his area, but he’s still a dude or a lady, and they just want to have a chat and have a conversation and be human.

Sure. Human. So in business, as Twain alluded to in life, you’ve got to travel beyond what’s comfortable, because if you just stay in the same place all the time, you’re limited to that ‘intelligence’ isn’t the right word for it, but that milieu. There you go. Those ideas, those people.

Whereas the success may be just beyond that network. So be bold. Be brave.

Justin: Yeah. Don’t keep your focus narrow. Widen. Travel.

David: Was ‘milieu’ properly pronounced?

Justin: Milieu. Yeah, yeah, sure.

Well, I mean, ‘milieu’, sure. That was very artfully done connecting a Mark Twain quote to adding connections on LinkedIn and attending network events.

David: That’s what we do.

Justin: All right, well, that’s it.

David: That’s it. All right. Thank you. If you’ve never heard of Mark Twain before, get out there. He’s got some great books and great quotes. And thank you for listening.