My life is in advertising. Claude Hopkins

First of the Mohicans!
You hold in your hands an extremely instructive autobiography of Claude Hopkins, a rare copywriter and marketer. The book was published in the 1920s and still serves as a storehouse of wisdom for every advertiser and marketer.
The title of the book should have been My Life in Marketing, for for Hopkins, advertising was just the final piece of marketing analysis done with talent, aggressiveness, and honesty. A model for all businessmen is his rare "from the client" marketing mindset. He wrote: “I analyzed my proposal until I was sure that the advantages were on the side of the buyer. Then I made an offer that people couldn't refuse."
Often the analysis showed the inexpediency of advertising costs, which Hopkins honestly stated to the advertiser. On each project he worked hard, grinding mountains of literature, spending nights in thought. Many of his ideas are brilliant. Many of his decisions amaze with courage and independence. Even those tasks that everyone refused were subject to him.
He solved all problems by choosing the most effective methods. He was an excellent advertiser. His PR projects are striking in their ingenuity. He had no equal in direct sales. The product names he came up with worked great.

Hopkins trained many practicing copywriters, but he had a negative attitude towards theoretical courses in advertising. He outlined his vast experience in a small book "Scientific Advertising". Thank God that he did not live to see the advertising festivals, which completely ruined the current advertising.

Results-oriented marketers and creators of sales advertising, that is, "offers that people can't refuse," will benefit from this memoir. I would make it required reading for advertising and marketing students. Young people who want to become advertisers and marketers would benefit a lot from reading it. I would like it to be read by all those who take the liberty of teaching the high craft of marketing and advertising.
Dear friends, read and re-read this book, parse it into quotes. Learn.
A. Repiev, translator's preface to the book by Claude Hopkins, "My life in advertising"

Preface.
This book is not an autobiography but a business memoir. I tried to avoid trivialities and focused on moments of instructive value. The main purpose of each episode was to share useful ideas with those who would follow me. And rid them of the restless sleepless nights that fell to my lot.
One day in Los Angeles, I told my story to Ben Hampton, a writer, publisher, and advertiser. He listened for several hours without interrupting me, because in my life he saw a lot of useful things for beginners. He did not rest until he secured my promise to get my story ready for publication.
He was right. A person who, through hard work throughout his life, has learned something to a greater extent than others, is obliged to say his word to his followers. His experience must be described. Each pioneer goes his own way. That is exactly what I was trying to do.

When the book was announced, I received many letters of protest. Some of them were sent by the heads of large companies for which I worked. They feared that I would take too much credit for myself, thereby diminishing the contribution of others. I have rewritten some chapters to eliminate any reason for such complaints.

My only claim is that I may have worked twice as hard as any of my colleagues. I spent many years in the whirlpool of advertising. Naturally, I learned from my own experience more than those who did not have such a chance. And now I would like my experience to make it easier for others to walk this path. I present my discoveries for the sole purpose of helping them not start from scratch, as I had to. I personally will not get anything from this, except satisfaction. If someone had written such a book at the time when I started, I would be very grateful to him for this. Perhaps then, with my diligence, I could achieve more. I would like to live to the point where someone succeeds.

Chapter 1 Early Childhood
The most significant event that affected my life happened a year before I was born. My father chose a Scottish mother for me. She was a model of thrift, caution, intelligence, ambition and energy, characteristic of her people. It is believed that boys borrow most of their personality traits from their mothers. Of course, I inherited from her my obvious conservatism. The absence of this property has killed more advertisers and businessmen than anything else.

This is what I will emphasize repeatedly throughout the book. I say this in gratitude to the person who has endowed me with prudence. My motto has always been "safety first". A Scottish mother is the best thing a boy can have who wants to devote his life to advertising. The desire for economy and caution are inherent in him at the level of instinct. These qualities are of fundamental importance. Without them, success is impossible, except perhaps by accident. However, their absence can be partially compensated by hard exercises.

Most of the failures of companies in my memory are due to negligence. And also with the hope of a chance; with a haste that despises conservatism; with reckless pursuit of any untested ideas for fear that some rival will get ahead.

There are exceptions in business, but not in advertising. All advertising failures are due to haste, unnecessary and unforgivable. I don't mean failure. We all sometimes try to do what cannot be done. We are dealing with human nature, desires, prejudices and whims, which we are not allowed to evaluate objectively. No amount of experience can help even in most cases. That is why carelessness in advertising is a crime. In every advertising project we deal with a pig in a poke.

Ordinary mistakes mean little. They are to be expected. Each advertising project at the initial stage simply involves the ability to feel the pulse of society. If people don't respond, it's often either the product itself or a combination of uncontrollable circumstances that is to blame. In properly implemented projects, the losses are insignificant. Unfulfilled hopes and unfulfilled ideas are isolated cases.

But catastrophes are terrible, the collapse of unjustified hopes. Behind them are usually advertisers who direct a large and expensive ship to the rocks. These people are incorrigible.

Reckless pilots are always feared. I have seen many hopeful people who ruined themselves and their ships only by sailing on an untested course in full sail. As far as I remember, none of them ever returned. For 35 years, the Scottish blood in my veins has kept me from acting rashly.

The fact that a cent has always seemed to me a dollar is solely the merit of my mother. And not only my own cent, but someone else's. I spent money discreetly, being both their owner and fiduciary. I have never played for high stakes, either by myself or by representing others. And so the mistakes I made—and there were many—were never serious. I was able to avoid the distrust that usually comes with outright failure. When I lost, I lost little money, but I did not lose confidence. By winning, I earned millions for my client and prestige for myself. I owe all this primarily to my mother.

I am also grateful to her for teaching me how to work hard. I don’t remember an hour, whether day or night, when my mother didn’t work. She graduated from college and was distinguished by high intelligence. After being widowed, she was forced to support her children by working as a school teacher. Before and after school, she took care of the house. In the evenings I wrote books for small children. During the holidays, she traveled to schools and sold her books. She worked for three or four women, mastered three or four professions.

Following her example, from early childhood I also worked very hard. I supported myself from the age of 9. Other boys considered going to school to be their only responsibility. For me, it was just one of my jobs. Before classes, I opened two school buildings, fired up the stoves, and wiped down the seats. After school, I swept the floors in both of these buildings. Then he delivered the Detroit Evening News to 65 houses before dinner.

On Saturdays, I cleaned school buildings and delivered bills. On Sundays he was a church servant from early morning until 10 pm. During the holidays, I went to the farm, where I worked 16 hours a day.

When the doctor declared me too sickly to clean the schools, I left for the Cedar Swamp. Work there started at 4:30 am. Before breakfast we milked and fed the cows. At 6.30 we went to the swamp, taking lunch with us. All day long we chopped and tied poles. After supper we milked the cows again; then bedding was laid out for the cattle for the night. At 9 o'clock we crawled up the stairs to the attic where our beds were. At the same time, I never felt like I was overworking.

In later years, I also worked hard in business. I didn't have a fixed working time. If I stopped working before midnight, it was a rest for me. Often I left the office at two in the morning. Sundays were my favorite working days, because no one bothered me. During my sixteen years in business, I rarely had free evening on Sunday.

I do not call on anyone to follow my example, including my own son. There are many other things in life that are