Direct Response Copywriter on A Lesson You Can Learn from Sir Sean Connery

Sir Sean Connery, the wonderful actor, passed away a few days ago.

We all know about his acting career and perhaps you know about some of his other passions. These included golf and Scottish independence.

He left school at 13, as you could back in the day, and he had numerous odd jobs and, before he hit the big time, had a career that could only be described as peripatetic. His jobs including being a milkman and babysitter. He came third in a bodybuilding contest. He beat up a bunch of Edinburgh thugs and nobody went near him again with any violent intent ... until the Bond movies, of course.

I read the obituary in The Daily Telegraph and I learned something interesting but not surprising.

Early in his career, a fellow actor gave this advice to Sir Sean … from The Telegraph piece …

Having played football for Scotland juniors, he toyed with the idea of joining Manchester United, but an American actor persuaded him to work on his voice so as to lose part of his Scottish accent and to acquire a literary background by reading the classics.

He did so in public libraries, devouring the complete works of Shaw, Wilde, Ibsen, and James Joyce, and later on would raid the lending libraries of every town and city he visited on his travels. “It’s the books, the reading, that can change one’s life,” he remarked. “I’m the living evidence.”

What did those classics give Sir Sean? It’s hard to say, perhaps. But here’s one thing about every Sean Connery performance I’ve seen: he always came across as hyper-intelligent. There’s only so much a script can do to provide that trait. He was always the smartest person in the room.

In direct marketing and direct response copywriting, what can we learn?

Read everything you can about our little part of the business universe.

Thankfully, many of the world’s greatest practitioners, including many of the great direct response copywriters, have written excellent books and, for around $25, you can get all their wisdom. Gary Bencivenga never officially wrote a book but he’s given us The Bencivenga Bullets … the same thing as a book and totally free.

There’s one important caveat: be careful who you follow. Most of the great direct marketers and direct response copywriters who wrote books believed in selling ethically. Some people who wrote books did not.

I can just imagine Sir Sean spending hours of his free time in the local library, devouring the work of the great writers and playwrights.

Now I know why I always admired Sir Sean. I wish I could have played golf with him.