Terry Levine | Noggin Advertising | Copywriter | Digital + Direct Writer | Blogging | Toronto | Canada

WHAT'S OVERPRICED ANYWAY?

Midget twins laughing all the way to the bank.

We've all done it. Walked into a store, looked at price tag on a t-shirt and thought -- or said out loud: "Are they f-ing kidding?!"

Yet, when we're trying to sell our own products or services or property and someone balks at the price or haggles, we get offended. "Cheapskate," we think.

Well which is it? Is it really only overpriced when we're buying, but fair when we're selling? Of course not.

I've had a couple of friends lately complain about the exorbitant price on some designer fashion or Apple device. "it's not worth it," they've said.

I've had to remind them that, in fact, it is. Anything we choose to buy is worth the price we're willing to pay for it. I'm no Paul Krugman but I think that's basic capitalism, folks. Supply and demand. If there are enough buyers to pay what the seller wants, that's what it's worth. If enough people want to pay $1000 for a DSquared pair of pants because $1000 DSquared pants make them feel fabulous, then the Caten brothers can get away charging that, even if it cost $10 to make it in an Italian sweatshop. If you don't like it, you can go buy the ho-hum $40 Dockers made in an all-American Vietnamese sweatshop, right?

Same goes for me. I have a range for what I charge and I'll adjust according to the project, type of client and budget. But I have a limit. If a potential client thinks I'm overpriced and wants my services for $50 an hour, they won't get it. There are plenty of less experienced writers or ones desperate for work who clients can turn to. Just like a retailer, if my product isn't selling, I may be forced to lower my price. But if I'm flying off the shelves and making a profit, why should I?

We're all worth what someone is willing to pay for us -- until we're not.

 

ON OBAMA, ISRAEL AND ITUNES.

I've watched with frustration over the last few weeks the back and forth and feigned outrage about what Obama said and didn't say regarding the Israeli-Palestinian "peace process". For the most part, the right's claims are completely disingenuous. All Obama did was break the rules. All he did was say in public what everyone agrees in private. And the only reason he did it is because for 10 years now there has been an impasse and a lack of courage on both sides.

You can blame Abbas and Hamas. Or Olmert and Netanyahu. In the end, everyone has failed and a decade has been been wasted. The problem is no one has the balls to break the rules, to shift the paradigm, as they say.

In 1977, Egyptian President Answar Sadat broke the rules. I have no doubt that those on the Egyptian right back then advised him against visiting Jerusalem. "Fuck the Israelis," they must have said. "Let Begin come to Cairo. Let the Jews bend. Let them give us back Sinai and then we'll talk. Maybe." Sadat shifted the paradigm and Egypt became the first Arab country to make peace with Israel.

Sadat went to Jerusalem. Nixon went to China. Netanyahu? He went into that lion's den of seething Israel haters: the United States Congress. What courage that must have taken.

Sometimes, while everyone is sitting around arguing about how to make CDs better, someone comes along with iPods and iTunes and breaks the rules. That's what's needed here. Because the rules as they stand stink.

Peace in the Middle East needs more Obamas right now, not fewer.

THE SECRET TO WHY JEWS HAVE MONEY (AND HINDUS TOO).

No one save maybe the kind of crazies who natter on about Obama's birth certificate still bring up absurdities about Jews having horns and tails or that they killed Christ (a Jew) or that they use the blood of Christian children to make matzoh. Most of these anti-Semitic and libelous stereotypes about Jews seem to have, thankfully, faded into history.

Except one: that Jews have money. And with it, the implication that Jews are crooked, sneaky and cheap. (As an aside, the 'Jews are cheap' meme fascinates me because I've met a lot of cheap people in my life and they've run the gamut from Chinese and Scottish and Hungarian to Arab and Jew. Still, the stingy Jew meme persists.)

But while I think the 'Jews are cheap' subset of 'Jews have money' is demonstrably false, it turns out Jews do have money. In fact, according to a recent Pew study in the US, 67 percent of Reform Jewish households made more than $75,000 a year, compared with only 31 percent of the population as a whole. Hindus were second, at 65 percent, and Conservative Jews were third, at 57 percent.

Clearly the numbers suggest that Jews are a lot more affluent than average. But why?

It's not, it turns out, because Jews are cheap. It's because they're educated. The same study reveals that the groups with the highest incomes -- American Jews and Hindus -- are also those with the highest levels of education.

That's not a coincidence. Success can be attributed to many factors -- intelligence, luck, hard work, favoritism, dishonesty. But the number one way to get rich is to get educated. And that's really the only secret those sneaky Jews have ever had.

LOVE STORY: 140 WORDS ON BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK

As its name suggests, the documentary Bill Cunningham New York is as much about the 80-year-old bicycle-riding New York Times fashion photographer as it is about the city itself.

In fact, Cunningham and Gotham have, over four decades, perfected the most unlikely of symbiotic relationships. New York provides a canvas and, in return, Cunningham paints upon it the ever-changing stream of beauty, vitality and fabulousness that make the city the most fantastic place in the world. New York is Bill Cunningham's muse. Or perhaps, he is its doting husband.

If you've never heard of Cunningham, you're not alone (I hadn't) but the fact is he's probably had a more profound effect on what the world wears than any other person in history. And even if you're not a fan of NYC or of photography, Bill Cunningham New York is worth seeing simply to watch in awe as someone does everyday what he so passionately loves doing.

SUCCESS AND THE REALISTIC OPTIMIST.

It's funny. I've often described myself as a realistic optimist. It sounds like a contradiction in terms but apparently I'm not the only one who thinks this way nor, alas, am I the one who coined the phrase. According to motivational psychologist Heidi Halvorson:

"Realistic optimists ... believe that they will succeed, but they also believe they have to make success happen, through things like effort, careful planning, persistence and choosing the right strategies. They recognize the need for giving serious thought to how they will deal with obstacles. This preparation only increases their confidence in their own ability to get things done.

"Unrealistic optimists, on the other hand, believe that success will happen to them -- that the universe will reward them for all their positive thinking, or that somehow they will be transformed overnight into the kind of person for whom obstacles cease to exist (forgetting that even Superman had Kryptonite... and a secret identity that took a lot of trouble to maintain... and also relationship issues)."

One of the key differences I've noticed between the success I've found working on my own and the failure I've seen others experience trying to do the same comes down to unrealistic expectations about how success will come about. You can't just sit at home and wait for the calls to come in. You might be really good at what you do but (a) so are a lot of other people, and (b) a lot of those other people are investing the time to remind potential clients of their existence.

"Don't visualize success," Halvorson writes. "Visualize the steps you will take in order to make success happen.

OBAMA AND OSAMA.

Enough said.