from Lawrence, SUNDAY PhiloMadrid meeting at 6:30pm: The will to convince

Dear Friends,

This Sunday we are discussing: the will to convince.

Convincing people is not easy, and this requires effort and resources.
This week we have three (two and a half really), one from Ruel and
Antony, and the half from me.

---from Ruel
Hello Lawrence,
Below is the link to the essay I wrote on the topic to be discussed on
Sunday in PhiloMadrid.

http://ruelfpepa.wordpress.com/2014/10/14/the-will-to-convince/
Thank you and see you on Sunday.
All the best,
Ruel

----from Antony
Advertising- Brief History, Techniques and How to Resist It
http://contrafib.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/advertising-brief-history-techniques.html
By Antony Rotunno (2014)

---from Lawrence
The will to convincing others is not easy. And the more vested interest
others have, the more difficult it is to convince them that an
alternative is much better than their position. Moreover, if we want to
convince others to give up power or wealth, than that's going to be a
tough one indeed.

To have a will to convince others one needs to have a conviction and a
belief in one's cause or objective. As the successful sales manager told
a budding young sales person, "To be successful in sales you have to
believe in your product."

But to have that kind of conviction we need to be well informed.
Conviction, I would argue, does not come from mere wishing or desire.
Conviction comes from really wanting something before anything else. In
a way conviction should drive one to action.

Whilst many of us can have this kind of conviction about something or
other we have to agree that things are not made easy for us. For
example, our education system does not reward creativity but conformity.
This means that we must first overcome mental and psychological
restraints whether put there by the educational system, society,
religion or whatever. The most important constraints of all would
probably be family and peer pressure.

Conviction and fighting for a cause required resources and support;
which are always in limited supply. And although we can achieve quite a
lot by ourselves, the results are always better when we cooperate with
others. Hence we not only need to convince our objectors but even more,
we need to convince our friends and allies.

But such an undertaking requires more than just getting up in the
morning and doing something. Thus whilst convincing others is not easy
getting ourselves to do what it takes is even harder.

At the end the real challenge is dealing with success. In other words,
what happens after we've convinced someone to our cause?



Best Lawrence

tel: 606081813
philomadrid@gmail.com <mailto:philomadrid@gmail.com>
Blog: http://philomadrid.blogspot.com.es/
<http://philomadrid.blogspot.com.es/>
PhiloMadrid Meeting
Meet 6:30pm
Centro Segoviano
Alburquerque, 14
28010 Madrid
914457935
Metro: Bilbao
-----------Ignacio------------
Open Tertulia in English every Thursday from 19:30 to 21h at
O'Donnell's
Irish Pub, c/ Barceló 1 (metro Tribunal)
http://sites.google.com/site/tertuliainenglishmadrid/
<http://sites.google.com/site/tertuliainenglishmadrid/>
----------------------------



from Lawrence, SUNDAY PhiloMadrid meeting at 6:30pm: The will to convince