Top 15 Joe Polish Quotes

Stanford professor BJ Fogg calls it B=MAP. Behavior equals Motivation, Ability, and Prompts.

The question isn't whether you have habits. It's whether your MAP is building the life you want.

A handwritten note can change a relationship forever.
Most people think it's a good idea. Very few actually do it.
Five genuine cards a day could completely transform your network.

What comes naturally to you may be your greatest gift.
Your Unique Ability is what gives you energy, not what drains it.
Don't ignore the thing you're naturally drawn to.

I had to figure out how to successfully sell something nobody wants to buy. No sane person hopes that a cat is going to piss in the corner -- nobody is excited about calling a carpet cleaner. And it really made me realize that what you sell is just one thing. What they're getting from the thing you're selling, the pain that it's removing -- that's what matters.

Intimacy is exploring a shared safe place. Abuse destroys it. And addictions are what we do to make ourselves feel good when we don't have a safe place.

Money can't buy happiness -- but it makes suffering more pleasurable.

I think most people are just going to be, ten years from now, ten-year older versions of themselves. That's why I always admire people who are already at a certain level and say, 'How do we make this better?'

Success traps are harder than failure traps. Your identity is tied to past wins. True character shows how you treat those with less power.

The secret to meeting influential people? Create value first. Be the person others want to connect with. That's how you build genuine relationships.

"I'm grateful to have you in my life." More people need to hear that.
Don't lose the muscle of genuine human connection.
The people who consistently reach out are the people nobody forgets.

You can sit next to the lake or next to the ocean or wherever the fish may be, but if you don't go fishing, if you don't throw in the bait -- and it has to be bait that the fish are going to bite on -- it's not going to work. People often wonder, why is no one giving me business? Well, first off, are you fishing? Secondly, do you even know what you're fishing for?

If you want to build an incredible network, send 10 handwritten postcards every single day, five days a week. This is not that hard once you get the momentum going, because it's a lot easier to maintain momentum than it is to create it.

For those that get it, no explanation is necessary. For those that don't, no explanation will do. Trying to convince people of anything... to use Dean Jackson's marketing line: a compelling offer is 10 times more powerful than a convincing argument.

Now it's literally teach people how to live life, how to relate to people. Don't use AI so you don't forget how to write with your hands, think with your brain. If you outsource everything to the machine -- if you don't use it, you lose it.

I wanted to create my own school that people would pay to attend, but it would never cost them anything to be there, because of what comes out of it.