Elegant Solutions

Then computers came along and made it possible to
create what looked like an individually-typed, personalized letter. However, few
people knew how to do this... so... computer-generated letters were still
enormously expensive.

Then along comes Sir Gary of Halbert with a killer
"Elegant Solution". I said to myself, "Self,
why don't you get phone books from all the big cities in the United States and
extract, for example, everybody who has the last name 'Clarke'. Then, just type one
letter with the opening 'Dear Mr. Clarke' and also personalize it several times
throughout the body copy with a 'Mr. Clarke' here and there."

I continue this conversation with myself, "After you finish typing that one letter, take it to a printer and
tell him you want 1000 of these letters printed up. While the printer is doing
his thing, you get 1000 envelopes typed to all the Clarkes from those phone
books."

But I wasn't finished yet, "And
Gary, once you get the 'personalized' letters from the printer, you fold and
stuff them in all the envelopes which contain the names and addresses of all
those 1000 Clarkes. Put a live stamp on each one and drop them in the
mail."

My version of a "personalized" letter
cost about a penny... as opposed to... a computer-generated, personalized letter
which cost profusely more.

Looking back on it, it doesn't seem like much of
an idea, does it? But, it was an "Elegant Solution"... because of
which... over 600 million letters were mailed... and... at an increcible profit.