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After I got laid off from engineering, I told my buddy Frank Kavenik…

The other day, autoresponder king John Fancher belted out a riff, a tribute that was totally unexpected and utterly inspiring.

In just 4 minutes and 35 seconds, John summarizes what made an extraordinary Influential Writer influential, like no one else I’ve ever heard.

Listen and see if this isn’t the most inspirational thing you’ve heard in a long time:

Jay Harper’s story of selling his batch of misprinted lipstick for over $10,000 triggered a huge response. Way over 100 comments – and nobody was even arguing about anything!

I asked Planet Perry members what they learned from Jay’s story and promised a prize, Niche Celebrity Gold ($300 value) to the three best replies.

Here are the winners:

Got this email last week from Jay Harper of Red Apple Lipstick. How many marketing insights can you glean from his bathtub story? The three best answers win a copy of Niche Celebrity:

I just finally finished your celebrity niche book.

I finished it it in my bathtub at 4:30 in the afternoon, thanks to you.

I know you get a thousand emails but how many of them for a naked guy in his bathtub, seriously hoping he doesn’t drop his iPad??.

Oh and juggling a beer.

I wanted to tell you about a silly little success today.

Bill Hybels, who founded the largest church in America, said:

“Most people look at what’s wrong in the world – some injustice, some screwed-up thing that desperately needs to be fixed – and they get REALLY MAD.

“Then they say to themselves….

Ernest Shackleton and 27 explorers sailed to Antarctica in 1914. They brought a team of dogs and plenty of supplies.

They planned to traverse the entire continent in the summer, crossing the South Pole in the middle. This would be done after preparing and exercising the dogs while stationed at the edge of the continent during the winter.

The winter went well but in the spring, as the ice melted, shifting plates of ice ground their ship into toothpicks and it sank.

What happens next is one of the greatest adventure stories of all time.

Suddenly…

Do ya know the story of King David and Bathsheba? Bathsheba is bathing, unclothed, on her roof (why she’s doing that, we’re not told) and David is relishing every minute of the view.

He invites her to the palace, sleeps with her, gets her pregnant, and arranges for her husband to accidentally, uh, get cut down in battle.

His #1 trusted advisor hears about it. It’s a lesson that every copywriter, everyone who aspires to be a Strong Persuader should burn into memory. Here’s what happens next:

If you’ve truly escaped the Dilbert Cube – and not merely created a new one for yourself – then Monday really IS the new Friday.

Every day where you get to wake up and do what YOU decide is important to you is Friday. Even a cloudy, rainy Monday in March.

Dirty little secret:

Some songs sound quaint and dated after just a few years. A precious few are eternally young.

What’s the difference?

Boston’s first album, which in 1976 was the best selling debut of any band in history, offers a clue in the liner notes, which are printed on the back of the LP:

Being small is not a contribution. And I am NOT talking about your business staying small, though that’s part of it.

I’m talking about YOU being small. YOU being less than who you really are. Who God made you to be. Who you are on the inside.

Someone pays you a wonderful compliment. Maybe you get a standing ovation because you absolutely ROCKED the house. What are most of us TEMPTED to say?

I’ll tell you what I’m tempted to say: