"The point of good writing is for the reader to understand. The point of good persuasion is for the prospect to feel understood"
About this Quote
Hormozi is smuggling a sales doctrine into what looks like a writing tip, and that’s exactly why it lands. The first sentence flatters the reader’s rational self-image: clarity, comprehension, the clean transaction of meaning. Then he pivots. Persuasion, he argues, isn’t primarily a logic problem; it’s an empathy problem. Not “convince me,” but “see me.” In a marketplace where everyone is shouting features and frameworks, the scarce resource isn’t information, it’s recognition.
The subtext is a quiet indictment of the standard entrepreneur playbook. Most pitches fail not because the offer is incoherent, but because the prospect feels handled. Hormozi’s line reframes persuasion as a kind of emotional UI/UX: reduce friction by naming the prospect’s anxieties before they have to. “Feel understood” is also a protective spell against the modern consumer’s defenses. People are trained to spot manipulation; mirroring their internal narrative lowers the drawbridge.
Context matters: Hormozi’s audience lives in DMs, landing pages, cold emails, and short-form content where attention is rented by the second. In that environment, “understanding” is table stakes; everyone can write clearer copy with enough templates. What differentiates a message is whether it reflects back a person’s private language: the fear of wasting money, the embarrassment of not following through, the exhaustion of trying everything.
There’s a sharp edge here, too. Empathy can be a bridge or a crowbar. By making “feeling understood” the goal, Hormozi hints at persuasion’s ethical fork: are you recognizing someone’s reality to help them, or to steer them?
The subtext is a quiet indictment of the standard entrepreneur playbook. Most pitches fail not because the offer is incoherent, but because the prospect feels handled. Hormozi’s line reframes persuasion as a kind of emotional UI/UX: reduce friction by naming the prospect’s anxieties before they have to. “Feel understood” is also a protective spell against the modern consumer’s defenses. People are trained to spot manipulation; mirroring their internal narrative lowers the drawbridge.
Context matters: Hormozi’s audience lives in DMs, landing pages, cold emails, and short-form content where attention is rented by the second. In that environment, “understanding” is table stakes; everyone can write clearer copy with enough templates. What differentiates a message is whether it reflects back a person’s private language: the fear of wasting money, the embarrassment of not following through, the exhaustion of trying everything.
There’s a sharp edge here, too. Empathy can be a bridge or a crowbar. By making “feeling understood” the goal, Hormozi hints at persuasion’s ethical fork: are you recognizing someone’s reality to help them, or to steer them?
Quote Details
| Topic | Sales |
|---|---|
| Source | $100M Offers: How to Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No (2021) , Quote listed under source/collection for the book |
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