… got an email from my friend, Robert.

Somebody unsubscribed from his newsletter because they thought his subject line was, to paraphrase, “inappropriate.”

I congratulated him.

Partly because I had emailed him earlier in the day to say that I thought his subject line was brilliant.

But also because it’s a fine example of a marketing truth: You can’t get people to love you without risking the possibility that others will hate you.

Of course, you could just play it safe and publish the same old boring “industry best practices” sediment in the same old boring way. I’ve heard that’s a surefire way to stand out from the crowd too.