“Good Artists Copy. Great Artists Steal”- Pablo Picasso

Steve Jobs, who attributed this saying to Pablo Picasso, embodied this concept as a core philosophy in his construction of the mega-brand Apple has become today. What did Jobs find so endearing about this line?

The answer is Steve Jobs intuitively knew what all the great copywriters know: all great ideas start from a swipe file.

You might be thinking “But swiping sounds like plagiarizing…I don’t want to grow my business by stealing!”

That’s a perfectly valid concern. Which is why the first thing we’re going to cover is what a swipe file is versus what a swipe file isn’t. Then we will get into why a swipe file is important for your business, as well as how to build and use a swipe file.