A long time ago, Tom Hoobyar and I were at a hotel and there was this motivational business rally going on. We peeked in the door of the hotel ballroom and people were standing on their chairs waving cigarette lighters in the air and cheering.

The music was pounding and everyone was having a great time.

Tom says to me, “That’s the polar opposite of what the other side of their business is like.”

Oooh Tom, ya nailed it.  Oh, don’t I know so well.  Three hours driven on ice and snow each way for a no-show appointment.  Hours of grinding it out on the telephone, the promising people you recruit and invest time in and they blow up or burn out or disappear and stop returning your phone calls. . .  yeah, baby.

You paying attention? Take note: If there’s a Mercedes on the brochure there’s almost certainly a parking lot full of rusty Chevys and parted-out Datsuns in back. If it’s true at the Mercedes factory it’s true everywhere else.

I remember sitting in rallies myself – rallies just like that one and listening to people say “IT’S NOT SATURATED.”

Why did they say that?

Because, by any reasonable marketing definition of saturation, it was saturated. Supply of products and sellers thereof vastly exceeded demand.

People would say, “Anybody can do it.”

Why did they say that?

Because if you didn’t keep chanting it like a jingle on the radio, it’s not like you would naturally come to the conclusion that everybody could do it. There were clearly a lot of people standing around who apparently could not make it work at all.

Myself, for example.

It was far, far easier for me to recite the slogans than to admit to myself or, say, my wife, that it wasn’t working.

Anyway, before I go on to talk about why people get stuck and how to get un-stuck, I need to say this:

People may lie. Your own interpretation and memory of your experiences may lie. But experience never lies.

A person with an experience is never at the mercy of a person who has a theory.

What happens, really happens.

Tomorrow: I’ll let you in on the dirty little secret that’s at the heart of almost every con there is.

Perry Marshall

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About the Author

Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.

He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.