Recently, I consulted with a student who had invested heavily in a business which was now making money but involved dealing with seedy individuals.
He was very conflicted about this. He’d put quite a bit into this venture. It was profitable, thus doubly hard to walk away from. But he didn’t feel good about what he was selling or who his customers were. His head and his gut were duking it out.
I don’t like just coming out and telling people what to do in situations like this. Here’s what I did say to him…
One of the most valuable skills I’ve honed is the ability to listen to my gut.
I learned this the hard way. There was an investor in the company I worked for who I personally liked but every time he’d call I’d feel a subtle, almost imperceptible wave of fear. Only much later did I realize his mission was to slice my fingers off one bloody joint at a time.
My head didn’t know it, but my gut did.
Ignoring my gut was a costly mistake.
Your gut can signal good people to you, too. When I interviewed Mendy Butler, who is now my Most Excellent Customer Service Person, I didn’t know her at all. My head just wasn’t sure about her. But as she got up to leave, a cool song started playing in my head. “Time and Motion just cranked up, that means we likes Mendy.”
I did follow through and check all her references to be certain, but hearing that song in my head was the green light that she was the right gal for the job.
At very first seminar, David Bullock stole the show. I got waves of raves about his presentation about Taguchi and online testing and tracking. He was totally tuned in with great information. He was entertaining, fun, even arresting.
You know what?
He’d never had any speaker training.
He’d never spoken to a seminar audience before.
He’d never even been to that kind of seminar before.
But I made him my keynote speaker and he totally rocked.
My gut told me to feature him.
He’s now got speaking invitations from major seminar promoters all over the biz.
It’s not easy at first to discern the conflicting voices inside. But little by little you begin to see through the haze and hear that inner voice more clearly.
I told my student that if he ignored his gut today it would be harder to detect its voice at all tomorrow.
Never disconnect your most reliable instruments.
I think he’ll do the right thing. And in the process he will teach his Inner CFO a lesson: We’re in charge of the money here, boys. The money is not in charge of us.
Small seeds grow and multiply. Little hinges swing big doors. Seemingly insignificant choices have far-reaching consequences. A decision to heed your best instrumentation and become even more reliant on it instead of less, benefits you in unforeseeable ways.
Listen to your gut.
Perry Marshall
At 4-Man Intensive, you get a hot seat where I and 3 other entrepreneurs from around the world listen to our gut and offer you crackerjack shortcuts to business success. Next one is September 1-2. http://www.4ManIntensive.com
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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.
13 Comments on “Listen to your gut”
We seem to have two brains in fact : (1) one which analyses with logic elements and not further and (2) the other one which seems to own a lot of bits of knowledge that can gather into a positively surprising sort of innerly felt synthesis if we ask a clear question…
Perry,
I think you’re on the money with this.
After 20 years of running my MA school, I can pretty much tell who’s going to show up for an appointment as well as who’s going to sign up after that first meeting just by listening to my gut.
In my profession, everyone else offers a “f.ree Intro class” as the way to gain new students.
We use an initial consultation followed by $59.95 orientation program but I tell prospects that since “gut instinct” is an important aspect of self-defence, it’s important for them to check us out beforehand and follow their gut feelings before choosing us as their new MA school.
Keep Blastin’
Dwight Woods
This is such a true statement; Not just in business, but in every area of life! Most people tend to ignore “that feeling” and then once they’re screwed or in the process of being screwed it’s always the same line, “I should’ve listened to my gut!”.
I think the reason most people don’t in the first place is because whatever is going on in the present moment may feel good in one way or another. Obviously, as humans, we like that “feeling good” feeling. But sometimes, we don’t want to admit that there’s something inside telling us to haul ass asap!
Our bodies and minds are always warning us and most people will get stubborn and not want to listen, even if they may know better. It’s like constantly having your parents around telling you that “you’re not supposed to do this” or “shouldn’t get involved with that…”… As we get older, we can teach our parents a thing or two, but our minds, bodies and spirits will ALWAYS know what’s best and whether we like it or not, we need to give in and listen when they’re “talking” to us…
I just finished reading your book, “Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords, 2nd Edition”, and am not surprised to discover your blog is full of good advice as well. Thanks for the advice about listening to gut instinct. I agree with the first comment posted by Susan. Sometimes your gut is God really trying to tell you something. I think analytical people have the most time listening to their gut and often try to rationalize the scenario. I personally have learned that when I do this most times I end up with regret. Today if something feels wrong in the pit of my stomach I listen.
Thanks Perry for your incredible recent posts on your site. I have been reading them with much thought. They are coming to me at what I believe is going to be a turning point in my life providing I take the right action and learn to develop and use these new skills.
The topic for this post is one which I have been struggling with for a long time. I am learning how to listen to my gut for the first time in my life.
My fear of failure, my tendency to rely on other’s opinions and my lack of self-belief is the main reason I have never listened to my gut before.
I remember reading something you had written a while ago saying that learning how to say no is one of the most powerful things you can do in life.
That information you gave me planted a seed in my head, and recently I have actually turned down a few projects after listening to my gut and deciding that I didn’t want to work with certain clients for various reasons. Saying no for the right reasons feels good, as does developing our inner skills to listening to our gut.
Many thanks for your inspiring, thoughtful and honest posts.
Lisa,
Every time you listen to your gut, your gut gets stronger and more accurate. Also your magnetism to the world increases because you are rejecting the flotsam and jetsam. Keep up the good, hard work of LISTENING!
Perry
Hi Perry,
It is unknown territory to me and admittedley a little bit frightening.
I have to say the fear of being in the same situation in 2 years working myself to the bone, making somebody else rich with the faint hope they will remember all the time, effort and valuable life energy I spent pouring into their business while I am still trying to keep up with the credit card bills and car payment is much more frightening.
That remains my driving force.
Here starts my 180 in 180 days…thanks again for the inspiration.
Perry, your advice to “listen to your gut”, or your intuition, is valuable, and echoes part of the inspiring “Truimphant Sperm” conversation you had with Tom Hoobyar.
But listing to your gut can seem to be at odds with the advice about facing your fears, which you gave in the recent “Chickenshit Excorcism” newsletter.
Perhaps the trickiest thing is neither single one of these things, but determining *which is at play at a given moment*, when we are considering action: is the “resistance” I am feeling borne out of fear (which I need to overcome) – or a gut feeling, which may be providing valuable warning signals?
I wonder if there’s a magic formula for that :-)
As you listen to your gut it becomes more accurate, and you begin to tell the difference between it and the constant chattering of fear.
Unfortunately I have such a hard time separating gut feelings from the over analyzing that happens in my head. This causes so much conflict and sometimes bad decision making.
Great and truthful topic.
When I comes down to making a decision… in business specially, I think that intuition and “gut feeling” must definitely play into it.
Many times data, numbers, and hard statistics show what’s important, but conceal what’s essential.
Even then, business decisions imply trade-offs that must be assumed as strategic initiatives in which data and statistics do little in terms of clearly displaying a course of action.
In those cases, which are definitely not uncommon, listening to that “gut feeling” is vital.
Listening to your gut is a vital success skill that needs to be worked on. This topic is covered in basically every success self help book: Psycho-cybernetics, Robbins, Blink.
It’s a skill that should be emphasized in every managerial training. The unconcious resources in every human are impressive – all one needs to do is let them work for him.
Listetning to your guy also requires one to trust yourself – another vital life and success skill that’s simple and easy just on the surface.
Very good post and very good theme.
When I think of my gut, I think of my intuition or my spirit being guided by the Holy Spirit. Just my faith in God shining through.