I wanna tell you today about a shift I made early in my marketing career, that created a breakthrough mindset. It was:
* I never stop pursuing new knowledge just because I haven’t applied previous knowledge.
Prior knowledge or techniques that you haven’t used are not liabilities. They’re assets that grow in value with each additional piece of knowledge.
You never know when a tool in your tool belt will come in handy.
So… whenever I know something will help me, I don’t let the fact that I’ve got unread books or unused products stop me from adding new insight to the pile.
Instead, I say: “Pile on the wisdom!”
I’ve got HUNDREDS of books in my office. I’ve read a large portion of probably a third of them. The others can wait.
And you know what? That’s okay, because 1 good page is enough to justify the purchase if it’s the right page. It won’t keep me from going to the bookstore and learning something new. Because the world never stops changing.
In my book, 5% implementation of what you know is outstanding, if you choose the right 5%. In my book, if you’ve read the best 20% of a book, you’ve read the book.
I’ve ALWAYS got plans, and I’m always willing to replace an existing plan with a better one. Always be ready to sweep the $1 million idea off the table to make room for the $10 million idea.
Perry
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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.
17 Comments on “"Pile On the Information!"”
very enlightening!
I’m keen to pick up your audio books if you have any. I have a bad habit of not completing any books i buy, fiction or non-fiction. low attention span here.. definitely some nugget to take back here!
:)
You don’t know what you don’t know and you forget what you do, so rereading and cherry-picking the best material is quite a good way to do it.
Hi Perry,
I really like this post. I have been an intense reader all my life. The milestones in my life are marked by the books that I have gotten rid of. It seems like the cycles of my life would be in 10 year (decade)periods.
Every labor day in OH we would have a Swapper’s day which would be considered as a giant garage sale. I remember boxing most of my books up and selling them to an Amish man for $1.00 a box. When you move, books can become a problem. I still have some books stored in my son’s garage.
…..but getting to the point you made that I like in your post. I know which book has the information that I need. They become a resource. I probably read and skimmed most of my books. I do confess there are some I haven’t read yet. I like to think of my books that way. I will remember which book has what I am looking for, and I can look it up.
The Mobile Digital age we now live in……!
I just bought an ipad and I now can immediately download the books that I want from the Kindle store with just a click of the button. I can conveniently take my library with me wherever I go. Amazing! Huh!
Moving onward and upward!
Perry,
Great article! It’s funny, I think I fall into the read and use category and then find myself not finishing the book until much later.
Perry,
Completely agree.
Also rereading old info is a great use of your time.
I reread your newletters all the time and find new ideas (or more appropriately ideas that were there all along but now fit where I am).
I won’t tell you where I reread those newletters as I read the sitting down :) However it’s a really great use of time and it’s the only time I get away from the phone :
Keep ’em coming.
Cheers
Mike
Hey, some of the best reading in my day is during ‘sitting down’ time….
oui volentier monsieur l’etre est toujours faible du savoir et on ne peu pas savoir le tout comme vous dites le monde change .
merci .
Hi Perry,
Love the post.
Nassim Taleb writes about Umberto Eco’s “Antilibrary” in Part One of The Black Swan. It’s superb. Just one sentence from it:
“Read books are far less valuable than unread ones.”
As for me, keeping those beautiful bound volumes in my own library doesn’t intimidate me anymore, but allows me to be optimistic about all the knowledge I have yet to discover.
Keep these great posts coming.
Many thanks and all the best,
Sean
Well said Perry.
I have tons of books on my shelf and i must admit i am guilty sometimes to finish reading every book.
After seeing what you say here, it makes perfect sense to me. I feel better now :)
– Ian
Great wisdom in implementing just one idea from books on my self that I have read years ago.
I give praise to the authors who put their ideas on paper that others can implement at the right time …
For example – I have heard of Think and Grow Rich long long time ago and have only browsed the book and that was it .
Until recently I read the book again , that got me to open up to the idea that I have to have a definite plan for my definite purpose and back it up with a definite action to achieve it.
That alone is doable even if I do not read the entire book…..
I have keep telling myself Rome wasn’t built in 1 day – Although after listening to your MP3’s constantly I have the makings of the blueprint to build Rome!
Whenever I feel ‘Stuck’ I dig out out one of your MP3s or Glenn Livingston’s and start from there – Chip, chip, chipping away..
Thanks Perry, makes me feel better about the pile of stuff in my office that I get to when I can. Other making money ideas to always do.
The challenge I find is that I go into information overload and wind up getting much less done than if I had just 1 focus, or maybe 2.
Like a lot of Internet marketers I have hundreds of ebooks, books, videos, mp3, etc. and a lot of them don’t compliment each other, but are totally different and time consuming approaches to the various aspects of Internet Marketing.
Good reframe. Thanks Perry – Daegan
Steve Jobs talked about something very much along these lines at his ’05 Stanford speech:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1422863/posts
When he was auditing classes at Reed College, he dropped in on a high-quality calligraphy class and learned the finer points of fonts and typefaces. At the time, it didn’t appear to have much, if any, practical application. But ten years later, when he and Woz were building the Macintosh, he found an extremely good use for it.
“Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards, so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something–your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever–because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.”
Hi Perry
That makes a lot of sense in an uncommon sense kinda way.
Thank you
That’s a neat way of thinking about it, Perry. Thanks for sharing! Makes me feel better about the 12 mostly read books I have laying around right now…