Long-time Renaissance Club member Tom Meloche mentioned this to me the other day. He’s absolutely spot-on. The Big Bad World Out There has a big giant buggy whip and it’s driving people into doing something for themselves.

Do you remember a time when a concept known as ‘job security’ actually existed? I’m not sure anyone even uses that term anymore.

Then there’s the reality that a vast number of politicians seem to believe the public is a horde of mindless cattle whose only function is to be made empty promises and milked for everything they’re worth until their dried-out carcasses are ground into fertilizer.

There’s also the fact that in a democracy the public elects precisely the politicians that it deserves. And if the public appoints a parade of whores and flimflam men to mind the cash register, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

In the short term, I do see some trends that seem to indicate the economy is improving. However there is a about 12 Gigatons of stupidity that have yet to be pounded out of most every industry. As Roundtable Member Thor Sheffield said, “Businesses scale up linearly. Screw-ups scale up exponentially.”

I recommend that whatever new years plans you are making NOT include any sort of generous ‘golf handicap’ or ‘Happy Happy Joy Joy optimism factor.’ Rather I humbly suggest that you arm yourself to the teeth for battle and be well prepared to fight a blood sport.

If you’ve got a list of skills you need to acquire, you betta get busy acquiring them.

And whatever you do, make sure that you learn how to MAKE ONE DOLLAR. Make sure you know how to PROVE it. And make sure you discipline yourself to reinvest that dollar.

I also suggest you craft a plan for offering your customers something worth ten thousand dollars – and getting paid for delivering it. Because there’s one person in every crowd who wants to buy the Whole Enchilada, not just bits and pieces.

Right now unemployment is 10%. Let’s say it goes up to 20%.

That means the buggy whip that’s driving people into entrepreneurship becomes a lead pipe.

It means the hackers and desperadoes will be out in droves.

And it means that if you, as a marketing alchemist, possess the ability to MAKE ONE DOLLAR then you’ll have six hundred people lined up to apply for a job working for you.

You might not feel worthy, but you still get the pick of the litter. You get to buy low and sell high. It works to your advantage.

I feel sorry for all the MBA’s out there who spent 2 years and $40,000 and still don’t know how to buy traffic, put together an irresistible offer and collect the dinero.

But it was their two years and their forty grand. If they didn’t learn anything, if they never bothered to check how many of their professors know how to MAKE ONE DOLLAR and could prove it, then they have nobody to blame but themselves.

(Hint: Most people think that having a job working for a Fortune 500 company is proof of making one dollar. Actually it’s only proof of having wrenched one dollar from the corporate udder.)

Tom Meloche was discussing online marketing with one such MBA. He shared some common sense Planet Perry stuff for a half hour. The guy told him he’d just learned more about marketing in 30 minutes than he had in 2 years of grad school.

Not surprising.

You probably know more than you think you know.

It’s your responsibility to APPLY it.

Get busy.

Perry Marshall

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.