When I was 13 my mom bought me a subscription to an obscure magazine, “Audio Amateur.” It was for people who like to build stereo equipment.

The editor, Ed Dell, would always point out that the old-school definition “Amateur” was – someone who does something for the LOVE of it, not for the money. Not to be confused with the more recent connotation which is “a part-timer who does sloppy work.”

The sales pitch for the magazine pointed out that your “dream stereo system” may only be possible if you build it yourself – because it’s not subject to the compromises of commercial systems.

It’s true, and if you’re ever a guest at my home, you can hear the speakers that I designed :^>

Funny thing – almost everything I’ve ever been really ‘into’ has been an “Amateur” sport. Something people do for the love of it.

And the strange thing about entrepreneurs is —- yeah, they do it for the money, but they almost always do it for the money SECOND, not first.

Their first priority is simply the freedom of doing what they love. Not having the man’s boot on their neck.

Ed Dell is right – people who do it for love, in the long run, are badass competitors. Take a bunch of corporate guys who learned Pay Per Click on somebody else’s dime, match ’em up against “Amateurs” who learned on their own dime, and I guarantee you the “Amateurs” are gonna clean up 95% of the time.

And if you can live with the occasional stigma of a guy in a shiny new car who laughs at your Rusty Yellow  School Bus with a 4 Million Dollar Engine, you can show ’em tail lights night after night.

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.