10,000 Hours vs. 80/20: Eavesdrop on Roundtable

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Roundtable Member Julius Park operates one of the nation’s largest and most successful independent martial arts schools in Baltimore. He prepares world class fighters for MMA (“Mixed Martial Arts”) matches. At our recent Roundtable meeting, Julius asks as question about “Ten thousand hours.”

I’ve often talked about how if you want to truly master something, you need to put in your “Ten thousand hours.” He asks: Can you use 80/20 to shortcut your 10,000 hours?

Staring Down the College Tuition Beast Part 2

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A friend, Peg, works at a small liberal arts college. Her son is entering his Sophomore year at another small liberal arts school. She weighed in on our decision:

I am aware of your family position about funding college, and I’m not going to try and change your minds.

I just wanted to play research librarian here for a minute…

Staring down the College Tuition Beast

PerryMarketing Blog26 Comments

A couple of years ago Laura was driving my daughter Tannah to school. They have this conversation:

Tannah: “I want to go to a college like Amherst or Cornell….”

Laura: Hold on a second baby, you know we’re not paying for your college, right?

Tannah: Whaaaaaaat?

Roundtable Chronicles: Betting on the Dark Horse

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In ’08, Adam & Maria Libman came to a 4-Man Intensive. Two bright-eyed, bushy-tailed optimistic entrepreneurs. They were early in their relationship. Adam was doing part time at his dad’s tax practice and the rest of the time building entrepreneurial ventures.

They hung on my every word, went home and got to work.

Six months later, Adam trusted someone he shouldn’t have. Should have…

Roundtable Chronicles for October 6

PerryMarketing Blog3 Comments

This week I hosted my Roundtable meetings in Chicago. Roundtable is Planet Perry’s Fight Club for entrepreneurs, where we all pound the slag off each others’ ideas. Mr. D had his turn on the hot seat.

Mr. D is the marketing director of…

Quotes from Richard Koch's "The 80/20 Manager"

PerryMarketing Blog

Richard Koch’s brand new book “The 80/20 Manager” is just out this week. Some juicy sound bytes: On Bill Bain, founder of Bain Consulting: “It probably didn’t take Bill Bain long to work out this ingenious formula ad then to build his firm around it. But the value created for Bain & Company – and usually for the client, too … Read More

The Force at the Center of the Merry-Go-Round

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When I take my kids to the park we play this game: The kids perch themselves at the outer edge of the merry-go-round, then I spin them as fast as I can. Soon they’re spinning faster than my hand can push them. Then I say… “Everybody to the center!!!” The little ones don’t know what’s coming next. They think they … Read More

Joe Sugarman: When the Federal government tries to "Help"

PerryMarketing Blog

Joe Sugarmans’s company JS&A was a forerunner of gadget stores and gadget catalogs like Brookstone and Sharper Image. In this MP3 recording, Joe tells the story of the snowstorm that shut down Chicago, which then triggered Uncle Sam to almost shut down his company:

Shanty Town vs. Sold Rock: How to escape the internet typhoon

PerryMarketing Blog

70-90% of what you learn in Bobsled Run will STILL be true in five years. How do I know that? Because 70-90% of what my students learned in Bobsled Run 5 years ago is still true today! I have so many students whose businesses have steadily grown since ’05 or ’08 or ’10 or whenever they took Bobsled. It takes … Read More