MBA918 Must Read: Perennial Seller by Ryan Holiday

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And today's Must Read is the perennial seller by Ryan Holiday. If you're a longtime listener of the show and been listening to our must read episodes, you know that Ryan Holiday is one of my favorite authors. He's just a really solid writer. His book the Obstacles Away is a book that I highly recommend as a top business book. So when I cracked open his latest book, the perennial seller, I I had high expectations. In this book, Ryan uncovers what it takes to create something that lasts a lifetime. Whether that's a book, a product, a service, a brand, how do you make sure what you're creating right now will still be around 10 years from now? Oh, heavy stuff. I know. In this Must read episode. I'm going to share with you some of the surprises I found in this book. What are some of the practical steps he shares, and if and why you should read this book. We got a lot to cover, so let's get into it. Let's get down to business. In Ryan Holiday's latest book, the Perennial Cellar, he takes a deep look at what makes anything that you create last. Why do we still love Picasso? When a student learns how to play the piano? Why do they learn Mozart? Why do you still quote lines from Seinfeld? These are things that last way beyond the day they were created. So Ryan takes on the task of breaking down. How do you create something like that? How do you create something that will last not only a year or two, but many years or even well past when we're all gone? I mean, that sounds pretty heav creating something that will outlive you. But that's what every creator dreams of, whether they're writing a book, whether they're creating a product or service or a company or business like Apple. And that's living proof. You know, Steve Jobs is no longer with us. Rest in peace. But he created something that has outlasted him, and in fact, it's become the most profitable business in the world. Now, I was really attracted to this book because it deals with a topic that not a lot of people talk about, especially in our modern business world, where everything is new and things are changing and what's the latest thing. I'm really interested in creating something that really has meaning and that will last a lifetime. That's a lot harder to create. That's a bigger challenge than creating something that's going to make a quick buck. I also know that Ryan has some credibility in this area, not only being a successful author that has written many books that still sell very well till today, but he's also worked on other projects that are perennial sellers. He worked with Robert Greene, who is the author of 48 Laws of Power. When that book launched, it didn't make a lot of buzz, but 10 years later, it's one of the top nonfiction books out there. How does that happen? Well, the first thing that Ryan does is he dismisses a whole bunch of myths. One of those myths is having some sort of muse, some sort of internal motivation that just comes from nowhere that puts you in this state to create incredible perennial work. He says. That's a bunch of baloney. Creating an amazing product, service book, whatever it is. It's a process. It's a grind that you have to go through. And this is something that Steven Pressfield talks about in his work or in his book the War of Art. Holiday argues that you create incredible work when you grind it out. When you go through the process, when you go through that painful process of iterating and reiterating and refining whatever you're building. And when it comes to your business, this is such solid advice. A lot of people think that a business is created overnight or the idea is everything and that first idea is what makes everything happen and makes it, you know, a million dollar idea or a billion dollar. Nothing could be further from the truth. And like I said a million times, ideas are dime a dozen. It's the implementation that counts. If you take a look at any business, they've had their own kind of pitfall in refining that idea. And that's what Ryan calls the process. If you take a look at Amazon, Amazon is nothing like it was when it first started. It was very, very basic. They only sold books for a very long time. And there were not even a threat to bookstores at the start. Now Amazon is a threat to any retail store, let alone bookstores. Holiday emphasizes that when it comes to your work, when it comes to whatever you're creating, your business, your product, your book, whatever it is, don't wait for inspiration. Don't say, I will work on that when I feel inspired. That day will never come or it will be few and far. He says inspiration comes after you start working on it. Once you get your hands on, you start working, you force yourself to really work. Then you start getting inspired. I am so on board with this idea because I've experienced this over and over and over in my life. Just the other day I was sitting down brainstorming some ideas, some challenges that I'm having with a new project that I'm working on. I just forced myself to go back and think about how to solve this problem. And then I found some solutions and then some inspiration evolved out of that. There's a couple important points that Ryan shares in the book. Number one, that you need to be in a great state of mind to create a great product. Meaning that if you're overworked constantly and you don't allow your brain to really have a rest, this doesn't allow you to be at your best creative self to create great products with great solutions. This doesn't mean that you don't work hard. This doesn't mean that you nap all day. It means that you need to have some balance. It means that you have to sleep eight hours a night, you needed to give yourself a break. You need to have a couple of days off during the week, if possible, so you can be able to recharge and solve problems. If it's just pedal to the metal constantly, you don't have a chance or your brain doesn't have a chance to think creatively. Another thing he mentions that I wholeheartedly agree with where I was saying amen when I was reading this chapter, it's that it takes time. Creating something that's going to last a lifetime, let alone 10 years or five years. It takes time. It takes a lot of time for you to create that can't expect things to happen overnight. It takes iterations, it takes edits, it takes improvement on your part. You have to become better in order to produce something better. So have that in mind. Understand, this takes time if you're going to create a masterpiece, whatever it is, product, a business, a book, a podcast, for that matter. A lot of people ask me, hey, how has this show succeeded? You know, you guys are still going strong and you're over three years old. A big part of that is just perseverance. A big part of that is just lasting and outlasting people that quit. And understanding this takes time. I understand. In order for me to have a podcast that I believe is going to be perennial, I need to be patient. I need to keep working at it and refining it. And that advice is so, so true. Now, this book is not just about how hard it is to create a perennial seller or what it takes to create a perennial seller. You have to do. It's very practical as well. He talks about how to market a product or service or a book. Ryan is not naive. He says, you know, you got to create a great product, but you have to also market it properly. And he goes into detail in the second part of the book about how to do that. I'm going to save that for you so you can explore that. There's a lot of great practical advice in there. Now, I want to share with you some of the things that I've internalized that really affected me in this book. Number one is when you're working on something that you want to be perennial, that you want it to last a lifetime, you got to deal with the distractions. You have to knock out distractions, block them out. When I say distractions, I'm talking about how everybody thinks everything that's coming up next is going to be the thing. The latest gadget, the latest tool, the latest marketing strategy, today's Facebook marketing, tomorrow is Pinterest. The next thing somebody might say to you is, create a course on Bitcoin. That's the hot thing right now. If you're constantly being distracted by the latest thing trying to jump on what's hot right now, you're never going to really create anything solid because you're being pulled in so many directions. You need to find something that you're really strong at, that you can work on and build and create. I'm not saying you have to create something and never sell it until it's perfect. I'm saying create it, put it out in the world, iterate, change it, improve it. Why do you think people have second and third editions of a book? It's because the book improves. But they improve as well, right? They have new information they want to add, so that's totally okay. Another thing I found very comforting in this book is how he expresses how hard it is to create something like this. I mean, I'm going through some serious challenges with my business as well, because I'm really trying to create something different. I'm trying to create something that's gonna last a long time. I'm trying to invest for the future. And in the meantime, in the current time, that's not a lot of fun. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of grinding. It's a lot of doubt. It's a lot of, you know, feelings of, you know, why don't I just do something that's much easier? And the answer I got is easy doesn't equal perennial. And I want something that's going to be able to last a lifetime. Not only because I want it to affect people from now until as long as possible, but I want to reap the rewards. I want to be able to kick it back a few notches and relax later on in life when I physically can't do this anymore at the same intensity. Hey, we're all getting older, so it's time to invest in the future. Now, if I had to choose one of my favorite takeaways or the favorite takeaway from the whole book, it's what he attacks first. It's what he talks about in the beginning of the book. And he says that when you start any kind of project that you want to be a perennial seller, you got to start with the right intention. Why are you doing this? Because if you can't answer that question definitively and wholeheartedly, it's going to be hard for you to last through the grind. You got to be able to reference and go back to your why I'm doing this, because such and such that way, I know in my heart that this is all worth it. So if you're creating a movie or a book or a, or an album, your intention might be, hey, I want to create a classic. I want to create something that people are going to listen to, watch, enjoy for a thousand years or maybe a hundred years or whatever well past my time. I don't want to be a one hit wonder is really what people are saying in that example. If you're creating a business, if you're creating a product in your business, you might say to yourself, I want to create the product that my market sees as the most reliable. You can be known for reliability. Something that they can go back to every day or every time they use it and it's going to do what they need it to do. Got to start with the right intention and that can really drive you all the way through to where you need to be to create that product. And I've created businesses, I've created products without that, without taking the time to have a clear intention and answer the question, why am I doing this? You might be thinking, well, of course I'm creating it so I can create a solution to a problem and make some money. That's not good enough. You have to have a clear intention. What do you want to achieve in your marketplace? What do you want to actually get out of it? In terms of satisfaction, in terms of significance, what's your mission as a company? Even if you're a company of one? Answer that question and that will start you out on the path of creating a perennial seller. Hi, I'm Katie Duke and I've been a nurse for over 20 years. Listen, I think style and confidence only get better with age. And that is why I love figs. These scrubs are built to last. They fit perfectly, they feel amazing, and the quality is just wow. My favorite color, burgundy. It's chic, it's timeless, and it's even the same color as my apartment. 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To wrap up today's must read episode, I highly recommend you check out Perennial Cellar. Ryan Holiday does not disappoint with this book. He really makes you think deep and think big when you're reading Perennial Seller. It's one of those books where you have to, you know, put the book down for a second and really absorb what you just read and see how it applies in your own life and your own business. He also has made me reevaluate some things that I'm doing in my business. What am I focusing on? Am I spread too thin? Those are important questions that you should be answering, and this book prompts those questions for you. I want to leave you with some advice when it comes to reading this book. When you're reading this book, he's going to mention a lot of examples of great books, great movies, great pieces of music, and you might be saying to yourself, I'm not an artist. How do I apply this to me? You might be saying, hey, I'm a health and fitness expert that teaches you how to be healthier after 50. I'm not trying to, you know, win a Grammy. Trust me. What he teaches will apply to any business or project, whether it's creating a course or a podcast or a video show that will last well past the day you created it. Years and years and years. I mean, I can tell you there are podcasts out there, there's courses out there, there's videos out there that haven't published a new episode or a new video or anything in a few years, and they're still rocking it. So make the effort to take his examples and convert them and apply them to your own situation, even when his examples are not directly related to yours. All right, that wraps up today's lesson. Today's Must Read episode. You can check out Perennial Seller. If you like audiobooks, you can check it out on Audible. It's on Audible and if you want to get it for free, actually, you'll get two free books when you sign up with Audible with this special Link, just go to 100mba.net audible when you sign up with that link, they'll give you two free books when you sign up for their trial, no strings attached. So that's a good way for you to read that book for free or listen in this example. All right, before I go, I want to leave you with this. One of the reasons why I love doing these must read episodes is that it forces me to read more books. And like I mentioned in previous episodes, last year I read over 50 books and for me that was an achievement. I was really proud of that because I really set out to read more books a few years ago. And I have to be honest with you, the more I read, the better my businesses get. The better ideas I get, the better I can evaluate and solve problems. I just become a better entrepreneur. I'm just well informed. But also in the back of my mind, I would like to write a great book one day and by reading lots of great books, I you know what a great book looks like. So we're in a new year. It's a good time to start picking up this great habit, whether you like listening to books or reading them on your Kindle or the old fashioned way. All right, that's it for me today, but I'll check you in tomorrow's episode where we discuss lessons learned from Apple's new AirPods. Well, they're not that new anymore, but there's a lot of great lessons that I've learned through that new product. Some of these lessons are going to surprise you. I guess you'll have to find out in tomorrow's episode. All right, I'll check you then. Take care.

Is it time to reimagine your future? The right business skills may make a difference in your career. At Capella University, we offer a relevant education that's designed to focus on what you need to know in the business world. We'll teach professional skills to help you pursue your goals like business management, strategic planning, and effective communication, and you can apply these skills right away. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at Capella Eduardo.