Now To Next With Perry Marshall
To say that summarizing my conversation with Perry Marshall will be tidy and easily fit into any kind of a box would be an outright lie. The truth is that this conversation just might change your life or at least pique your curiosity. Perry Marshall is one of the world’s most expensive business strategists who has consulted in over 300 industries. He is also an engineer, and author of several books including one of the most popular books on Google ads, Evolution 2.0 Breaking the Deadlock Between Darwin and Design, and the recently published Memos from The Head Office. Both, Evolution 2.0 and Memos From The Head Office are changing minds that were previously considered “set in stone.”
Perry joined me on my Now to Next podcast to talk about applying faith to entrepreneurship, but the conversation took on a life of its own and meandered into many different yet surprisingly inseparably connected directions. Since I thought our topic was going to be about business, I launched into the conversation with a question about his latest book Memos from the Head Office.
What’s It About And Why Did You Write It?
This question launched Perry into talking about how the best ideas come to people as downloads. He cited how the Harry Potter books came to J.K. Rowling, which she did her best to write down as quickly as if she was taking dictation. Then she spent the better part of a year untangling it and shaping it into what has become one of the most successful series of all time.
To further illustrate, Perry then related a story about something that happened at one of his workshops. He related that he went to dinner with a guy who was attending his workshop. The fellow thanked him because he “hadn’t even thought about his lawsuit all day.” Perry knew nothing about the lawsuit, but the next morning as he meditated and asked for direction about what to talk about at the workshop this day, he got the clear direction to “ask the guy about his lawsuit and ask him about inner healing.”
Perry did just that. The guy and his wife were a little surprised, but they went along explaining that it was a sexual harassment suit, his word against his accusers, he claimed he had done nothing, and it had been going on for two years. He was hoping it wouldn’t go to trial. Perry said to the man, “I’ll ask you to do something strange. Even though this person is trying to strangle you, I’d like you to ask God to untangle this, and I’d like you to imagine only good things happening to your accuser and forgive her.” Both the man and his wife did this. When they were complete, the guy’s phone rang. He looked at it and said it was his attorney. Perry said, “I told him it was good news, and he should take the call.” His wife said, “It’s never good news when he calls.” The guy took the call and left the room. When he came back, he told the room that the accuser was ready to settle for 10k less than he was willing to settle for.
Perry then asked me, “Is it a coincidence that the guy forgave the person at 9:22 and the call from his attorney came at 9:24?” As a direct answer to my question, he stated, “That’s what Memos from The Head Office is about!”
Faith And Inspiration
Perry is a faith-filled man and he explained that Memos From The Head Office is about faith. It’s about listening to that inner voice that is so often ignored. It’s about understanding that there is something much greater functioning in our lives than our merely human mind.
To Perry, faith in the laws of physics and religious faith are not different. They are the same. Everyone has faith in something, he explained. You have faith in God or faith in chance or faith in yourself. Perry has faith in nature and in whatever it is that has given rise to earth and all the life forms that inhabit the planet.
According to Perry, “one blade of grass is 10,000 years ahead of humanity. Nature is so far ahead of humans. I get my faith from nature.”
AI Platforms Are Helping Humans Become More Human
I ventured into the topic of AI, knowing that many people fear AI is going to take over humanity. According to Perry, that’s never going to happen. We both agreed that AI is going to help humans become more human. As Perry pointed out, “There is no such thing as AI, there is only A and no I.” He stated, “Siri is as dumb as a box of rocks.” As the author of books on Google and Facebook, both of whom use AI, Perry confirmed that “None of these platforms has a hint of consciousness.” He added, “Whenever Elon Musk waxes eloquent about AI, all he’s doing is kiting Tesla stock!”
The 80/20 Principle
Next, Perry jumped to the 80/20 principle, something most people at least those in business have heard about. This is what led Perry to write Memos from The Head Office. He said that he thought he understood the principle when he was a salesperson. The rule is often used to point out that 80% of a company’s revenue is generated by 20% of its customers. But then, Perry read Richard Koch’s book The 80/20 Principle and realized he really didn’t understand it. He went on to explain that instead of being a simple cause and effect principle it has a lot to do with chaos theory. He explained how when he understood that “Inside every 80/20 is another 80/20 and inside that is another 80/20, …” That, Perry explained, “Set my head on fire. The 80/20 principle applies to everything from traffic on the road to craters on the moon!”
As you can see, our conversation meandered. We touched upon so many more topics including the Bible and how to understand it, even if you know nothing about it. We talked about maintaining humility even with extraordinary success, and why, even if you have faith that “bad” things don’t stop happening to people. Perry shared a story of what happened to him when he didn’t listen to a memo he received from the head office and another story of a miraculous event that occurred to him in church one day.
To catch the full interview I had with Perry, you can listen to it on your favorite podcast listening platform. Perry’s energy, insightfulness, humility, and genius shine light on so many topics, you may find yourself returning time and time again. And of course, you can always reach out to me directly with any questions you might have!