Book review – Perennial Seller. The art of making work that lasts, by Ryan Holiday
I've been a fan of Ryan Holidays work for a number of years now. He was the director of marketing for American Apparel, researcher for Robert Greene, and has since gone on to author 6 books as well as advising top companies like Google.
Those are some pretty good reasons right there as to why I was interested in this book. He is also known for his interest in Stoic Philosophy, and as a creator, I'm always interested to explore how his marketing knowledge and philosophy cross paths to create outcomes.
We all feel the pressure of constant deadlines, work to publish, projects to finish and life to rush through. Perennial Seller is the perfect book to help you pause, take a step back, and put together a plan to create work that really lasts. Work that makes an impact. Work you can be proud of.
"People claim to want to do something that matters, yet they measure themselves against things that don’t, and track their progress not in years but in microseconds. They want to make something timeless, but they focus instead on immediate payoffs and instant gratification." – Ryan Holiday, Perennial Seller
The book is split up into two sections. 1.) Creation, 2.) Marketing. It starts as an inspirational but honest account of what it takes to create something timeless. Luckily, he backs up his promise of hard work with plenty of advice on how to go about the stages. However, when I got to the end of the creation park and realised I was now back into reading a marketing book I felt a bit cheated. I wanted advice on how to CREATE something amazing, not market it!
But I was wrong. This second section was full of amazing advice, examples, and strategies to create work that lasts. Build it and they will come, simply doesn't apply. Where we tend to think people just made a great product and it sold, we tend to have missed all the underlying work they put in. The networks they built, the contacts they made. This book is a framework to help you create a huge following.
"Each new work competes for customers with everything that came before it and everything that will come after." – Ryan Holiday, Perennial Seller
It's already inspired how I'm approaching my next few projects and I'd include it as one of my top books I've ever read on marketing. Get out there and grab yourself a copy.