Last March, I posted an article about how to learn internet marketing. One of the keys I covered was that you need to implement what you learn rather than continually studying and never doing:

Once you've studied something that can help your business, implement it before you move on to the next thing. If you've already made a habit of buying every "shiny object" that comes along and never implementing more than a few little ideas from each, you might make a strict rule for yourself that you are not allowed to spend another penny until you've 1) made a list of things you should implement from the last course you bought, and 2) have implemented them.

You'll get more value out of implementing the lessons from one course than from learning and not implementing the lessons from 100 courses. Plus, it's a lot less expensive.

Yesterday, Perry Marshall posted another point of view on his blog:

2) "I'm not going to eat any more meat until I've finished all my vegetables." ...

When I was a b-r-a-n-d n-e-w marketer, wet behind the ears, I bought a couple of items from Dan Kennedy. A few months later he was promoting some sort of conference. He asked his newsletter subscribers: "If you're not coming, why not???" ...

I faxed him back and said, "I haven't implemented all the stuff in your Magnetic Marketing System yet, so it makes no sense to spend even more money on education right now."

... It took almost 2 years before I got myself to a live event, i.e. a "real" marketing seminar.

...

Suddenly I caught a vision of where I needed to take my business "“ a vision I could have *never* caught at home, had I stayed on the "ration the information until you've applied everything" route.

...

You know what? I STILL did not and have not applied every possible thing I got in that Magnetic Marketing System 14 years ago.

... The "apply 100%" model is deadly.

So, do I stand corrected?

Yes and no.

As I said last year, you need to make "a list of things you should implement from the last course you bought," and implement them. Sometimes that means pulling one single idea out of an entire book and implementing it. I've never advocated "apply[ing] 100%" of what a course teaches.

And the restriction on buying anything new really only applies if you've "made a habit of buying every 'shiny object' that comes along and never implementing more than a few little ideas from each."

If you're always learning and always implementing the most important things that you learn, then by all means, as Perry says, "PILE IT ON, BABY." Even he says, "...if you only implement the best 10%...". The best 10%.

The people who only implement the worst 10% are the ones who are either afraid or too lazy to try the things that will make a difference. Those people need to find a way to break the pattern. And since always learning new things is a big part of the pattern -- continually sucking up time and energy that needs to be directed elsewhere -- that's part of the pattern that needs to be broken.

Once you've broken that pattern and have learned to implement the good stuff, you're ready for all the learning you can handle.

Thanks for the broader perspective, Perry.