Funny story.
When I first heard the title of Ryan Holiday’s new book “Perennial Seller,” I knew it’d teach me more about how to make something timeless, which I’ve been obsessed with recently.
For some reason Amazon Germany shipped the book a couple days early, so I thought it’d be fun to let Ryan know.
Lo and behold, I might actually have gotten the first real-world copy:
The book is brilliant. It takes me forever to finish because I’m marking things left and right and taking breaks to think about what I read constantly.
I’ve added my own, but here are some of Ryan’s examples of things that never get old:
- Stories. Humans have connected through stories for 1,000s of years. Star Wars was built around the hero’s journey, so was Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. It’s a timeless framework we subconsciously understand.
- Tradition. Culture, religion, nation. Serve any particular one of these and you have a shot at legacy. No big nation or world religion is going away any time soon.
- Birth. What to Expect When You’re Expecting is a book that can expect to keep selling, because we can expect people to keep expecting. About 560 babies have been born since you started reading this.
- Education. Until we’re adults we all need a hand and always will. But we’ll need new ways to learn the ABCs and math and history as time passes.
- Entertainment. I can’t imagine what it must’ve been like when kids movies weren’t fun to watch for adults. Thank you Pixar, Disney, DreamWorks and co. Adults procrastinate a lot too.
- Aging. Babies do baby stuff, teens do teen stuff and old people do old people stuff. Some things about each 5–10 year period in our lives remain the same. Work with that.
- Death. So far this little quirk of fate in the human experience hasn’t been fixed and I’m guessing it never will.
- Imagination. The day we’re all dull and sapped of creativity is the day we’re doomed. Humans will always be creative and inspired and have dreams. Give them something to fuel those.
- Biology. Humans need raincoats when it’s raining, scarves when it’s cold and ice-cold drinks when the sun’s out. Health, weight, nutrition, we all have to deal with these.
I could go on. As you can see there is one central element all of these revolve around: humans.
If you want to create something that lasts, don’t base it on some trend, technology or problem that’ll eventually solve itself.
Focus on the core of what it means to be human and you have a chance to touch people not just today, but tomorrow too.
Or, in Ryan’s words from the book:
“You can’t make something that lasts if it’s based on things, on individual parts that themselves won’t last.”
Hats off, Mr. Holiday. I have a hunch your book will be around for a long time.
