Last week I wrote about Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule. During one of my networking meetings I brought up this topic and my friend and associate Ron Rubin of DDR Enterprises corrected me on my interpretation of “Outliers.” He says that practice doesn’t just make “perfect,” practice actually makes “permanent!”

Interestingly related, over the weekend I saw the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with my kids. If you are not familiar with it, it’s the story about a single father (I can relate), with 2 kids (I can relate), who is an inventor, (I can sort of relate as an Internet entrepreneur) and is constantly creating and inventing things that will make his life and the lives of those around him easier and more efficient. In his creative process he creates a sucking candy/ lollipop with holes in it. Instead of thinking they are useless, he discovers that these actually are whistles and calls them “toot sweets.” When he takes them to the big corporate “Scrumptious Confectionary and Candy Company,” he is shot down by the owner. Of course at the end of the movie (which always had a happy ending way back when in 1968) the big boss realizes that the candies might not be so great for humans, but they are perfect for dog whistles! Then big scary boss man writes out a check to Dick Van Dyke, and they all live happily ever after. Well, isn’t that special?! (Did I mention there was a car involved that flies and floats and saves them from the evil child-hating kingdom of Vularia! Oh and of course he also gets to marry the beautiful daughter of the Candy King but that’s beside the point also. I have more theories about this movie too but you will have to call or email me for that as I am trying to shorten my blog posts lately

The real point above is that I have been writing about consistency and endurance and never giving up for the past few months and I hope it is finally sinking in. Caractacus Potts never gave up. Not on his work nor his inventions. And in the long run, he persevered and succeeded. Sometimes we create things and work on things for hours and hours and with the sheer amount of time that is put into something, we can succeed either due to that amount of time and effort or something indirectly related.

Last week I also mentioned that content is one of the parts to Internet success and I would start coaching you on what to write, how to write and finding the time to write.

But before I start coaching you on WHAT to write, I want to share with you another tenet of Internet and website marketing. “Know Thine Audience!” As an example, at my networking meeting last Friday I gave a short presentation that is a 5-10 minute whet your appetite mini-presentation that touches upon the 21 things every business should know about websites and online marketing. One of the members of that group is a bereavement advisor. She helps you and your family cope with life changes that tragically come in as a surprise and challenging situations that aren’t a surprise at all. Dealing with deaths of parents, spouses etc. is not an easy task. So during my little lecture I was talking about how during the Olympics, a young male Olympian died during the luge competition (possibly due to the course being too fast but that’s another story). I had been writing about the Olympics for weeks but never touched upon this. When I mentioned to this consultant that a great article for her to write would be about the bereavement that this family had felt with the entire world watching, she agreed. So the message here is that you should be using current events to explain to your audience what you do and how you do it.

And that brings me to the Oscars. Best Picture: The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow), Actor in a Leading Role: Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart), Actress in a Leading Role: Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side), Directing: The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow). Ok ok. So I haven’t seen any of these movies. However, I did see “Up,” Best Animated Feature Film and Music, and “Avatar,” Best Cinematography and Art Direction. I don’t get out to the movies that much but I am a big fan of getting movies for free from the library. But I am in the minority. Millions of people all over the world live in the fantasy world of entertainment and movies allow us to transport to another universe for two hours at a time. Movies makes billions and billions of dollars worldwide because humans love to get away from their current lives, to dream and to stand in other peoples shoes if only for a short time. Movies are emotional. They speak to our inner senses. They make us feel happy, sad, scared and loved. They make us cry, laugh and leave us with a sense of wonder and move us to think and imagine. (By the way, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang won the Oscar for best music in 1968 and by the way I think South Park stole the music for this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH6aj8ofBXk)

And how does one get to be at the top of the mountain in the movie industry? That’s right. Either you work your butt off for years and years and years, or attach yourself to others who have been working those 10,000 required hours. Of course the winners have talent and creativity. But it is the combination of teamwork and hard work and countless hours of perfecting and making permanent the skills required to move audiences that choose to spend their hard earned money to get away from it all for about 2 hours.

You can bring your business to the top of Google and to the top of your industry if you just invest the time necessary to make it happen. And here is a secret to making your business a success with Internet marketing… You can do it all for free. And in your spare time. And you can also hire interns to do it for you. That’s right. All of the tools necessary (see my 21 things businesses need to do to be a success online here: http://www.TheSeminarSeries.com, of course you can also sign up for my seminar where I teach it to you too) are all on the Internet right now.

So today start blogging, writing, hiring interns, create links, make videos and anything else you can do to move your company closer to success. You will be glad you did. And if you want to know more about movies or Website and Internet marketing NYC, email me at raphis@salemglobal.com, just call me at my NYC office at 212-993-5828 or visit www.SalemGlobal.com for more information.