RSS at Feed BurnerBusiness Lessons from Harry Houdini
Having read quite a bit about Harry Houdini while growing up I enjoyed 37 Signal’s post today discussing 5 Business Lessons from Harry Houdini. They include:
- Focus on the killer bit
When he started out, he was doing a bunch of tricks and escaping from handcuffs was just one in the batch. A vaudeville bigwig saw him do his act and told him that no one cared about any of the tricks except the handcuff escape. Houdini dropped the rest of the tricks, did a show that focused exclusively on escapes, and flew to stardom.
- Give ‘em a story
Houdini knew the aura of escape was just as important as the actual escape. So he always gave people something to talk about. He’d often stretch easy escapes into lengthy affairs in order to build tension. When he finally broke free, the crowd would erupt in cheers.
on September 10th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
I read the ‘Give em a story’ bit about Houdini before - when he used to do his big water tank escapes, he would escape (behind the curtain) and then read a paper while the tension escalated, finally appearing from behind the curtain to enourmous cheers
on September 23rd, 2007 at 9:42 am
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