godin

Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don't need to escape from.   -- Seth Godin
%
The job is what you do when you are told what to do. The job is showing up at the factory, following instructions, meeting spec, and being managed. Someone can always do your job a little better or faster or cheaper than you can. The job might be difficult, it might require skill, but it's a job. Your art is what you do when no one can tell you exactly how to do it. Your art is the act of taking personal responsibility, challenging the status quo, and changing people. I call the process of doing your art 'the work.' It's possible to have a job and do the work, too. In fact, that's how you become a linchpin. The job is not the work.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Art is what we call...the thing an artist does. It's not the medium or the oil or the price or whether it hangs on a wall or you eat it. What matters, what makes it art, is that the person who made it overcame the resistance, ignored the voice of doubt and made something worth making. Something risky. Something human. Art is not in the ...eye of the beholder. It's in the soul of the artist.   -- Seth Godin
%
Art isn't only a painting. Art is anything that's creative, passionate, and personal. And great art resonates with the viewer, not only with the creator. What makes someone an artist? I don't think is has anything to do with a paintbrush. There are painters who follow the numbers, or paint billboards, or work in a small village in China, painting reproductions. These folks, while swell people, aren't artists. On the other hand, Charlie Chaplin was an artist, beyond a doubt. So is Jonathan Ive, who designed the iPod. You can be an artists who works with oil paints or marble, sure. But there are artists who work with numbers, business models, and customer conversations. Art is about intent and communication, not substances. An artists is someone who uses bravery, insight, creativity, and boldness to challenge the status quo. And an artists takes it personally. That's why Bob Dylan is an artist, but an anonymous corporate hack who dreams up Pop 40 hits on the other side of the glass is merely a marketer. That's why Tony Hsieh, founder of Zappos, is an artists, while a boiler room of telemarketers is simply a scam. Tom Peters, corporate gadfly and writer, is an artists, even though his readers are businesspeople. He's an artists because he takes a stand, he takes the work personally, and he doesn't care if someone disagrees. His art is part of him, and he feels compelled to share it with you because it's important, not because he expects you to pay him for it. Art is a personal gift that changes the recipient. The medium doesn't matter. The intent does. Art is a personal act of courage, something one human does that creates change in another.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Change almost never fails because it's too early. It almost always fails because it's too late.   -- Seth Godin
%
I define anxiety as experiencing failure in advance.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
If you cant state your position in eight words, you dont have a position.    -- Seth Godin
%
The secret to being wrong isn't to avoid being wrong! The secret is being willing to be wrong. The secret is realizing that wrong isn't fatal.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
An artist is someone who uses bravery, insight, creativity, and boldness to challenge the status quo. And an artist takes it personally.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
People don't believe what you tell them. They rarely believe what you show them. They often believe what their friends tell them. They always believe what they tell themselves.   -- Seth Godin
%
If you are deliberately trying to create a future that feels safe, you will willfully ignore the future that is likely.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be remarkable?   -- Seth Godin , Small Is the New Big: and 183 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas
%
Perhaps your challenge isn't finding a better project or a better boss. Perhaps you need to get in touch with what it means to feel passionate. People with passion look for ways to make things happen.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
The lizard brain is hungry, scared, angry, and horny. The lizard brain only wants to eat and be safe. The lizard brain will fight (to the death) if it has to, but would rather run away. It likes a vendetta and has no trouble getting angry. The lizard brain cares what everyone else thinks, because status in the tribe is essential to its survival. A squirrel runs around looking for nuts, hiding from foxes, listening for predators, and watching for other squirrels. The squirrel does this because that's all it can do. All the squirrel has is a lizard brain. The only correct answer to 'Why did the chicken cross the road?' is 'Because it's lizard brain told it to.' Wild animals are wild because the only brain they posses is a lizard brain. The lizard brain is not merely a concept. It's real, and it's living on the top of your spine, fighting for your survival. But, of course, survival and success are not the same thing. The lizard brain is the reason you're afraid, the reason you don't do all the art you can, the reason you don't ship when you can. The lizard brain is the source of the resistance.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Here's the truth you have to wrestle with: the reason that art (writing, engaging, leading, all of it) is valuable is precisely why I can't tell you how to do it. If there were a map, there'd be no art, because art is the act of navigating without a map. Don't you hate that? I love that there's no map.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
At the age of four, you were an artist. And at seven, you were a poet.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Soon is not as good as now.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth.  Not going all the way, and not starting.  Siddhrtha Gautama   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
In a battle between two ideas, the best one doesn't necessarily win. No, the idea that wins is the one with the most fearless heretic behind it.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Discomfort brings engagement and change. Discomfort means you're doing something that others were unlikely to do, because they're hiding out in the comfortable zone. When your uncomfortable actions lead to success, the organization rewards you and brings you back for more.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Transferring your passion to your job is far easier than finding a job that happens to match your passion.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Reject the tyranny of picked. Pick yourself.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
If you need to conceal your true nature to get in the door, understand that you'll probably have to conceal your true nature to keep that job.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Change isn't made by asking permission. Change is made by asking forgiveness, later.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Art is a personal act of courage, something one human does that creates change in another.   -- Seth Godin
%
...treasure what it means to do a day's work. It's our one and only chance to do something productive today, and it's certainly not available to someone merely because he is the high bidder. A day's work is your chance to do art, to create a gift, to do something that matters. As your work gets better and your art becomes more important, competition for your gifts will increase and you'll discover that you can be choosier about whom you give them to.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
The tragedy is that society (your school, your boss, your government, your family) keeps drumming the genius part out. The problem is that our culture has engaged in a Faustian bargain, in which we trade our genius and artistry for apparent stability.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Leadership, on the other hand, is about creating change you believe in.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Yes, I think it's okay to abandon the big, established, stuck tribe. It's okay to say to them, "You're not going where I need to go, and there's no way I'm going to persuade all of you to follow me. So rather than standing here watching the opportunities fade away, I'm heading off. I'm betting some of you, the best of you, will follow me.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
How was your day? If your answer was "fine," then I don't think you were leading.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Learning is not done to you, it is something you choose to do.   -- Seth Godin , Stop Stealing Dreams
%
Letting your customers set your standards is a dangerous game, because the race to the bottom is pretty easy to win. Setting your own standards--and living up to them--is a better way to profit. Not to mention a better way to make your day worth all the effort you put into it." -   -- Seth Godin
%
The competitive advantages the marketplace demands is someone more human, connected, and mature. Someone with passion and energy, capable of seeing things as they are and negotiating multiple priorities as she makes useful decisions without angst. Flexible in the face of change, resilient in the face of confusion. All of these attributes are choices, not talents, and all of them are available to you.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
The challenge with being an initiator of projects is that you are never, ever done.   -- Seth Godin
%
If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try.   -- Seth Godin
%
If failure is not an option, then neither is success.   -- Seth Godin
%
Don't find customers for your products, find products for your customers.   -- Seth Godin
%
Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Life's too short" is repeated often enough to be a cliche, but this time it's true. You don't have enough time to be both unhappy and mediocre. It's not just pointless, it's painful. Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you ought to set up a life you don't need to escape from.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Don't wait for the right answer and the golden path to present themselves. This is precisely why you're stuck. Starting without seeing the end is difficult, so we often wait until we see the end, scanning relentlessly for the right way, the best way and the perfect way. The way to get unstuck is to start down the wrong path, right now. Step by step, page by page, interaction by interaction. As you start moving, you can't help but improve, can't help but incrementally find yourself getting back toward your north star. You might not end up with perfect, but it's significantly more valuable than being stuck. Don't just start. Continue. Ship. Repeat.   -- Seth Godin
%
Leaders lead when they take positions, when they connect with their tribes, and when they help the tribe connect to itself.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
The problem with competition is that it takes away the requirement to set your own path, to invent your own method, to find a new way.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Today, not starting is far, far worse than being wrong. If you start, you've got a shot at evolving and adjusting to turn your wrong into a right. But if you don't start, you never get a chance.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
The Cul-de-Sac ( French for "dead end" ) ... is a situation where you work and work and work and nothing much changes   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
Remarkable visions and genuine insights are always met with resistance. And when you start to make progress, your efforts are met with even more resistance. Products, services, career paths - whatever it is, the forces for mediocrity will align to stop you, forgiving no errors and never backing down until it's over. If it were any other way, it would be easy. And if it were any other way, everyone would do it and your work would ultimately be devalued. The yin and yang are clear: without people pushing against your quest to do something worth talking about, it's unlikely to be worth the journey. Persist.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
The librarian isn't a clerk who happens to work in a library. A librarian is a data hound, a guide, a sherpa and a teacher. The librarian is the interface between reams of data and the untrained but motivated user.   -- Seth Godin , The Library Book
%
Not only must you be an artist, must you be generous, and must you be able to see where you can help but you must also be aware. Aware of where your skills are welcomed.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
As our society gets more complex and our people get more complacent, the role of the jester is more vital than ever before. Please stop sitting around. We need you to make a ruckus.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Persistent people are able to visualize the idea of light at the end of the tunnel when others can't see it   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
The time to look for a new job is when you don't need one. The time to switch jobs is before it feels comfortable.   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
You cannot create a piece of art merely for money. Doing it as part of commerce so denudes art of wonder that it ceases to be art.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
The people who are the best in the world specialize at getting really good at the questions they don't know.   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
No one knows more about the way you think than you do.   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
Art is never defect-free. Things that are remarkable never meet spec, because that would make them standardized, not worth talking about.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Its okay. Let your ego push you to be the initiator. But tell your ego that the best way to get something shipped is to let other people take the credit. The real win for you (and your ego) is seeing something get shipped, not in getting the credit when it does.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
A woodpecker can tap twenty times on a thousand trees and get nowhere, but stay busy. Or he can tap twenty-thousand times on one tree and get dinner.   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
believe that giving up is the same thing as being realistic.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
I think art is the ability to change people with your work, to see things as they are and then create stories, images, and interactions that change the marketplace.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
The combination of passion and art is what makes someone a linchpin.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Everyone will think it's stupid!" "Everyone says it's impossible." Guess what? Everyone works in the balloon factory and everyone is wrong.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
...the greatest shortage in our society is an instinct to produce. To create solutions and hustle them out the door. To touch the humanity inside and connect to the humans in the marketplace.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
The Dip creates scarcity; scarcity creates value   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
We do not need to teach students to embrace the status quo.   -- Seth Godin , Stop Stealing Dreams
%
We need students who can learn how to learn, who can discover how to push themselves and are generous enough and honest enough to engage with the outside world to make those dreams happen.   -- Seth Godin , Stop Stealing Dreams
%
If your organization requires success before commitment, it will never have either. Part of leadership (a big part of it, actually) is the ability to stick with the dream for a long time. Long enough that the critics realize that you're going to get there one way or another...so they follow.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
When you set down the path to create art, whatever sort of art it is, understand that the path is neither short not easy. That means you must determine if the route is worth the effort. If it's not, dream bigger.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
An individual artist needs only a thousand true fans in her tribe. It's enough.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Strategic quitting is the secret of successful organizations   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
As soon as we associate reading with a test, we've missed the point.   -- Seth Godin , Stop Stealing Dreams
%
A brilliant author or businesswoman or senator or software engineer is brilliant only in tiny bursts. The rest of the time, theyre doing work that most any trained person could do.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
What is school for? If you're not asking that, you're wasting time and money.   -- Seth Godin , Stop Stealing Dreams
%
Never quit something with great long-term potential just because you cant deal with the stress of the moment.   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
The best way to be missed when you're gone, Is to stand for something when you're here   -- Seth Godin
%
Heretics must believe. More than anyone else in an organization, it's the person who's challenging the status quo, the one who is daring to be great, who is truly present and not just punching a clock who must have confidence in her beliefs. Can you imagine Steve Jobs showing up for the paycheck? It's nice to get paid. It's essential to believe.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Tell your lizard (brain) to shut up.   -- Seth Godin
%
The opportunity of a lifetime is to pick yourself. Quit waiting to get picked; quit waiting for someone to give you permission; quit waiting for someone to say you are officially qualified and pick yourself. It doesnt mean you have to be an entrepreneur or a freelancer, but it does mean you stand up and say, I have something to say. I know how to do something. Im doing it. If you want me to do it with you, raise your hand.   -- Seth Godin
%
You have everything you need to build something far bigger than yourself.   -- Seth Godin
%
You get to keep making art as long as you are willing to make the choices that let you make your art.   -- Seth Godin , The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
%
The secret of being wrong isn't to avoid being wrong! The secret is being willing to be wrong. The secret is realizing that wrong isn't fatal. The only thing that makes people and organizations great is their willingness to be not great along the way. The desire to fail on the way to reaching a bigger goal is the untold secret of success.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Quite or be exceptional. Average is for losers.   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
All great programmers learn the same way. They poke the box. They code something and see what the computer does. They change it and see what the computer does. They repeat the process again and again until they figure out how the box works.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
I define anxiety as experiencing failure in advanceand if you have anxiety about initiating a project, then of course you will associate risk with failure.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Leadership isn't something that people hand to you. ... [i]t's a gradual process, one where you take responsibility years before you are given authority. And that's something we can teach.   -- Seth Godin
%
Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
Stick with the Dips that are likely to pan out, and quit the Cul-de-Sacs to focus your resources   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
Anatomy of a Movement Senator Bill Bradley defines a movement as having three elements: (1) A narrative that tells a story about who we are and the future we're trying to build. (2) A connection between and among the leader and the tribe. (3) Something to do - the fewer limits the better. Too often organizations fail to do anything but the third.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
People have come to the erroneous conclusion that if theyre not willing to start something separate, world-changing, and risky, they have no business starting anything. Somehow, weve fooled ourselves into believing that the project has to have a name, a building, and a stock ticker symbol to matter.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Starting isnt like that. Starting something is not an event; its a series of events. You decide to walk to Cleveland. So you take a first step in the right direction. Thats starting. You spend the rest of the day walking toward Cleveland, one step at a time, picking your feet up and putting them down. At the end of the day, twenty miles later, you stop at a hotel. And what happens the next morning? Either you quit the project or you start again, walking to Cleveland. In fact, every step is a new beginning. Sure, you're closer than you were yesterday or last week, but you're still...   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Art isn't only a painting; it's anything that changes someone for the better, any nonanonymous interaction that leads to a human (not simply a commercial) conclusion.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Art has no right answer. The best we can hope for is an interesting answer.   -- Seth Godin , The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
%
If you can't be remarkable, perhaps you should consider doing nothing until you can.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
The market ... demands a signal from you that you're serious, powerful, accepted, and safe.   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
If you don't know how it works, find out. If you're not sure if it will work, try it. If it doesn't make sense, play with it until it does. If it's not broken, break it. If it might not be true, find out.   -- Seth Godin
%
Passion can overcome fear - the fear of losing, of failing, of being traditional.   -- Seth Godin , Stop Stealing Dreams
%
One of the things that school is for is to teach our children to understand and relish the idea of intellectualism, to develop into something more than a purpose-driven tool for the industrial state.   -- Seth Godin , Stop Stealing Dreams
%
A fundamentalist is a person who considers whether a fact is acceptable to his religion before he explores it. As opposed to a curious person who explores first then considers whether or not he wants to accept the ramifications. A curious person embraces the tension between his religion and something new, wrestles with it and through it, and then decides whether to embrace the new idea or reject it.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
We need librarians more than we ever did. What we don't need are mere clerks who guard dead paper. Librarians are too important to be a dwindling voice in our culture. For the right librarian, this is the chance of a lifetime.   -- Seth Godin , Stop Stealing Dreams
%
That's your opportunity--to approach your work in a way that generates unique learning and interactions that are worth sharing.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
One of the talents of the [late] great Steve Jobs is that he [knew] how to design Medusa-like products. While every Macintosh model has had flaws (some more than others), most of them have has a sexiness and a design sensibility that has turned many consumers into instant converts. Macintosh owners upgrade far more often than most computer users for precisely this reason. (p.98)   -- Seth Godin , Unleashing the Ideavirus: Stop Marketing AT People! Turn Your Ideas into Epidemics by Helping Your Customers Do the Marketing thing for You.
%
Rich is my word for someone who can afford to make choices, who has enough resources to do more than merely survive.   -- Seth Godin , We Are All Weird: The Myth of Mass and The End of Compliance
%
When your art fails, make better art.   -- Seth Godin , The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
%
How can you squander even one more day not taking advantage of the greatest shifts of our generation? How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be remarkable? -  -- Seth Godin, sethgodin.com   -- Seth Godin , Guerrilla Marketing for Home-Based Businesses
%
The people who skip the hard questions are in the majority, but they are not in demand.   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
Being surrounded by educated people makes democracy stronger, and it benefits our entire economy.   -- Seth Godin , Stop Stealing Dreams
%
Group projects are the exception in school, but they should be the norm.   -- Seth Godin , Stop Stealing Dreams
%
It's not time," "Take it easy," "Wait and see," "It's someone else's turn" - none of these stalls are appropriate for a leader in search of change. There's a small price for being too early, but a huge penalty for being too late. The longer you wait to launch an innovation, the less your effort is worth.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
When you're doing hard work, getting rejected, failing, working it outthis is a dumb time to make a situational decision about whether its time for a nap or a day off or a coffee break. Zig Ziglar taught me this twenty years ago. Make your schedule before you start. Dont allow setbacks or blocks or anxiety to push you to say, hey, maybe I should check my e-mail for a while, or you know, I could use a nap. If you do that, the lizard brain will soon be trained to use that escape hatch again and again.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Write like you talk. Often.   -- Seth Godin , The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
%
Initiative and starting are about neither of these. They are about lets see and try. If theres no clear right answer, perhaps the thing you ought to do is something new. Something new is often the right path when the world is complicated.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Art changes posture and posture changes innocent bystanders.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Artists are people with a genius for finding a new answer, a new connection, or a new way of getting things done. That would be you.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Optimism is the most important human trait, because it allows us to evolve our ideas, to improve our situation, and to hope for a better tomorrow.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
The road to comfort is crowded and it rarely gets you there. Ironically, its those who seek out discomfort that are able to make a difference and find their footing.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Perfect is an illusion, one that was created to maintain the status quo. The Six Sigma charade is largely about hiding from change, because change is never perfect. Change means reinvention, and until something is reinvented, we have no idea what the spec is.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
The habit of doing more than is necessary can only be earned through practice.   -- Seth Godin
%
If you can deny your talents, if you can conceal them from others or, even better, persuade yourself that they werent even given to you, you're off the hook. And being off the hook is a key element of the industrialized schools promise. It lets parents off the hook, certainly, since the institution takes over the teaching. It lets teachers off the hook, since the curriculum is preordained and the results are tested. And it lets students off the hook, because the road is clearly marked and the map is handed to everyone. If you stay on the path, do your college applications through the guidance office and your job hunting at the placement office, the future is not your fault. Thats the refrain we hear often from frustrated job seekers, frustrated workers with stuck careers, and frustrated students in too much debt. 'I did what they told me to do and now Im stuck and its not my fault.' What theyve exchanged for that deniability is their dreams, their chance for greatness. To go off the path is to claim responsibility for what happens next.   -- Seth Godin
%
The reason you might choose to embrace the artist within you now is that this is the path to (cue the ironic music) security.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Once youve engaged with an organization or a relationship or a community, you owe it to your team to start. To initiate. To be the one who makes something happen. To do less is to steal from them.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
So sure, start with a slogan. But don't bother wasting any time on it if you're merely going for catchy. Aim for true instead.   -- Seth Godin
%
The current (educational) structure, which seeks low-cost uniformity that meets minimum standards, is killing our economy, our culture, and us.   -- Seth Godin , Stop Stealing Dreams
%
It's clearly more fun to make the rules than to follow them. ~  -- Seth Godin   -- Seth Godin
%
Successful heretics create their own religions....You can recognize the need for faith in your idea, you can find the tribe you need to support you, and yes, you can create a new religion around your faith. Steve Jobs did it on purpose at Apple and Phil Knight is famous for doing it at Nike.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Your job isnt to do your job. Your job is to decide what to do next.   -- Seth Godin , The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
%
We drink the can, not the beverage.   -- Seth Godin , All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World
%
The librarian is the interface between reams of data and the untrained but motivated user.   -- Seth Godin , Stop Stealing Dreams
%
Traditional corporations, particularly large-scale service and manufacturing businesses are organized for efficiency. Or consistency. But not joy. Joy comes from surprise and connection and humanity and transparency and new...If you fear special requests, if you staff with cogs, if you have to put it all in a manual, then the chances of amazing someone are really quite low. These organizations have people who will try to patch problems over after the fact, instead of motivated people eager to delight on the spot. The alternative, it seems, is to organize for joy. These are the companies that give their people the freedom (and the expectation) that they will create, connect and surprise. These are the organizations that embrace someone who make a difference, as opposed to searching the employee handbook for a rule that was violated.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Marketing is the name we use to describe the promise a company makes, the story it tells, the authentic way it delivers on that promise.   -- Seth Godin
%
Its extremely difficult to find smart people willing to start useful projects. Because sometimes what you start doesnt work. The fact that it doesnt work every time should give you confidence, because it means you're doing something that frightens others.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
The only way to get what you're worth is to stand out, to exert emotional labor, to be seen as indispensable, and to produce interactions that organizations and people care deeply about.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Crash diets don't work. They don't work for losing weight, they don't work for making sales quota and they don't work for getting and keeping a job. The reason they don't work has nothing to do with what's on the list of things to be done (or consumed). No, the reason they don't work is that they don't change habits, and habits are where our lives and careers and bodies are made.   -- Seth Godin
%
So great leaders don't try to please everyone. Great leaders don't water down their message in order to make the tribe a bit bigger. Instead, they realize that a motivated, connected tribe in the midst of a movement is far more powerful than a larger group could ever be.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Writing a book is a tremendous experience. It pays off intellectually. It clarifies your thinking. It builds credibility. It is a living engine of marketing and idea spreading, working every day to deliver your message with authority. You should write one.  -- Seth Godin   -- Seth Godin , How the Fierce Handle Fear: Secrets to Succeeding in Challenging Times
%
This is an addictive pastime. You take no real risk, touch the world, and it responds. Repeat.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Seizing new ground, making connections between people or ideas, working without a mapthese are works of art, and if you do them, you are an artist, regardless of whether you wear a smock, use a computer, or work with others all day long.   -- Seth Godin , The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
%
The challenge, it turns out, isnt in perfecting your ability to know when to start and when to stand by. The challenge is getting into the habit of   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
The challenge is this: training creative, independent, and innovative artists is new to us.   -- Seth Godin , Stop Stealing Dreams
%
A fundamentalist is a person who considers whether a fact is acceptable to his religion before he explores it. As opposed to a curious person who explores first then considers whether or not he wants to accept the ramifications.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
For many of us, the happiest future is one that's precisely like the past, except a little better   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
We have little choice but to move beyond quality and seek remarkable, connected, and new. Remarkable, as you've already figured out, demands initiative.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Librarians who are arguing and lobbying for clever e-book lending solutions are completely missing the point. They are defending the library-as-warehouse concept, as opposed to fighting for the future, which is librarian as producer, concierge, connector, teacher, and impresario.   -- Seth Godin , Stop Stealing Dreams
%
Heres a quote from ultramarathoner Dick Collins: Decide before the race the conditions that will cause you to stop and drop out. You dont want to be out there saying, Well gee, my leg hurts, Im a little dehydrated, Im sleepy, Im tired, and its cold and windy. And talk yourself into quitting. If you are making a decision based on how you feel at that moment, you will probably make the wrong decision.   -- Seth Godin , The Dip
%
A genius looks at something that others are stuck on and gets the world unstuck. So the question is: Have you ever done that?   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Our culture works hard to prevent change.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Creating ideas that spread and connecting the disconnected are the two pillars of our new society, and both of them require the posture of the artist.   -- Seth Godin , The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
%
If you're brilliant and undiscovered and underappreciated (in whatever field you choose), then you're being too generous about your definition of brilliant.   -- Seth Godin
%
Teaching Fire a Lesson Fire is hot. That's what it does. If you get burned by fire, you can be annoyed at yourself, but being angry at fire doesn't do you much good. And trying to teach the fire a lesson so it won't be hot next time is certainly not time well spent. Our inclination is to give fire a pass, because it's not human. But human beings are similar, in that they're not going to change any time soon either.   -- Seth Godin
%
Anyone who says failure is not an option has also ruled out innovation.   -- Seth Godin
%
All marketers are storytellers. Only the losers are liars.   -- Seth Godin , All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World
%
The object of the new school is to teach reasonable doubt. Not the unreasonable doubt of the wild-eyed heckler, but the evidence-based doubt of the questioning scientist and the reason-based doubt of the skilled debater.   -- Seth Godin , Stop Stealing Dreams
%
What most people want in a leader is something that's very difficult to find: we want someone who listens...The secret, Reagan's secret, is to listen, to value what you hear, and then to make a decision even if it contradicts the very people you are listening to. Reagan impressed his advisers, his adversaries, and his voters by actively listening. People want to be sure you hear what they said - they're less focused on whether or not you do what they said.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
If your feet are in two buckets and the average temperature of the water is 90 degrees, you're probably fineunless one bucket is at 35 and the other is at 145 degrees. On average, you're fine. Based on variation, though, you're miserable.   -- Seth Godin , We Are All Weird: The Myth of Mass and The End of Compliance
%
Your first mistake might be assuming that people are rational. Your second mistake could be assuming that people are eager for change. And the marketer's third mistake is assuming that once someone knows things the way you know them, they will choose what you chose.   -- Seth Godin
%
Art is original. Marcel Duchamp was an artist when he pioneered Dadaism and installed a urinal in a museum. The second person to install a urinal wasn't an artist, he was a plumber.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Its all a risk. Always. Thats not true, actually. The only exception: its a certainty that theres risk. The safer you play your plans for the future, the riskier it actually is. Thats because the world is certainly, definitely, and more than possibly changing.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Its never too late ...to start heading in the right direction.   -- Seth Godin
%
Skill and attitude are essential. Authority is not. In fact, authority can get in the way.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
But what if I fail?" You will. The answer to the what if question is, you will. A better question might be, "after I fail, what then?" Well, if you've chosen well, after you fail you will be one step closer to succeeding, you will be wiser and stronger and you almost certainly will be more respected by all of those that are afraid to try.   -- Seth Godin
%
Change isnt made by asking permission. Change is made by asking forgiveness, later.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Creating value through interaction is far more important than solving a consumers problem in thirty seconds.   -- Seth Godin , Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
%
Real leaders don't care [about receiving credit]. If it's about your mission, about spreading the faith, about seeing something happen, not only do you not care about credit, you actually want other people to take credit...There's no record of Martin Luther King, Jr. or Gandhi whining about credit. Credit isn't the point. Change is.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
In unstable times, growth comes from leaders who create change and engage their organizations, instead of from managers who push their employees to do more for less.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
One thing that most comic artists avoid is showing decisions. They show action, sure, and they show results, but they dont show (because its difficult to show) the hero or the villain making a choice.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Art is the unique work of a human being, work that touches another.   -- Seth Godin , The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
%
Great design = getting people to do what you want.   -- Seth Godin
%
The challenge is to focus on the work, not on the fear that comes from doing the work.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
This is not a book for the wild-haired crazies your company keeps in a corner. It is a book for you, your boss, and your employees, because the best future available to us is a future where you contriubute your true self and your best work. Are you up for that?   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
They told you to get your rsum in order, to punch your ticket, to fit in, and to follow instructions. They told you to swallow your pride, not to follow your dream. They promised trinkets and prizes and possibly riches if you would just suck it up and be part of the system, if you would merely do what you were told and conform. They sold you debt and self-storage and reality TV shows. They sold your daughters and sons, too. All in exchange for what would happen later, when it was your turn. Its your turn.   -- Seth Godin
%
Difference between TV and the internet was how far you sat from the screen. TV was an 8 foot activity, and you were a consumer. The internet was a 16 inch activity, and you participated. I think the sitting down thing is similar. You're not going to buy an armoir while standing on the subway.   -- Seth Godin
%
There are no longer any great jobs where someone else tells you precisely what to do.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
When you work under the cloud of anxiety, the best strategy is to play it safe, because if (when!) it fails, youll be blameless.   -- Seth Godin
%
With limited time or opportunity to experiment, we intentionally narrow our choices to those at the top.   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
To be a superstar, you must do something exceptional. Not just survive the Dip, but use the Dip as an opportunity to create something so extraordinary that people cant help but talk about it, recommend it, and, yes, choose it.   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
Sometimes, "never let them see you sweat," is truly bad advice. The work of an individual who cares often exposes the grit and determination and effort that it takes to be present. Perfecting your talk, refining your essay and polishing your service until all elements of you disappear might be obvious tactics, but they remove the thing we were looking for: you.   -- Seth Godin
%
Initiating is really and truly difficult, and thats what leaders do. They see something others are ignoring and they jump on it. They cause the events that others have to react to. They make change.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
No one has a transparent view of the world. In fact, we all carry around a personal worldviewthe biases and experiences and expectations that color the way we perceive the world.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
If it wasnt a mystery, it would be easy. If it were easy, it wouldnt be worth much.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Success comes from doing the hard part. When the hard part is all you've got, you're more likely to do it. And this is precisely why it's difficult to focus. Because focusing means acknowledging that you just signed up for the hard part.   -- Seth Godin
%
Education isn't a problem until it serves as a buffer rom the world and a refuge from the risk of failure.   -- Seth Godin , Stop Stealing Dreams
%
If all we do with these tools is teach compliance and consumption, that's all we're going to get. School can and must do more than train the factory workers of tomorrow.   -- Seth Godin , Stop Stealing Dreams
%
Everyone is lonely. Connect.   -- Seth Godin , The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
%
Theres not a lot to say about the Cul-de-Sac except to realize that it exists and to embrace the fact that when you find one, you need to get off it, fast. Thats because a dead end is keeping you from doing something else. The opportunity cost of investing your life in something thats not going to get better is just too high.   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
Transparency in the traditional school might destroy it.   -- Seth Godin , Stop Stealing Dreams
%
Passion isnt project-specific. Its people-specific.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Starting means you're going to finish. If it doesnt ship, youve failed. You havent poked the box if the box doesnt realize its been poked. To merely start without finishing is just boasting, or stalling, or a waste of time. I have no patience at all for people who believe they are doing their best work but are hiding it from the market. If you dont ship, you actually havent started anything at all. At some point, your work has to intersect with the market. At some point, you need feedback as to whether or not it worked. Otherwise, its merely a hobby.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
The epidemic So many people are frozen in the face of uncertainty and paralyzed at the thought of shipping work that matters that one might think that the fear is hardwired into us. It is. Scientists can identify precisely where your lizard brain lives. This is your prehistoric early brain, the same brain thats in the lizard or the deer. Filled with fear, intent on reproduction. Steven Pressfield gives the voice of the lizard brain a name: he calls it the resistance. And the resistance is talking to you as you read this, urging you to compromise, to not be an troublemaker, to avoid rash moves. For many of us, the resistance is always chattering away, frequently sabotaging our best opportunities and ruining our best chance to do great work. Naming it helps you befriend it, and befriending it helps you ignore it.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Passion is caring enough about your art that you will do almost anything to give it away, to make it a gift, to change people.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Leo Babautas brilliant little book Zen Habits helps you think your way through this problem. His program is simple: Attempt to create only one significant work a year.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Sheepwalking I define sheepwalking as the outcome of hiring people who have been raised to be obedient and giving them a brain-dead job and enough fear to keep them in line. Youve probably encountered someone who is sheepwalking. The TSA screener who forces a mom to drink from a bottle of breast milk because any other action is not in the manual. A customer service rep who will happily reread a company policy six or seven times but never stop to actually consider what the policy means. A marketing executive who buys millions of dollars worth of TV time even though she knows its not workingshe does it because her boss told her to. Its ironic but not surprising that in our age of increased reliance on new ideas, rapid change, and innovation, sheepwalking is actually on the rise. Thats because we can no longer rely on machines to do the brain-dead stuff. Weve mechanized what we could mechanize. Whats left is to cost-reduce the manual labor that must be done by a human. So we write manuals and race to the bottom in our search for the cheapest possible labor. And its not surprising that when we go to hire that labor, we search for people who have already been trained to be sheepish. Training a student to be sheepish is a lot easier than the alternative. Teaching to the test, ensuring compliant behavior, and using fear as a motivator are the easiest and fastest ways to get a kid through school. So why does it surprise us that we graduate so many sheep? And graduate school? Since the stakes are higher (opportunity cost, tuition, and the job market), students fall back on what theyve been taught. To be sheep. Well-educated, of course, but compliant nonetheless. And many organizations go out of their way to hire people that color inside the lines, that demonstrate consistency and compliance. And then they give these people jobs where they are managed via fear. Which leads to sheepwalking. (I might get fired!) The fault doesnt lie with the employee, at least not at first. And of course, the pain is often shouldered by both the employee and the customer. Is it less efficient to pursue the alternative? What happens when you build an organization like W. L. Gore and Associates (makers of Gore-Tex) or the Acumen Fund? At first, it seems crazy. Theres too much overhead, there are too many cats to herd, there is too little predictability, and there is way too much noise. Then, over and over, we see something happen. When you hire amazing people and give them freedom, they do amazing stuff. And the sheepwalkers and their bosses just watch and shake their heads, certain that this is just an exception, and that it is way too risky for their industry or their customer base. I was at a Google conference last month, and I spent some time in a room filled with (pretty newly minted) Google sales reps. I talked to a few of them for a while about the state of the industry. And it broke my heart to discover that they were sheepwalking. Just like the receptionist at a company I visited a week later. She acknowledged that the front office is very slow, and that she just sits there, reading romance novels and waiting. And shes been doing it for two years. Just like the MBA student I met yesterday who is taking a job at a major packaged-goods companybecause they offered her a great salary and promised her a well-known brand. Shes going to stay for just ten years, then have a baby and leave and start my own gig. Shell get really good at running coupons in the Sunday paper, but not particularly good at solving new problems. What a waste. Step one is to give the problem a name. Done. Step two is for anyone who sees themselves in this mirror to realize that you can always stop. You can always claim the career you deserve merely by refusing to walk down the same path as everyone else just because everyone else is already doing it.   -- Seth Godin , Whatcha Gonna Do with That Duck?: And Other Provocations, 2006-2012
%
When we recognize the fraud for what it is, we feel incredibly stupid. Something more than our bank accounts is damagedour egos are damaged. As a result, its almost impossible for the marketer to regain our trust.   -- Seth Godin , All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World
%
Its what we wrestle with every single day. The intersection of comfort, danger, and safety. The balancing act between vulnerability and shame. The opportunity (or the risk) to do art. The willingness to take responsibility for caring enough to make a difference and to have a point of view.   -- Seth Godin , The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
%
Art is a personal gift that changes the recipient. The medium doesnt matter. The intent does. Art is a personal act of courage, something one human does that creates change in another.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
You can't win by being more average than average.   -- Seth Godin
%
When those in power use shame to bully the weak into compliance, they are stealing from us. They tell us that they will expose our secrets (not good enough, not hardworking enough, not from the right family, made a huge mistake once) and will use the truth to exile us from our tribe. This shame, the shame that lives deep within each of us, is used as a threat. And when those in power use it, they take away part of our humanity.   -- Seth Godin , The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
%
The linchpin feels the fear, acknowledges it, then proceeds. I can't tell you how to do this; I think the answer is different for everyone. What I can tell you is that in today's economy, doing it is a prerequisite for success.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Marketing is the act of telling stories about the things we makestories that sell and stories that spread.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Lifes too short to fight the forces of change. Lifes too short to hate what you do all day. Lifes way too short to make mediocre stuff.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
If all you do at work is hope to survive, your day cant be much fun. Were all working too hard. Putting in more hours than wed like, nervous about the future, uncertain about our roles and our goals. We work too hard to hope for mere survival. Our goal must be to thrive and prosper, not just get by.   -- Seth Godin , Survival Is Not Enough: Why Smart Companies Abandon Worry and Embrace Change
%
The desire to fail on the way to reaching a bigger goal is the untold secret of success.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
The job isnt to catch up to the status quo; the job is to invent the status quo.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Being open is art. Making a connection when its not part of your job is a gift. You can say your lines and get away with it, or you can touch someone and make a difference in their lives forever.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
You will never become a category of one if you run with the pack.   -- Seth Godin
%
When we try to drill and practice someone into subservient obedience, were stamping out the artist that lives within.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
When access to information was limited, we needed to load student sup with facts. Now, when we have no scarcity of facts or the access to them, we need to load them up with understanding.   -- Seth Godin
%
When Pat Holt strings together a list of words not to overuseActually, totally, absolutely, completely, continually, constantly, continuously, literally, really, unfortunately, ironically, incredibly, hopefully, finallyshes not being a stickler for formality and grammar. Instead shes reminding us that words matter, that poor word use is just a red flag for someone who wants to ignore you.   -- Seth Godin , All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World
%
Sometimes, we're so focused on being consistent that we also lower the bar on amazing.   -- Seth Godin
%
Extraordinary benefits also accrue to the tiny majority with the guts to quit early and refocus their efforts on something new.   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
And yet the real success goes to those who obsess. The focus that leads you through the Dip to the other side is rewarded by a marketplace in search of the best in the world.   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
Do extremely difficult work. That seems obvious, right? If you do something that's valued but scarce because it's difficult, you're more likely to be in demand and to be compensated fairly for what you do. The implication is stunning, though: When designing a project or developing a skill, seek out the most difficult parts to master and contribute. If it's easy, it's not for you.   -- Seth Godin
%
You become a winner because you're good at losing.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Weve been trained to prefer being right to learning something, to prefer passing the test to making a difference, and most of all, to prefer fitting in with the right people, the people with economic power. Now its your turn to stand up and stand out.   -- Seth Godin , The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
%
Going out of your way to find uncomfortable situations isnt natural, but its essential.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
How we respond to the opportunities and challenges of the outside world now determines how much the outside world values us.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Extraordinary benefits accrue to the tiny minority of people who are able to push just a tiny bit longer than most.   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
It doesnt hurt to ask Actually, it does hurt. It does hurt to ask the wrong way, to ask without preparation, to ask without permission. It hurts because you never get another chance to ask right.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Quejarse es estpido. Acta u olvdalo. Stefan Sagmeister   -- Seth Godin , El engao de caro: Hasta dnde quieres volar?
%
We believe what we want to believe, and once we believe something, it becomes a self-fulfilling truth.   -- Seth Godin , All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World
%
My new favorite word is 'awkward.'...The reason we need to be in search of awkward is that awkward is the barrier between us and excellence, between where we are and the remarkable. If it were easy, everyone would have done it already, and it wouldn't be worth the effort.   -- Seth Godin
%
The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Mediocre is merely a failed attempt to be really good.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
in every organization everyone rises to the level at which they become paralyzed with fear.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
I dont know whats the matter with people: they dont learn by understanding, they learn by some other wayby rote or something. Their knowledge is so fragile! Richard Feynman   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
The only thing that makes people and organizations great is their willingness to be not great along the way. The desire to fail on the way to reaching a bigger goal is the untold secret of success.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Conventional wisdom is that you should find a job that matches your passion. I think this is backwards.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Dont be different just to be different. Be different to be better.   -- Seth Godin
%
Heres an assignment for you: Write it down. Write down under what circumstances you're willing to quit. And when. And then stick with it.   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
When you hire amazing people and give them freedom, they do amazing stuff. And   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
You and your organization have the power to change everything. To create remarkable products and services. To over deliver. To be the best in the world. How dare you squander that resource by spreading it too thin. How dare you settle for mediocre just because you're busy coping with too many things on your agenda, racing against the clock to get it all done.   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
Trying to appeal to everyone is almost sure to fail, for the simple reason that everyone wants something different!   -- Seth Godin , Unleashing the Ideavirus: Stop Marketing AT People! Turn Your Ideas into Epidemics by Helping Your Customers Do the Marketing Thing for You.
%
Consumers are not loyal to cheap commodities. They crave the unique, the remarkable, and the human.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
strategy is empty without change, empty without passion, and empty without people willing to confront the void.   -- Seth Godin , The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
%
The industrialist (your boss, perhaps) demands that everything be proven, efficient, and risk free. The artist seeks none of these. The value of art is in your willingness to stare down the risk and to embrace the void of possible failure.   -- Seth Godin , The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
%
Artists don't think outside the box, because outside the box there's a vacumm. Outside the box there are no rules, there is no reality. You have nothing to interact with, nothing to work against. If you set out to do something way outside the box (designing a time machine, or using liquid nitrogen to freeze Niagara Falls), then you'll never be able to do the real work of art. You can't ship if you're far outside the box. Artists think along the edges of the box, because that's where things get done. That's where the audience is, that's where the means of production are available, and that's where you can make impact.   -- Seth Godin
%
Change is powerful, but change always comes with the possibility of failure as its partner. This might not work isnt merely something to be tolerated; its something you must seek out.   -- Seth Godin , The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
%
The value we create is directly related to how much valuable information we can produce, how much trust we can earn, and how often we innovate.   -- Seth Godin , The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
%
People settle. They settle for less than they are capable of.   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
Artists think along the edges of the box, because that's where things get done. That's where the audience is, that's where the means of production are available, and that's where you can make an impact.   -- Seth Godin
%
When you are leading a tribe, a tribe that you belong to, the benefits increase, the work gets easier, and the results are more obvious. Thats the best reason to overcome the fear.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
most competitors quit long before theyve created something that makes it to the top.   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
Just about everything you learned in school about life is wrong, but the wrongest thing might very well be this: Being well rounded is the secret to success.   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
To be willing to do new things you don't think you'll like requires you to prefer the unknown. Not just tolerate it, but to prefer it.   -- Seth Godin , Graceful
%
If the only side effect of the criticism is that you will feel bad about the criticism, then you have to compare that bad feeling with the benefits youll get from actually doing something worth doing. Being remarkable is exciting, fun, profitable, and great for your career. Feeling bad wears off.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
begin to realize that the safest thing you can do feels risky and the riskiest thing you can do is play it safe.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
The craftsman and the artist say, Here, I made this. The workingman is asked to follow instructions.   -- Seth Godin , The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
%
--Gardens, not buildings-- Great projects start out feeling like buildings. There are architects, materials, staff, rigid timelines, permits, engineers, a structure. It works or it doesn't. Build something that doesn't fall down. On time. But in fact, great projects, like great careers and relationships that last, are gardens. They are tended, they shift, they grow. They endure over time, gaining a personality and reflecting their environment. When something dies or fades away, we prune, replant and grow again. Perfection and polish aren't nearly as important as good light, good drainage and a passionate gardener. By all means, build. But don't finish. Don't walk away. Here we grow.   -- Seth Godin
%
If you took organic chemistry in college, youve experienced the Dip. Academia doesnt want too many unmotivated people to attempt medical school, so they set up a screen. Organic chemistry is the killer class, the screen that separates the doctors from the psychologists. If you cant handle organic chemistry, well, then, you cant go to med school.   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
When your organization becomes more human, more remarkable, faster on its feet, and more likely to connect directly with customers, it becomes indispensable. The very thing that made your employee a linchpin makes YOU a linchpin.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Being an artist isnt a genetic disposition or a specific talent. Its an attitude we can all adopt. Its a hunger to seize new ground, make connections, and work without a map. If you do those things, you're an artist.   -- Seth Godin , The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
%
Our economy now rewards artists far more than any other economy in history ever has.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
You can keep waiting to get plucked from obscurity, or you can learn how to champion your project one person at a time.   -- Seth Godin , Free Prize Inside: The Next Big Marketing Idea
%
If consumers have everything they need, theres nothing left to buy except stuff that they want. And the reason they buy stuff they want is because of the way it makes them feel.   -- Seth Godin , All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World
%
So the challenge, as you contemplate your next opportunity to be boring or remarkable, is to answer these two questions: (1) "If I get criticized for this, will I suffer any measurable impact? Will I lose my job, get hit upside the head with a softball bat, or lose important friendships?" If the only side effect of the criticism is that you will feel bad about the criticism, then you have to compare that bad feeling with the benefits you'll get from actually doing something worth doing. Being remarkable is exciting, fun, profitable, and great for your career. Feeling bad wears off. And then, once you've compared the bad feeling and the benefits, and you've sold yourself on taking the remarkable path, answer this one: (2) How can I create something that critics will criticize?   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
I dont remember writing most of these posts.   -- Seth Godin , Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?: And Other Provocations, 2006-2012
%
1. Your business needs more linchpins. Its scary to rely on a particular employee, but in a postindustrial economy, you have no choice. 2. You are capable of becoming a linchpin. And if you do, youll discover that its worth the effort.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
If you had a chance to do a TED talk, what would it be about? What have you discovered, what do you know, what can you teach? You should do one. Even if you dont do one, you should be prepared to do one.   -- Seth Godin , Poke The Box: When Was the Last Time You Did Something for the First Time?
%
Fear of living without a map is the main reason people are so insistent that we tell them what to do. The reasons are pretty obvious: If its someone elses map, its not your fault if it doesnt work out. If youve memorized the sales script I gave you and you dont make the sale, whos in trouble now? Not only does the map insulate us from responsibility, but its also a social talisman. We can tell our friends and family that weve found a good map, a safe map, a map worthy of respect.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Great bosses and world-class organizations hire motivated people, set high expectations, and give their people room to become remarkable.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Poke the box How do computer programmers learn their art? Is there a step-by-step process that guarantees youll get good? All great programmers learn the same way. They poke the box. They code something and see what the computer does. They change it and see what the computer does. They repeat the process again and again until they figure out how the box works. The box might be a computer or it might be a market or it might be a customer or it might be your boss. Its a puzzle, one that can be solved in only one wayby poking.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Heretics are the new leaders. The ones who challenge the status quo, who get out in front of their tribes, who create movements.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Finding security in mediocrity is an exhausting process. You can work only so many hours, fret only so much. Being a slightly better typist or a slightly faster coder is insufficient. You're always looking over your shoulder, always trying to be a little less mediocre than the guy next to you. It wears you out.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Risk, to some, is a bad thing, because risk brings with it the possibility of failure. It might be only a temporary failure, but that doesnt matter so much if the very thought of it shuts you down. So, for some, risk comes to equal failure (take enough risks and sooner or later, you will fail). Risk is avoided because weve been trained to avoid failure.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Juggling is about throwing, not catching Thats why its so difficult to learn how to juggle. Were conditioned to make the catch, to hurdle whatever is in our way to save the day, tono matter whatnot drop the ball. If you spend your time and energy and focus on catching, its inevitable that your throws will suffer. Youll get plenty of positive feedback for the catches you make, but youll always be behind, because the throws you manage to make will be ever less useful. Paradoxically, if you get better at throwing, the catches take care of themselves. The only way to get better at throwing, though, is to throw. Throw poorly, throw again. Throw well, throw again. Get good at throwing first.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
How to walk to Cleveland Shipping is an event. Theres life before you ship and then theres the moment you ship. And then theres life after you ship. Starting isnt like that. Starting something is not an event; its a series of events. You decide to walk to Cleveland. So you take a first step in the right direction. Thats starting. You spend the rest of the day walking toward Cleveland, one step at a time, picking your feet up and putting them down. At the end of the day, twenty miles later, you stop at a hotel. And what happens the next morning? Either you quit the project or you start again, walking to Cleveland. In fact, every step is a new beginning. Sure, you're closer than you were yesterday or last week, but you're still heading toward Cleveland. Keep starting until you finish.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
On top of this, if you do great work you gain the reward of knowing you're doing great work. Your day snaps into alignment with your dreams, and you no longer have to pretend you're mediocre. You're free to contribute.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
The typical factory-centric organization places a premium on not-wrong, and spends no time at all weeding out those who dont start. In the networked economy, the innovation-focused organization has no choice but to obsess about those who dont start. Today, not starting is far, far worse than being wrong. If you start, youve got a shot at evolving and adjusting to turn your wrong into a right. But if you dont start, you never get a chance.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
If you think the solution is more rules and less humanity, I fear you will be disappointed by the results. Organizations that can bring humanity and flexibility to their interactions with other human beings will thrive.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
The tragedy is that society (your school, your boss, your government, your family) keeps drumming the genius part out. The problem is that our culture has engaged in a Faustian bargain, in which we trade our genius and artistry for apparent stability.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
One day, Id like to write a book about the worst ads ever run, but my fear is that it would be too long.   -- Seth Godin , Unleashing the SUPER Ideavirus
%
The number one thing to steal from your competitors: Wisdom.   -- Seth Godin
%
Organizations that can bring humanity and flexibility to their interactions with other human beings will thrive. Why   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
theres a difference between telling people what to do and inciting a movement.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
One reason to buy a watch (or a book) is because you want to possess it, show it off, give it to your grandchildren. Holding a book is a luxury, one for which you pay a premium.   -- Seth Godin , Whatcha Gonna Do with That Duck?: And Other Provocations, 2006-2012
%
Once youve engaged with an organization or a relationship or a community, you owe it to your team to start. To initiate. To be the one who makes something happen. To do less is to steal from them. If you hide your spark, bury your ideas, keep your questions and notions from the team, you have hurt them as badly as if you had stolen a laptop and fenced it on eBay.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Focus is a choice. The runner who is concentrating on how much his left toe hurts will be left in the dust by the runner who is focusing on winning. Even if the winner's toe hurts just as much. Hurt, of course, is a matter of perception. Most of what we think about is. We have a choice about where to aim the lens of our attention.   -- Seth Godin
%
It encourages you to focus on your work and the generosity that comes from interacting with (and helping) your community.   -- Seth Godin , Graceful
%
The secret of being wrong isnt to avoid being wrong! The secret is being willing to be wrong. The secret is realizing that wrong isnt fatal.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Or, more accurately, spend all day trying to avoid making a mistake? These are very different things. Defect-free is what people are often in search of. Meeting spec. Blameless.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
The fact is, a bigger badge isnt going to help at all. People arent going to follow you because you order them to.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Theyre building an asset that has nothing to do with brand and everything to do with their relationship with you.   -- Seth Godin , Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
%
Amazon appears to be building a permission asset, not a brand asset.   -- Seth Godin , Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
%
Fear of living without a map is the main reason people are so insistent that we tell them what to do.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
When you learn to listen to your fear, youve found a compass that can show you what matters.   -- Seth Godin , Graceful
%
Multiply that scenario by one hundred or one thousand books a year. Using permission, Amazon can fundamentally reconfigure the entire book industry, disintermediating and combining every step of the chain until there are only two: the writer and Amazon.   -- Seth Godin , Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
%
You will fail at this. Often. Why is that a problem? In fact, this is a boon. Its a boon because when others fail to be remarkable or make a difference or share their art or have an impact, they will give up.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
The industrial age is ending, and a new one is beginning. It produces art instead of stuff and it rewards gracefulness.   -- Seth Godin , Graceful
%
(Its easier for investors and bosses to spend time and money going after a proven market, even though proven markets are the hardest to break into.)   -- Seth Godin , All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World
%
el nico freno que te impide convertirte en la clase de persona que cambia las cosas es este: la falta de fe. Fe en que puedes hacerlo. Fe en que vale la pena hacerlo. Fe en que un fracaso no acabar contigo.   -- Seth Godin , Tribus: Necesitamos que T nos lideres
%
The Dip is the long stretch between beginners luck and real accomplishment. The Dip is the set of artificial screens set up to keep people like you out.   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
I define a factory as an organization that has figured it out, a place where people go to do what theyre told and earn a paycheck.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
out that expending emotional labor, working without a map, and driving in the dark involve confronting fear and living with the pain of vulnerability. The artist comes to a dtente with these emotions and, instead of fighting with them, dances with them. The linchpin connects as a result of the indispensable nature of her contribution. The artist, on the other hand, connects because thats what art is. The artist touches part of what it means to be truly human and does that work again and again.   -- Seth Godin , The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
%
Contenerse es casi como robar. Neil Young   -- Seth Godin , El engao de caro: Hasta dnde quieres volar?
%
School does a great job of teaching students to do what we set out to teach them. It works. The problem is that what were teaching is the wrong stuff. Here   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Graceful? Theres a never-ending worldwide shortage. Graceful is artistic, elegant, subtle and effective. Graceful makes things happen and brings light but not heat. Graceful doesnt mean invisible, hiding, fearful or by the book. And graceful certainly doesnt include hectoring, lecturing or bullying. Audrey Hepburn was graceful. Wayne Gretzky too. A graceful person gets things done, but does it in a way youd be happy to have repeated. A graceful person raises the game of everyone nearby, causing a race to the top, not the bottom. Graceful is the person we cant live without, the one who makes a difference. The linchpin. Everywhere I turn, I see people bringing grace to their families, their communities and their work. The thing is, no one is born graceful. Its not a gift, its a choice. Every day, we get a chance to give others the benefit of the doubt. Every day, we get the opportunity to give others our support, our confidence and our trust. And yet most days, we hesitate. There are so many things on our agenda, so many people who want a piece of us, so many things to do, so many obligationsof course its tempting to merely get it done, to phone it in. None of those shortcuts will make the impact you're capable of making, and none of those approaches will bring you closer to those you're here to serve. The industrial age is ending, and a new one is beginning. It produces art instead of stuff and it rewards gracefulness.   -- Seth Godin , Graceful
%
In a story so good that it should be apocryphal, Zappos offers graduates of their two-week paid training school $2,000 if they will quit their new jobs.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Real gifts dont demand reciprocation (at least not direct reciprocation), and the best kinds of gifts are gifts of art. Alcoholics   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
What They Should Teach in School Only two things: 1. Solve interesting problems 2. Lead SOLVE   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Delivering unique creativity is hardest of all, because not only do you have to have insight, but you also need to be passionate enough to risk the rejection that delivering a solution can bring. You must ship.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
What we want, what we need, what we must have are indispensable human beings. We need original thinkers, provocateurs, and people who care. We need marketers who can lead, salespeople able to risk making a human connection, passionate change makers willing to be shunned if it is necessary for them to make a point. Every organization needs a linchpin, the one person who can bring it together and make a difference. Some organizations haven't realized this yet, or haven't articulated it, but we need artists. Artists are people with a genius for finding a new answer, a new connection, or a new way of getting things done. That would be you.   -- Seth Godin
%
When you meet someone, you need to have a superpower.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Great teachers are wonderful. They change lives. We need them. The problem is that most schools dont like great teachers. Theyre organized to stamp them out, bore them, bureaucratize them, and make them average. Why   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
The linchpin feels the fear, acknowledges it, then proceeds. I cant tell you how to do this; I think the answer is different for everyone. What I can tell you is that in todays economy, doing it is a prerequisite for success. The   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
A very good senior programmer (who might get paid $200,000) gets paid about the same as a great programmer, who delivers $5 million worth of value for the same price. Thats enough of a difference to build an entire companys profit around. Do it with ten programmers and you're rich.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Some people are gift givers by nature. They love their tribe, or they respect their art, and so they give. Not for an ulterior motive, but because it gives them joy.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
if it scares you, it might be a good thing to try   -- Seth Godin
%
This is like the Six Sigma approach to quality. Six Sigma refers to the quest for continuous improvement, ultimately leading to 3.4 defects per million units. The problem is that once you're heading down this road, theres no room left for amazing improvements and remarkable innovations. Either you rolled ten strikes or you didnt. Organizations that earn dramatic success always do it in markets where asymptotes dont exist, or where they can be shattered. If you could figure out how to bowl 320, that would be amazing. Until that happens, pick a different sport if you want to be a linchpin.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Every day I meet people who have so much to give but have been bullied enough or frightened enough to hold it back. It's time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map. You have brilliance in you, your contribution is essential, and the art you create is precious. Only you can do it, and you must.   -- Seth Godin
%
We have little choice but to move beyond quality and seek remarkable, connected, and new. Remarkable, as youve already figured out, demands initiative.   -- Seth Godin , Poke The Box: When Was the Last Time You Did Something for the First Time?
%
Life is actually far better than it is in the movies. And it takes longer.   -- Seth Godin
%
Conformity no longer leads to comfort. But the good news is that creativity is scarce, and more valuable than ever. So is choosing to do something unpredictable and brave: make art. Being an artist isnt a genetic disposition or a specific talent. Its an attitude we can all adopt. Its a hunger to seize new ground, make connections, and work without a map. If you do those things you're an artist, no matter what it says on your business card.   -- Seth Godin
%
There are two ways a linchpin can use 'no.' The first is to never use it. There's a certain sort of indispensable team member who always finds a yes. She always manages to find a way to make things happen, and she does it. It's done. Yes. Those people are priceless. Amazingly, there's a second kind of linchpin. This persona says 'no' all the time. She says no because she has goals, because she's a practical visionary, because she understands priorities. She says no because she has the strength to disappoint you now in order to delight you later. When used with good intent, this negative linchpin is also priceless. She is so focused on her art that she knows that a no now is a worthy investment for the magic that will be delivered later.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Why is this mediocre? We love to point out how broken our systems are. We enjoy getting angry at hotels or government agencies or airlines that are so obviously doing a poor job. Idiots! But we almost never look at merely mediocre products and wonder why they arent great. Mediocre services or products do what theyre supposed to, but have set the bar so low that its hardly worth the energy to cross the street to buy them. A resolute generic sameness pervades this mediocrity. Why isnt every restaurant meal a fabulous buy for the money? Why isnt every tax dollar spent with the intensity and focus it could be spent with? It seems as though we are willing to accept mediocre as long as the product, the service, or the organization isnt totally broken.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Abundance is possible, but only if we can imagine it and then embrace it. Will   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
students today are educated collecting dots. Almost none of it spent teaching them the skills necessary to connect dots. The magic of connecting dots is that once you learn the techniques, the dots can change but youll still be good at connecting them.   -- Seth Godin
%
Pick me, pick me acknowledges the power of the system and passes responsibility to someone else to initiate. Even better, pick me, pick me moves the blame from you to them. If you dont get picked, its their fault, not yours. If you do get picked, well, they said you were good, right? Not your fault anymore. Reject the tyranny of picked. Pick yourself.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
There are fewer and fewer good jobs where you can get paid merely for showing up. Instead, successful organizations are paying for people who make a difference and are shedding everyone else. Just   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
In the case of personality, most psychologists agree that there are five traits that are essential in how people look at us: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Its foolish to expect that one exposure to your message will instantly convert someone from stranger to raving ideavirus-spreading fan. So plan on a process. Plan on a method that takes people from where they are to where you want them to go.   -- Seth Godin , Unleashing the Ideavirus: Stop Marketing AT People! Turn Your Ideas into Epidemics by Helping Your Customers Do the Marketing Thing for You.
%
Permission Marketers are totally obvious about their objectives with the consumer.   -- Seth Godin , Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
%
The web has made kicking ass easier to achieve, and mediocrity harder to sustain. Mediocrity now howls in protest. The   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
The only way to get what you're worth is to stand out, to exert emotional labor, to be seen as indispensable, and to produce interactions that organizations and people care deeply about.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
For the rest of us, its not about what you're born with, its about what you do.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Why are you easily replaceable at one venue but not the other? Are you charming when you go on a date or meet a handsome guy at a party? But not at a meeting at work?   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
A great school experience wont keep you from being remarkable, but its usually not sufficient to guarantee that you will become so. Theres something else at work here.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Art, at least art as I define it, is the intentional act of using your humanity to create a change in another person.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
We seek out experiences and products that deliver more value, more connection, and more experience, and change us for the better.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
A factory demands a compliant workforce in order to succeed. And so weve organized around this idea of compliance in all thingsin school, in the foods we eat, in the way we respond to marketing. And its a dead end.   -- Seth Godin , Graceful
%
Real Artists Ship   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
As well see, the greatest shortage in our society is an instinct to produce.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
As well see, the greatest shortage in our society is an instinct to produce. To create solutions and hustle them out the door.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
as consumers, were too busy to pay attention to advertising, but were desperate to find good stuff that solves our problems.   -- Seth Godin , Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
%
A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
How can I create something that critics will criticize?   -- Seth Godin , Small Is the New Big: and 183 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas
%
Forty years ago, Richard Branson, who ultimately founded Virgin Air, found himself in a similar situation in an airport in the Caribbean. They had just canceled his flight, the only flight that day. Instead of freaking out about how essential the flight was, how badly his day was ruined, how his entire career was now in jeopardy, the young Branson walked across the airport to the charter desk and inquired about the cost of chartering a flight out of Puerto Rico. Then he borrowed a portable blackboard and wrote, Seats to Virgin Islands, $39. He went back to his gate, sold enough seats to his fellow passengers to completely cover his costs, and made it home on time. Not to mention planting the seeds for the airline hed start decades later. Sounds like the kind of person youd like to hire   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Commit to the frightening work of flying blind   -- Seth Godin , The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
%
People dont believe what you tell them. They rarely believe what you show them. They often believe what their friends tell them. They always believe what they tell themselves. What leaders do: they give people stories they can tell themselves. Stories about the future and about change.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
The factory is a dead end and so is compliance. More obedience will not make us better. Thats why graceful is in such demand.   -- Seth Godin , Graceful
%
THE RIGHT INFORMATION BRINGS KNOWLEDGE. AND KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. SHARING IT IS EMPOWERMENT.   -- Seth Godin , Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
%
The only purpose of starting is to finish, and while the projects we do are never really finished, they must ship. Shipping means hitting the publish button on your blog, showing a presentation to the sales team, answering the phone, selling the muffins, sending out your references. Shipping is the collision between your work and the outside world.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
One way to figure out a great theory is to look at whats working in the real world and figure out what the various successes have in common. With   -- Seth Godin , Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
%
Its uncomfortable to stand up in front of strangers. Its uncomfortable to propose an idea that might fail. Its uncomfortable to challenge the status quo. Its uncomfortable to resist the urge to settle. When you identify the discomfort, youve found the place where a leader is needed.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
were seeing an explosion in new approaches, new models and new forms of interaction. This growth comes from change, insight and exploration, not obedience.   -- Seth Godin , Graceful
%
The goal is to quit the tasks you're doing because you're hiding on behalf of the lizard brain and to push through the very tasks the lizard fears. Is   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Then a deadline arrives and you have to cut it short. Is shipping that important? I think it is. I think the discipline of shipping is essential in the long-term path to becoming indispensable.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
The expensive act of planning on late When you're late, theres not a lot of room for choice or decision or initiative. When you're late, the path is well lit, and the choices are clear. Run! Run down the path youve run down before. Late is a tool for people unable to find the guts to stand for their acts. Late gives us cover; it permits us to trample forward, without creativity or panache. Cant you see Im late! we shout, as we do what we have to do, without even pausing to think about what we could do instead. Late might be useful, except that late is incredibly expensive. This strategy, the one we choose so we can avoid the fear of choice, costs us in so many ways. It degrades quality, misses airplanes, charges overtime, and shuts down those around us. Its also exhausting. The alternative to planning on late is to initiate before its required, to ship before deadline, to put the idea out there before the crisis hits. This act of bravery actually gives you influence, leverage, and control in a way that planning on late never can.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Every single important thing we do is something we didn't use to be good at, and in fact, might be something we used to fear.   -- Seth Godin
%
Thats itthree steps: motivate, connect, and leverage.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Wed like to believe that efficient, useful, cost-effective products and services are the way to succeed. That hard work is its own reward. Most marketers carry around a worldview that describes themselves as innovators, not storytellers.   -- Seth Godin , All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World
%
The only purpose of starting is to finish, and while the projects we do are never really finished, they must ship.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
So here we are. We live in a world where we have the   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Thats the goal, isnt it? For every crack to be filled with your ideas and innovations and creativity? The only way to achieve this, though, is to be prepared for many of them to fail, to land on pavement, to be perfect yet cease to grow. We can cry about these failures, but that will lead us to hold back on the next idea. Or we can celebrate them, realizing that its proof that were being promiscuous in our shipping, putting the best work we can into the world, regardless of whether this particular idea actually works. When was the last time you set out to be promiscuous in your failures?   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Reality is the best reassurance of all.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Were extremely adroit at hiding our fear. Most of our lives in public are spent papering over, rationalizing, and otherwise denying our fear. We go to war because were afraid, and we often go to spiritual events for the very same reason.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Are you one of those people? One of the people with too many good ideas? The folks who have notebooks filled with notions, or daydreams filled with the future? Youve certainly met these people. Theyre too busy taking notes to get anything done, too busy inventing to actually instigate. To stop this process, one needs to do only two things: Start. And then... Ship. Cant   -- Seth Godin , Poke The Box: When Was the Last Time You Did Something for the First Time?
%
Instead of trying to use your technology and expertise to make a better product for your users standard behavior, experiment with inviting the users to change their behavior to make the product work dramatically better.   -- Seth Godin , Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
%
El mercado busca organizaciones e individuos que cambien las cosas y creen productos y servicios extraordinarios.   -- Seth Godin , Tribus: Necesitamos que T nos lideres
%
Eye contact, all by itself, is enough to throw your lizard brain into a tizzy. Imagine how scary it must be to set out to do something that will get you noticed, or perhaps even criticized.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
A Timid Trapeze Artist Is a Dead Trapeze Artist   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
One way to become creative is to discipline yourself to generate bad ideas. The worse the better. Do it a lot and magically youll discover that some good ones slip through.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Differentiation is a zero-sum, advertising-based game.   -- Seth Godin , Free Prize Inside: The Next Big Marketing Idea
%
Lets define dumb as being different from stupid. Dumb means you dont know what you're supposed to know. Stupid means you know it but make bad choices. [] Dumb used to be a by-product of lack of access, bad teachers, or poor parenting. Today, dumb is a choice, one thats made by individuals who choose not to learn. If you dont know what you need to know, thats fixable. But first you have to want to fix it.   -- Seth Godin
%
This Is a Manifesto About Starting Starting a project, making a ruckus, taking what feels like a risk. Not just Im starting to think about it, or Were going to meet on this, or even I filed a patent application.... No, starting. Going beyond the point of no return. Leaping. Committing. Making something happen.   -- Seth Godin , Poke The Box: When Was the Last Time You Did Something for the First Time?
%
Great teachers are precious. Lousy teachers cause damage that lasts forever. We need to reorganize our schools to free the great teachers from tests and reports and busywork, and to expel the lousy   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
industry the most trusted brand is also the most profitable.   -- Seth Godin , Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
%
If you never fail, either you're really lucky or you haven't shipped anything.   -- Seth Godin
%
She solves problems that people havent predicted, sees things people havent seen, and connects people who need to be connected.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Frequency led to awareness, awareness to familiarity, and familiarity to trust. And trust, almost without exception, leads to profit.   -- Seth Godin , Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
%
Expectations are the engine of our perceptions.   -- Seth Godin
%
In creating an ideavirus, the advertiser creates an environment in which the idea can replicate and spread. Its the virus that does the work, not the marketer.   -- Seth Godin , Unleashing the SUPER Ideavirus
%
Were all obsessed with ideas because ideas, not products, are the engine of our new economy.   -- Seth Godin , Unleashing the SUPER Ideavirus
%
marketers have turned advertising into an interactive process. Using relationships and frequency and permission,   -- Seth Godin , Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
%
Deadlines? Surely you know someone who is late all the time. Someone who cant deliver anything of value unless theyve stalled so much theyve created an urgency, an emergency that requires mind-blowing effort and adrenaline to deliver. This is not efficient or reliable behavior, and yet they persist. The reason is simple: they cant push through the common fear of completion unless they can create a greater fear of total failure.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Los mitos y los sueos proceden del mismo lugar... Un mito es el sueo de una sociedad. Joseph Campbell   -- Seth Godin , El engao de caro: Hasta dnde quieres volar?
%
You need editors, not brand managers,who will push the envelope to make [a brand media property] go forward.   -- Seth Godin
%
Sure, ideas that spread, win, but ideas that dont get spoken always fail.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Schools have figured this out. They need shortcuts in order to successfully process millions of students a year, and theyve discovered that fear is a great shortcut on the way to teaching compliance.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Be remarkable Be generous Create art Make judgment calls Connect people and ideas . . . and we have no choice but to reward you.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
We run our schools like factories. We line kids up in straight rows, put them in batches (called grades), and work very hard to make sure there are no defective parts. Nobody standing out, falling behind, running ahead, making a ruckus. Playing it safe. Following the rules. Those seem like the best ways to avoid failure.   -- Seth Godin , Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
%
Waiting isnt easy, which is precisely why it is so effective when engaging with other people.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
The reason Steve Herrells shop did so well is that it was famous for having a line! People brought folks from out of town to have the experience.   -- Seth Godin , Unleashing the SUPER Ideavirus
%
Once the habit is ingrained and you become the starter, the center of the circle, you will find more and more things to notice, to instigate, and to initiate. Momentum builds and you get better at generating it. If you go to bed at night knowing that people are expecting you to initiate things all day the next day, youll wake up with a list. And as you create a culture of people who are always seeking to connect and improve and poke, the bar gets raised. What might be considered a board-level decision at one of your competitors companies gets done as a matter of course. What might be reserved for a managers intervention gets handled at the customer level, saving you time and money (and generating customer joy). This incredibly prosaic idea, the very simple act of initiating, is actually profoundly transformative. Forward motion is a defensible business asset.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Twenty years ago, the top 100 companies in the Fortune 500 either dug something out of the ground or turned a natural resource (iron ore or oil) into something you could hold. Today, fewer than half of the companies on the list do that. The rest make unseemly profits by trafficking in ideas.   -- Seth Godin , Unleashing the SUPER Ideavirus
%
If you can discipline yourself to read, you can free up two years of your life for the good stuff!)   -- Seth Godin , Small Is the New Big: and 183 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas
%
Linchpins are the essential building blocks of tomorrows high-value organizations. They dont bring capital or expensive machinery, nor do they blindly follow instructions and merely contribute labor. Linchpins are indispensable, the driving force of our future.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Wouldn't it be great to be gifted? In fact... It turns out that choices lead to habits. Habits become talents. Talents are labeled gifts. You're not born this way, you get this way.   -- Seth Godin
%
Leading, not following Weve been trained to follow. In fact, the very nature of training has following built right into it. We follow instructions. We follow the rules. We follow the leader. The challenge in a six-billion person world is that we dont have a shortage of followers. Followers are easy to find, and the tools for compliance are more powerful (but less useful) than ever. Now the economy is demanding leaders. Human beings who can engage in what it really means to be a personto forge connections, to see a path and to make a difference.   -- Seth Godin , Graceful
%
The connected economy of ideas demands that we contribute initiative. And yet we resist, because our lizard brain, the one that lives in fear, relentlessly exaggerates the cost of being wrong.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
What happens when the world cares more about unique voices and remarkable insights than it does about cheap labor   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Choose your customers, choose your future.   -- Seth Godin
%
A successful manager told me that stopped wearing a watch. She found that the work was so immersive, anchoring it to whatever hour it happened to be was pointless. The watch reminded her of the rigors of appointments and the status quo, while her goal was to be there, right here, right now, in the moment, and to do the work in front of her. The watch had no role in doing that right, so, for now, its gone.   -- Seth Godin , Graceful
%
Selling is about a transference of emotion, not a presentation of facts.   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
consumers, were too busy to pay attention to advertising, but were desperate to find good stuff that solves our problems.   -- Seth Godin , Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
%
If a products future is unlikely to be remarkable  if you cant imagine a future in which people are once again fascinated by your product  its time to realize that the game has changed. Instead of investing in a dying product, take profits and reinvest them in building something new.   -- Seth Godin , Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
%
Ten times as much polishing is definitely not ten times as good. Whether you're polishing a piece of furniture or an idea, the benefits diminish quickly. The polishing turns into stalling.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Permission Marketing is just like dating. It turns strangers into friends and friends into lifetime customers. Many of the rules of dating apply, and so do many of the benefits.   -- Seth Godin , Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
%
Anxiety is experiencing failure in advance. Tell yourself enough vivid stories about the worst possible outcome of your work and youll soon come to believe them. Worry is not preparation, and anxiety doesnt make you better.   -- Seth Godin
%
Modern society is based on a modern idea: get the work done by replaceable cogs, by individuals programmed to do what theyre told, follow instructions and work cheap. The attraction of this system is evident by how easily ordinary organizations replace ordinary employees, and how eagerly schools indoctrinate their students.   -- Seth Godin , Graceful
%
Youve certainly met these people. Theyre too busy taking notes to get anything done, too busy inventing to actually instigate. To stop this process, one needs to do only two things: Start. And then... Ship. Cant   -- Seth Godin , Poke The Box: When Was the Last Time You Did Something for the First Time?
%
The alternative to tourism The linchpin, the engaged one, the graceful actor in an unfolding playthese people dont seek to only inspect. Theyre not traveling in order to tick a checkbox. Instead, they open themselves to the world they bought a ticket to, knowing full well that they will be changed.   -- Seth Godin , Graceful
%
Excellence isnt about working extra hard to do what you're told. Its about taking the initiative to do work you decide is worth doing.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
People don't believe what you tell them. They rarely believe what you show them. They often believe what their friends tell them. They always believe what they tell themselves. What leaders do: they give people stories they can tell themselves. Stories about the future and about the change.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Emotional labor is the hard work of making art, producing generosity, and exposing creativity. Working without a map involves both vision and the willingness to do something about what you see. Emotional labor is what you get paid to do, and one of the most difficult types of emotional labor is staring into the abyss of choice and picking a path.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Forty years ago, Richard Branson, who ultimately founded Virgin Air, found himself in a similar situation in an airport in the Caribbean. They had just canceled his flight, the only flight that day. Instead of freaking out about how essential the flight was, how badly his day was ruined, how his entire career was now in jeopardy, the young Branson walked across the airport to the charter desk and inquired about the cost of chartering a flight out of Puerto Rico. Then he borrowed a portable blackboard and wrote, Seats to Virgin Islands, $39. He went back to his gate, sold enough seats to his fellow passengers to completely cover his costs, and made it home on time.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
There are two ways to grow: by stealing from the competition or by growing the market. The first path is slow and painful and difficult. The second path is where the magic of fast growth kicks in.   -- Seth Godin , Small Is the New Big: and 183 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas
%
If the New Marketing can be characterized by just one idea, it's this: Ideas that spread through groups of people are far more powerful than ideas delivered at an individual. Social change, education, new-product launches, religious movements... it doesn't matter, the story is the same. Movements are at the heart of change and growth. A movement - an idea that spreads with passion through a community and leads to change - is far more powerful than any advertisement ever could be. As you consider what to do next, you're faced with a difficult choice. It's difficult because it represents giving up something you may be quite comfortable with, and it's difficult because it requires an all-or-nothing commitment.   -- Seth Godin
%
Permission Marketing Is Anticipated, Personal, Relevant   -- Seth Godin , Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
%
alternative to planning on late is to initiate before its required, to ship before deadline, to put the idea out there before the crisis hits. This act of bravery actually gives you influence, leverage, and control in a way that planning on late never can. Dandelion   -- Seth Godin , Poke The Box: When Was the Last Time You Did Something for the First Time?
%
More fashion = less need for quality   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
In your career, even more than for a brand, being safe is risky. The path to lifetime job security is to be remarkable.   -- Seth Godin , Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
%
Great work is not created for everyone. If it were, it would be average work.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Your business has to work when its small in order to survive to the point where it gets big.   -- Seth Godin , Small Is the New Big: and 183 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas
%
the new thing is rarely as good as the old thing was. If you need the alternative to be better than the status quo from the very start, you'll never begin.   -- Seth Godin
%
If your organization requires success before commitment, it will never have either. Part of leadership (a big part of it, actually) is the ability to stick with the dream for a long time. Long enough that the critics realize that you're going to get there one way or anotherso they follow.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Real change rarely comes from the front of the line. It happens from the middle or even the back. Real change happens when someone who cares steps up and takes what feels like a risk. People follow because they want to, not because you can order them to.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
In an era of grassroots change, the top of the pyramid is too far away from where the action is to make much of a difference. It   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Something remarkable is worth talking about. Worth noticing. Exceptional. New. Interesting. It's a Purple Cow.   -- Seth Godin
%
in virtually every industry the most trusted brand is also the most profitable. Frequency led to awareness, awareness to familiarity, and familiarity to trust. And trust, almost without exception, leads to profit.   -- Seth Godin , Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
%
The thermostat, on the other hand, manages to change the environment in sync with the outside world. Every organization needs at least one thermostat. These are leaders who can create change in response to the outside world, and do it consistently over time.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
The mistake thats so easy to make is to get greedy as you choose your hive, to say, this product is for everyone or anyone can benefit from this idea. Well, there are seven billion people on the planet, so its unlikely your comment is correct; even if it is, theres little chance that a virus would spread across a hive that big.   -- Seth Godin , Unleashing the SUPER Ideavirus
%
If you're not uncomfortable in your work as a leader, its almost certain you're not reaching your potential as a leader.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
The killer: our anxiety not only makes us miserable, but ruins the interaction. People smell it on you. They react to it. Theyre less likely to hire you or buy from you or have fun at your party. The very thing you are afraid of occurs, precisely because you are afraid of it, which of course makes the shenpa cycle even worse.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
My friend didnt understand what it means to be in the world, to be present and aware.   -- Seth Godin , Graceful
%
Leaders who set out to give are more productive than leaders who seek to get. Even   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Sooner or later, many idealists transform themselves into disheartened realists who mistakenly believe that giving up is the same thing as being realistic.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
You do not equal the project. Criticism of the project is not criticism of you.   -- Seth Godin , Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
%
Tearing others down is never as helpful to a movement as building your followers up.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Whatever the status quo is, changing it gives you the opportunity to be remarkable.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
insulation prevents you from making the change and finding the understanding you set out to achieve in the first place.   -- Seth Godin , Graceful
%
The killer: our anxiety not only makes us miserable, but ruins the interaction. People smell it on you. They react to it. Theyre less likely to hire you or buy from you or have fun at your party. The very thing you are afraid of occurs, precisely because you are afraid of it, which of course makes the shenpa cycle even worse. Shenpa is caused by a conflict between the lizard brain (which wants to strike out or to flee) and the rest of our brain, which desires achievement, connection, and grace. Oscillating between the two merely makes things worse. It seems that you have two choices for ending the cycle: you can flee or you can stay.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
I spend 95% of my time persuading people to take action and just 5% of the time on the recipes.   -- Seth Godin , Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?: And Other Provocations, 2006-2012
%
En el mercado de Pike Place, en Seattle, todava se puede visitar el primer Starbucks. Pero es un poco raro, no parece un Starbucks. El logo es diferente, y la distribucin tambin.   -- Seth Godin , Hazlo!
%
People yearn for change, they relish being part of a movement, and they talk about things that are remarkable, not boring.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Bullet points are not the point.   -- Seth Godin , Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?: And Other Provocations, 2006-2012
%
Los lderes son vulnerables, no controladores, y nos llevan a un lugar nuevo, no a la seguridad barata, rpida y sumisa.   -- Seth Godin , El engao de caro: Hasta dnde quieres volar?
%
The future of your organization depends on motivated human beings selflessly contributing unasked-for gifts of emotional labor.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
The secret of being wrong isnt to avoid being wrong! The secret is being willing to be wrong.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
The biggest secret of the Internet is that it is inherently a direct marketing medium. In fact, the Internet is the greatest direct marketing medium of all time.   -- Seth Godin , Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
%
Its really easy to insist that people read the manual. Its really easy to blame the user/student/prospect/customer for not trying hard, for being too stupid to get it, or for not caring enough to pay attention.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
lifehacker.com   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Its Almost Impossible to Overinvest in Becoming the Market Leader.   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
When our responses turn into reactions and we set out to teach people a lesson, we lose. We lose because the act of teaching someone a lesson rarely succeeds at changing them, and always fails at making our day better, or our work more useful.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department. David Packard   -- Seth Godin , Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
%
The best way to overcome your fear of creativity, brainstorming, intelligent risk-taking, or navigating a tricky situation might be to sprint.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Hay dos errores que podemos cometer en el camino hacia la verdad.  No recorrer todo el camino, y no empezar.  Siddharta Gautama   -- Seth Godin , Hazlo!
%
So now, having learned from machines, organizations are applying the same logic to people. Letting people in the organization use their best judgment turns out to be faster and cheaperbut only if you hire the right people and reward them for having the right attitude.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
The essential thing to know about the Dip is that its there. Knowing that you're facing a Dip is the first step in getting through it.   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
We need original thinkers, provocateurs, and people who care. We need marketers who can lead, salespeople able to risk making a human connection, passionate change makers willing to be shunned if it is necessary for them to make a point. Every organization needs a linchpin, the one person who can bring it together and make a difference.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Ralph Lauren generates a huge portion of its sales from seconds and job lots sold at the many Polo factory stores around the country. There are so many of these stores (and the demand is so high) that many of the items sold arent seconds at all. Theyre designed and produced for the factory stores. People tell themselves a story about finding a bargain, they build up the expectation by driving thirty miles out of their way (while on vacation, no less) and then are delighted to spend $40 for a $400 jacket that was never intended to be sold for $400 and probably cost $4 to make.   -- Seth Godin , All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World
%
To be willing to do new things you dont think youll like requires you to prefer the unknown. Not just to tolerate it, but to prefer it. One way to achieve that is to set out to experience things you're sure you wont like. To have conversations that are frightening. Becoming generous beyond measure, just to see what happens. And most of all, setting out to fail. Failing helps you see how far is too far, failing helps remind you that failing isnt fatal, and most of all, failing opens you up to succeeding.   -- Seth Godin , Graceful
%
El sptimo imperativo    El primer imperativo es estar al tanto; al tanto del mercado, de las oportunidades y de quin eres.  El segundo imperativo es estar preparados, para entender lo que sucede a tu alrededor.  El tercer imperativo es estar conectado, para que confen en ti.  El cuarto imperativo es ser coherente, para que el sistema sepa qu esperar de ti.  El quinto imperativo es crear un valor, para tener algo que vender.  El sexto imperativo es ser productivo, para ofrecer un buen precio.  No obstante, es posible que hagas todas estas cosas y aun as fracases. Un empleo no es suficiente, ni una fbrica, ni una industria. Solan serlo, pero ya no lo son. El mundo est cambiando muy rpido, y sin la chispa de la iniciativa te limitas a reaccionar ante lo que te rodea. Asimismo, sin la capacidad de incitar y experimentar ests estancado, a la deriva, esperando el empujn...   -- Seth Godin , Hazlo!
%
In fact, stories only magnify the need to have something remarkable (and honest) to say.   -- Seth Godin , All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World
%
Un cambio de actitud  Lo que diferencia a los individuos exitosos de aquellos que languidecen es exactamente lo mismo que separa a las organizaciones innovadoras y en crecimiento de aquellas que se estancan y mueren. Los ganadores han convertido la iniciativa en una pasin y en una prctica. Adelante, prepara una lista de las personas y organizaciones a las que admiras. Apuesto a que el sptimo imperativo es lo que las hace destacar. Como ves, el reto no consiste en perfeccionar tu capacidad de saber cundo empezar o cundo mantenerte al margen, sino en adoptar la costumbre de empezar.   -- Seth Godin , Hazlo!
%
past performance is no guarantee of future success.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Generosity generates income. This works whether you are selling paintings or innovation or a service. Linus   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
The power of this new era is simple: if you want to (need to, must!) lead, then you can. Its easier than ever and we need you. But if this isnt the right moment, if this isnt the right cause, then hold off. Generous and authentic leadership will always defeat the selfish efforts of someone doing it just because she can.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
You Are Not Your Career. Your ability to follow instructions is not the secret to your success. You are hiding your best work, your best insight, and your best self from us every day. We know how much you care, and its a shame that the system works overtime to push you away from the people and the projects you care about. The world does not owe you a living, but just when you needed it, it has opened the door for you to make a difference. Its too bad that so much time has been wasted, but it would be unforgivable to wait any longer. You have the ability to contribute so much. We need you, now.   -- Seth Godin
%
Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you ought to set up a life you don't need to escape from.   -- Seth Godin
%
Cupcakes The first time you bake cupcakes, you will certainly follow the recipe with rigor. The third time, you might improvise and screw up. Learning your lesson, you will follow the recipe again and again as closely as you can. At this point, by the fifth time, some people actually learn to bake. They improvise successfully. They understand the science and the outcomes. They develop a kind of gracefulness in the kitchen. Others merely plod along. Theyre cooks, not chefs. A cook follows a recipe. A chef invents one. We have too many cooks. The world is begging for chefs.   -- Seth Godin , Graceful
%
I can do this forever. Its like adjusting a pair   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
If you cant fail, it doesnt count.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
The Cult of Done Bre Pettis wrote this manifesto on his blog: 1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion. 2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done. 3. There is no editing stage. 4. Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so accept that you know what you're doing even if you dont and do it. 5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it. 6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done. 7. Once you're done you can throw it away. 8. Laugh at perfection. Its boring and keeps you from being done. 9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right. 10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes. 11. Destruction is a variant of done. 12. If you have an idea and publish it on the Internet, that counts as a ghost of done. 13. Done is the engine of more.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Most of our lives in public are spent papering over, rationalizing, and otherwise denying our fear. We go to war because were afraid, and we often go to spiritual events for the very same reason.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Initiative = Happiness   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
College started as universitas magistrorum et scholariuma community of masters and scholars. It was a refuge; it was a place you went to get lost in ideas, to discover and wander, and to plot a course as an academic. Today its a place you go to exchange a lifetime of debt for credit hours, a degree, and maybe a good job.   -- Seth Godin , The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
%
In the linchpin economy, the winners are once again the artists who give gifts. Giving a gift makes you indispensable. Inventing a gift, creating artthat is what the market seeks out, and the givers are the ones who earn our respect and attention.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Great bosses and world-class organizations hire motivated people, set high expectations, and give their people room to become remarkable. The   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Emotional labor is the task of doing important work, even when it isnt easy. Emotional   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Thomas Hawk is the most successful digital photographer in the world. He has taken tens of thousands of pictures, on his way to his goal of taking a million in his lifetime. The   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
4: Stories let us lie to ourselves. And those lies satisfy our desires.   -- Seth Godin , All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World
%
One way to become creative is to discipline yourself to generate bad ideas. The worse the better. Do it a lot and magically you'll discover that good ones slip through   -- Seth Godin
%
Make it easy to believe.   -- Seth Godin , Free Prize Inside: The Next Big Marketing Idea
%
Strategic quitting is the secret of successful organisations. Reactive quitting and serial quitting are the bane of those that strive (and fail) to get what they want.   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is failing. In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.   -- Seth Godin , Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
%
Becoming a linchpin is not an act of selfishness. I see it as an act of generosity,   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
It doesn't matter if anyone reads it, buys it, sponsors it or shares it. It matters that you show up.   -- Seth Godin
%
Real gifts dont demand reciprocation (at least not direct reciprocation), and the best kinds of gifts are gifts of art.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
You dont become indispensable merely because you are different. But the only way to be indispensable is to be different. Thats because if you're the same, so are plenty of other people.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
We need original thinkers, provocateurs, and people who care. We need marketers who can lead, salespeople able to risk making a human connection, passionate change makers willing to be shunned if it is necessary for them to make a point. Every organization needs a linchpin, the one person who can bring it together and make a difference. Some organizations havent realized this yet, or havent articulated it, but we need artists.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Expertise gives you enough insight to reinvent what everyone else assumes is the truth. Sure, its possible to randomly challenge the conventions of your field and luckily find a breakthrough. Its far more likely, though, that you will design a great Web site or direct a powerful movie or lead a breakthrough product development if you understand the status quo better than anyone else. Beginners luck is dramatically overrated. Emotional   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
What if there were no longer only two sides? Not just capital versus labor, but a third team, one that straddled elements of both? I think theres a huge opportunity for a third kind of participant, a linchpin, and now there is an opportunity to change all the rules that weve lived with all our lives. There is a shortage of this third kind of worker, and that shortage means that the market needs you desperately. The con game is ending, at least for people passionate enough to do something about it.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
3. Heres a gift, I love you.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
If you appreciate a gift, consider saying, thank you and . . .   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
The secret of being wrong isnt to avoid being wrong! The secret is being willing to be wrong. The secret is realizing that wrong isnt fatal. The only thing that makes people and organizations great is their willingness to be not great along the way. The desire to fail on the way to reaching a bigger goal is the untold secret of success.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Because frequency is free in an online permission program, and much more effective offline, the marketer has the luxury of riding the impact curve up without a matching cost curve.   -- Seth Godin , Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
%
We vote for a presidential candidate without saying, Why not run the country for a month and then well see . .   -- Seth Godin , All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World
%
Before a marketer can build trust, it must breed familiarity. But theres no familiarity without awareness. And awarenessthe science of letting people know you exist and getting them to understand your messagecant happen effectively in todays environment without advertising.   -- Seth Godin , Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
%
Our society is struggling because during times of change, the very last people you need on your team are well-paid bureaucrats, note takers, literalists, manual readers, TGIF laborers, map followers, and fearful employees.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Seeing clearly means that you're smart enough to know when a project is doomed, or brave enough to persevere when your colleagues are fleeing for the hills. Abandoning your worldview in order to try on someone elses is the first step in being able to see things as they are.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
I hope thats not so simple that it gets ignored, because its important. Its such an effective idea that it saves childrens lives every day. All the Sternins did was find the mom with the healthy kids. And then they helped the others in the village notice what she was doing. They gave that mom a spotlight, encouraging her to keep it up and, more important, encouraging others to follow her lead.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
The key piece of leverage was this promise: follow these instructions and you dont have to think. Do your job and you dont have to be responsible for decisions. Most of all, you dont have to bring your genius to work.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
the competitive advantage the marketplace demands is someone more human, connected, and mature. Someone with passion and energy, capable of seeing things as they are and negotiating multiple priorities as she makes useful decisions without angst. Flexible in the face of change, resilient in the face of confusion.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Its not an effort contest, its an art contest. As customers, we care about ourselves, about how we feel, about whether a product or service or play or interaction changed us for the better. Where its made or how its made or how difficult it was to make is sort of irrelevant. Thats why emotional labor is so much more valuable than physical labor. Emotional labor changes the recipient, and we care about that. Soft   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
To be willing to do new things you dont think youll like requires you to prefer the unknown. Not just to tolerate it, but to prefer it.   -- Seth Godin , Graceful
%
So we take the deal. We agree to do a job in exchange for a set of instructions. And for the hundred years that it led to increasing standards of living, it seemed like a very good deal.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
The business model should be such that the employees needed possess the lowest possible level of skill necessary to fulfill the functions for which each is intended.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
We hire for perfect, we manage for perfect, we measure for perfect, and we reward for perfect. So why are we surprised that people spend their precious minutes of self-directed, focused work time trying to achieve perfect? The problem is simple: Art is never defect-free. Things that are remarkable never meet spec, because that would make them standardized, not worth talking about. Rough   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
What people are afraid of isnt failure. Its blame. Criticism.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Amazon.com took the idea of a man inside the computer and created a service with the same name. A person or company can present a task to the Mechanical Turk Web site, and hordes of invisible people will chip away at it, doing work thats eerily human but requires no personal interaction and very little money. These hardworking people are like the little man inside the chess computer: you cant see them, but theyre doing all the work.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Degrees of Freedom This is important. One of the easy things about riding the train is that there arent many choices. The track goes where the track goes. Sure, sometimes there are junctions and various routes, but generally speaking, there are only two choicesgo or dont go. Driving is a little more complicated. In a car you can choose from literally millions of destinations. Organizations are far more complex. There are essentially an infinite number of choices, endless degrees of freedom. Your marketing can be free or expensive, online or offline, funny or sad. It can be truthful, emotional, boring, or bland. In fact, every marketing campaign ever done has been at least a little different from every other one. The same choices exist in even greater number when you look at the microdecisions that go on every day. Should you go to a meeting or not? Shake hands with each person or just start? Order in fancy food for your guests or go for a walk together because the weather is sunny. . . . In the face of an infinite sea of choices, its natural to put blinders on, to ask for a map, to beg for instructions, or failing that, to do exactly what you did last time, even if it didnt work. Linchpins are able to embrace the lack of structure and find a new path, one that works.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
If school is about postponing the day you have to stand up in front of the world and put yourself at risk, the resistance would like to stay there forever.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Now, though, the proletariat owns the means of production. Now, the workers are self-organized online.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
The first thing a leader can focus on is the act of tightening the tribe. Its tempting to make the tribe bigger, to get more members, to spread the word. This pales, however, when juxtaposed with the effects of a tighter tribe. A tribe that communicates more quickly, with alacrity and emotion, is a tribe that thrives.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Great jobs, world-class jobs, jobs people kill forthose jobs dont get filled by people e-mailing in rsums. Google   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
If everyone tries to lead all the time, not much happens.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
The challenge is to ask a two-part question: What next? What now? Asking is the hard part.   -- Seth Godin , Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?: And Other Provocations, 2006-2012
%
The problem is that most schools dont like great teachers. Theyre organized to stamp them out, bore them, bureaucratize them, and make them average.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
The analysis, based on past events, certainly seems sound. But following your instincts is the only way you're going to do something unsound.   -- Seth Godin , Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?: And Other Provocations, 2006-2012
%
If the game is designed for you to lose, dont play that game. Play a different one. Hiring   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Your story is a symphony, not a note.   -- Seth Godin , All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World
%
A movement is thrilling. Its the work of many people, all connected, all seeking something better.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
A fundamentalist is a person who considers whether a fact is acceptable to his religion before he explores it.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
The easiest thing is to react. The second easiest thing is to respond. But the hardest thing is to initiate.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Settling is no fun. Its a malignant habit, a slippery slope that takes you to mediocrity.   -- Seth Godin
%
The new American Dream, though, the one that markets around the world are embracing as fast as they can, is this: Be remarkable Be generous Create art Make judgment calls Connect people and ideas   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Do not internalize the industrial model. You are not one of the myriad of interchangeable pieces, but a unique human being, and if youve got something to say, say it, and think well of yourself while you're learning to say it better.  David Mamet   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
We can schedule for it. Thursday, April 3rd, 3:05start something. We can train for it, plan for it, announce it, and even hire for it. If initiating is as essential to the modern organization as it appears, we better be doing all of that and more.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Anxiety is nothing but repeatedly reexperiencing failure in advance. What a waste.   -- Seth Godin
%
Organizing around the average, then, is too expensive. Organizing around average means that the organization has exchanged the high productivity of exceptional performance for the ease and security of an endless parade of average performers. The   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
The problem with meeting expectations is that its not remarkable.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Where did your art go while you were tweeting?   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Permission Marketing is the tool that unlocks the power of the Internet.   -- Seth Godin , Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
%
The hard work and big money you used to spend on frequent purchases of print and TV advertising now move to repeated engineering expenses and product failures. If anything, marketing is more time-consuming and expensive than it used to be. You're just spending the money earlier in the process (and repeating the process more often). This is worth highlighting: The Purple Cow is not a cheap shortcut. It is, however, your best (perhaps only) strategy for growth.   -- Seth Godin , Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
%
The merits of leadership are so ingrained that its natural to say, Ill take the lead. Sometimes, though, it may make more sense to take the follow. Leading when you don't know where to go, when you don't have the commitment or the passion, or worst of all, when you can't overcome your fear- that sort of leading is worse than none at all. It takes guts to acknowledge that perhaps this time, right now, you cant lead. So get out of the way and take the follow instead.   -- Seth Godin
%
Those who fear risk also begin to fear movement of any kind.   -- Seth Godin , Poke The Box: When Was the Last Time You Did Something for the First Time?
%
Marketing guru Jay Levinson figures you have to run an ad twenty-seven times against one individual before it has its desired impact. Why? Because only one out of nine ads is seen, and youve got to see it at least three times before it sinks in.   -- Seth Godin , Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
%
Faith is underrated. Paradoxically, religion is vastly overrated.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
Interruption Marketing was easy. Build a few ads, run them everywhere. Interruption Marketing was scalable. If you need more sales, buy more ads. Interruption Marketing was predictable. With experience, a mass marketer could tell how many dollars in revenue one more dollar in ad spending would generate. Interruption Marketing fit the command and control bias of big companies. It was totally controlled by the advertiser, with no weird side effects.   -- Seth Godin , Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
%
Permission Marketing represents a huge threat as well as a huge opportunity.   -- Seth Godin , Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
%
In other words, they believe its wiser to focus more on increasing sales to a smaller percentage of your existing customers than to find new ones.   -- Seth Godin , Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
%
the new form of marketing is leadership, and leadership is about building and connecting tribes of like-minded people.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Emotional labor is what you get paid to do, and one of the most difficult types of emotional labor is staring into the abyss of choice and picking a path. Your   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Marketing used to be about advertising, and advertising is expensive. Today, marketing is about engaging with the tribe and delivering products and services with stories that spread.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
orr we find a typo in a book.   -- Seth Godin , Poke The Box: When Was the Last Time You Did Something for the First Time?
%
Bloggers around the world are discovering that its cheaper and faster and more effective to build their own media channels than it is to waste time arguing with the old ones.   -- Seth Godin , Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?: And Other Provocations, 2006-2012
%
Fact is, the first 100 years of our countrys history were about who could build the biggest, most efficient farm. And the second century focused on the race to build factories. Welcome to the third century, folks. The third century is about ideas.   -- Seth Godin , Unleashing the SUPER Ideavirus
%
stupid, and   -- Seth Godin , Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?: And Other Provocations, 2006-2012
%
never   -- Seth Godin , The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
%
farmer will tell you that fertile land is much more important than better seeds.)   -- Seth Godin , Free Prize Inside: The Next Big Marketing Idea
%
The act of trying to guarantee the success of an innovation is almost certain to make it less likely that it will succeed.   -- Seth Godin , Free Prize Inside: The Next Big Marketing Idea
%
By being customer-focused instead of retail-focused, or factory-focused, a manufacturer or merchant can widely increase its offerings, thus increasing share of wallet.   -- Seth Godin , Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
%
Universities no longer spend as much time bragging about the size of their libraries. The   -- Seth Godin , Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?: And Other Provocations, 2006-2012
%
It's war that makes generals   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
durability of customer relationships. Invest money in customer retention, because its a small fraction of the cost of customer acquisition.   -- Seth Godin , Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
%
Want to watch a movie? Netflix is a better librarian, with a better library, than any library in the country. The Netflix librarian knows about every movie, knows what youve seen and what you're likely to want to see. If the goal is to connect viewers with movies, Netflix wins.   -- Seth Godin , Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?: And Other Provocations, 2006-2012
%
Passion isnt project-specific. Its people-specific. Some people are hooked on passion, deriving their sense of self from the act of being passionate.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Have you ever heard of Gmail? Ever used it? If so, its not because Gmail ran a lot of TV ads (they didnt). Its because the manifesto of free email got to you.   -- Seth Godin , Unleashing the SUPER Ideavirus
%
Industries dont die by surprise. Its not as if you didnt know it was coming. Its not as if you didnt know whom to call (or hire). What was missing was leadershipan individual (a heretic) ready to describe the future and build the coalitions necessary to get there. This isnt about having a great idea (it almost never is). The great ideas are out there, for free, on your neighborhood blog. Nope, this is about taking initiative and making things happen.   -- Seth Godin , Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
%
People have been indoctrinated so completely by their jobs that they dont want to know how something works, theyre willing to accept that perhaps the laws of nature dont work as they expect, and by the way, can I have the remote?   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Strangers Friends Customers Loyal Customers Former Customers   -- Seth Godin , Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
%
The epic battle of our generation is between the status quo of mass and the never-ceasing tide of weird.   -- Seth Godin , We Are All Weird: The Rise of Tribes and the End of Normal
%
The problem doesnt lie with the great teachers. Great teachers strive to create linchpins. The problem lies with the system that punishes artists and rewards bureaucrats instead. Here   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
work.   -- Seth Godin , Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?: And Other Provocations, 2006-2012
%
The Two Reasons Seeing the Future Is So Difficult Attachment to an outcome combined with the resistance and fear of change.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
At that moment, a suite of marketing messages must begin to be applied. The goal is to teach, cajole, and encourage this stranger to become a friend. And once she becomes a friend, to apply enough focused marketing to create a customer.   -- Seth Godin , Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
%
You can create dozens or even hundreds of paths for an individual to follow from the first contact until the highest level of permission is granted.   -- Seth Godin , Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
%
(Less than 3% of newly published authors make enough in royalties and advances to be happy to live on.)   -- Seth Godin , Whatcha Gonna Do with That Duck?: And Other Provocations, 2006-2012
%
Everything happens for a reason, doesnt it? Even if you dont consciously agree with that statement, your brain sure does.   -- Seth Godin , All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World
%
Being good at school is a fine skill if you intend to do school forever. For the rest of us, being good at school is a little like being good at Frisbee. Its nice, but its not relevant unless your career involves homework assignments, looking through textbooks for answers that are already known to your supervisors, complying with instructions and then, in high-pressure settings, regurgitating those facts with limited processing on your part. Or, in the latter case, if your job involves throwing 165 grams of round plastic as far as you can. The   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
A graceful person gets things done, but does it in a way youd be happy to have repeated.   -- Seth Godin , Graceful
%
while luck may be more appealing than effort, you dont get to choose luck. Effort, on the other hand, is totally available, all the time.   -- Seth Godin , Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?: And Other Provocations, 2006-2012
%
Heres another way to describe the two axes: One asks, Can you see it? The other wonders, Do you care?   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Abundance and scarcity In a society where value is created by the manufacture of goods or the allocation of limited resources, its not a surprise that organizations seek scarcity. We hesitate to share, because if I give you this, then I dont have it any more. We erect barriers and create rules to make it difficult for some people to have access to these limited resources. While we dont set out to become miserly, its an economic instinct, because whats yours is no long mine. Even though we give lip service to sharing when kids show up for kindergarten classes, most of school is organized around the same ideas. We rank students, we cut players from the roster, we grade on a curve. Success, we teach, is scarce. Our new economy, though, is based on abundance, the abundance that comes from ideas and access. If I benefit when everyone knows my idea, then the more people I give the idea to, the better we all do. If I benefit when I earn a reputation leading, connecting and creating positive change, then Ill benefit if I can offer these insights to anyone who can benefit from them. With an abundance mindset, we intentionally create goods that can be shared. Its not based on our traditional factory-based economy, but it works now (in fact, its just about all that works) engaging with the mesh, building communities that benefit from sharing resources instead of destroying them is a strategy that scales. With an abundance mindset, we create ideas and services that do better when people share.   -- Seth Godin , Graceful
%
Its damaging to build organizations around repetitive faceless work that brings no connection and no joy. As   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
Walking in circles Dr. Jan Souman, of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, studied what happens to us when we have no map, no compass, no way to determine landmarks. Im not talking about a metaphorhe researched what happens to people lost in the woods or stumbling around the Sahara, with no north star, no setting sun to guide them. It turns out we walk in circles. Try as we might to walk in a straight line, to get out of the forest or the desert, we end up back where we started. Our instincts arent enough. In the words of Dr. Souman, Dont trust your senses because even though you might think you are walking in a straight line when you're not. Human nature is to need a map. If you're brave enough to draw one, people will follow.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Of course, the challenge of being the initiator is that youll be wrong. Youll pick the wrong thing, youll waste time, youll be blamed. This is why being an initiator is valuable. Most people shy away from the challenge. Theyve been too abused, theyre too fearful, they hold back, theyre happy to let someone else take the heat. Initiative is scarce. Hence valuable. Ditch digging is not scarce. Its not hard at all to find manual labor at minimum wage, which is precisely why manual labor gets paid minimum wage. Its extremely difficult to find smart people willing to start useful projects. Because sometimes what you start doesnt work. The fact that it doesnt work every time should give you confidence, because it means you're doing something that frightens others.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
These are all commodity-focused issues. The old conceit of a retailer was that if you offered the right products at a fair price in a convenient location, youd do fine if you watched your expenses. Today, the issues are totally different.   -- Seth Godin , All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World
%
Kindness creates connection. It generates respect (on both sides) and it scales.   -- Seth Godin , Graceful
%
Organizing around the average, then, is too expensive. Organizing around average means that the organization has exchanged the high productivity of exceptional performance for the ease and security of an endless parade of average performers.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
They dont understand that Excellence isnt about working extra hard to do what you're told. Its about taking the initiative to do work you decide is worth doing.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Its hard for me to imagine how a $50 million marketing campaign is ever appropriate for any business to launch an ideavirus. If you need to interrupt that many people, you're doing something wrong.   -- Seth Godin , Unleashing the SUPER Ideavirus
%
The factory has programmed that adventurous impulse out of us. The economic imperative of the last century has been to avoid risk, avoid change, and most of all, avoid exploration and the new. An efficient factory fears change because change means retooling and risk and a blip in productivity. Sure, well put up with change if we have to, and welcome the predictable incremental change of productivity improvement, but please leave us alone when it comes to the word bold. Avoiding risk worked then but doesnt work now. Now whats next? is in fact the driving force for individuals and for organizations. Ever onward, ever faster.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Michael Jordan wasnt the first basketball hero by any means, but our desire to have a hero, as sparked by earlier stars like Wilt Chamberlain and Larry Bird, made it easier for Michael to walk in and fill a role that had to be filled by someone.   -- Seth Godin , Unleashing the Ideavirus: Stop Marketing AT People! Turn Your Ideas into Epidemics by Helping Your Customers Do the Marketing Thing for You.
%
Success-minded people have no trouble at all following proven instructions. We all would be happy to follow a map if the map came with a guarantee. There is no guarantee, though. There are no maps. Theyve all been taken, and their value is not what it used to be, because your competitors have maps, too. The opportunity lies in pursuing your curiosity instead. Curiosity is not allergic to failure. Curiosity drives us to the haunted house because the thrills lie in what we dont expect, not in whats safe. Curiosity can start us down the path to shipping, to bringing things to the world, to examining them, refining them, and repeating the process again (and again).   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
Depth of knowledge combined with good judgment is worth a lot. Depth   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
workers into machines. If we can measure it, we can do it faster. If we can put it in a manual, we can outsource it. If we can outsource it, we can get it cheaper.   -- Seth Godin , Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
%
The abundance mindset makes it easier to be graceful.   -- Seth Godin , Graceful
%
As the economy shifts, large (and small) organizations are discovering that this brainwashing thing was a huge error. You cant snooze your way to greatness. You cant optimize your way to surprising growth. You cant organize your way into blamelessness.   -- Seth Godin , Poke the Box
%
We have a choice about where to aim the lens of our attention. We can relive past injustices, settle old grudges and nurse festering sores. We can imagine failure, build up its potential for destruction, calculate its odds. Or, we can imagine the generous outcomes we're working on, feel gratitude for those that got us here and revel in the possibilities of what's next.   -- Seth Godin
%
the best time to start was last year. The second best time to start is right now.   -- Seth Godin , Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?: And Other Provocations, 2006-2012
%