Seth Godin Quotes
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The goal in blogging/ business/ inspiring non-fiction is to share a truth, or at least a truth as the writer sees it. To not just share it, but to spread it and to cause change to happen. You can do that in at least three ways: with research (your own or reporting on others), by building and describing conceptual structures, or with stories that resonate.
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The key to success is to find a way to stand out--to be the purple cow in a field of monochrome Holsteins.
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It's impossible to have a coin with only one side. You can't have heads without tails. Innovation is like that. Initiative is like that. Art is like that. You can't have success unless you're prepared to have failure. As soon as you say, 'failure is not an option,' you've just said, 'innovation is not an option.'
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Here's the fascinating part, call it the golden shoulder: We have no idea in advance who the great contributors are going to be. We know that there's a huge cohort of people struggling outside the boundaries of the curated, selected few, but we don't know who they are.
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The organizations of the future are filled with smart, fast, flexible people on a mission
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Making promises and keeping them is a great way to build a brand.
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The question isn’t whether or not you should wait to be picked, the question is whether you care enough to pick yourself.
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You don't have enough time to be both unhappy & mediocre. It's not just pointless; it's painful.
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Marketing yourself to a new person often involves being charismatic, clever and quick-but most jobs and most relationships are about being consistent, persistent and brave.
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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.
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The question is not Will you succeed? but rather, Will you matter?
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Teaching young people to sell is a priceless gift.
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The thing is, the future happens. Every single day, like it or not. Sure, tomorrow is risky, frightening and in some way represents one step closer to the end. But it also brings with it the possibility of better and the chance to do something that matters.
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If you can influence the outcome, do the work. If you can't influence the outcome, ignore the possibility. It's merely a distraction.
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Viewing the web as a platform for generosity is very different than seeing an opportunity to turn it into an ATM machine.
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Cheap is the last refuge of a product developer or marketer who is out of great ideas.
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The next thing you do today will be the most important thing on your agenda, because, after all, you're doing it next. Well, perhaps it will be the most urgent thing. Or the easiest. In fact, the most important thing probably isn't even on your agenda.
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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.
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Great marketers don't make stuff. They make meaning.
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That's why there's lots and lots of kinds of hot sauces, and not so many kinds of mustard. Not because it's hard to make interesting mustard - you could make interesting mustard - but people don't, because no one's obsessed with it, and thus no one tells their friends.
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Blaming the system is soothing because it lets you off the hook. But when the system is broken, we wonder why you were relying in the system in the first place.
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Remember the Bob Dylan rule: it's not just a record, it's a movement.
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Real change comes from finding and embracing and connecting and amplifying those that are inclined to like you and believe in you. Ideas spread from person to person, not so much from you to them. So find your biggest fans and give them a story to tell.
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The mistake so many marketers make is that they conjoin the urgency of making another sale with the timing to earn the right to make that sale. In other words, you must build trust before you need it. Building trust right when you want to make a sale is just too late.