“Remarkable visions and genuine insight 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 that it would be worth the journey. Persist.” ~ Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
Seth Godin Quotes
“My feeling is that the more often you create and share ideas, the better you get at it. The process of manipulating and ultimately spreading ideas improves both the quality and the quantity of what you create; at least it does for me.” ~ Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
“Today, working hard is about taking apparent risk. Not a crazy risk like betting the entire company on an untested product. No, an apparent risk: something that the competition (and your coworkers) believe is unsafe but that you realize is far more conservative than sticking with the status quo. Richard Branson doesn’t work more hours than you do. Neither does Steve Ballmer or Carly Fiorina. Robyn Waters, the woman who revolutionized what Target sells – and helped the company trounce Kmart – probably worked fewer hours than you do in an average week. None of the people who are racking up amazing success stories and creating cool stuff are doing it just by working more hours than you are. And I hate to say it, but they’re not smarter than you, either. They’re succeeding by doing hard work.” ~ Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
“Ninety-nine percent of the time, in my experience, the hard part about creativity isn’t coming up with something no one has ever thought of before. The hard part is actually executing the thing you’ve thought of. The devil doesn’t need an advocate. The brave need supporters, not critics.” ~ Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
“Most learning, especially most organizational learning, occurs through trial and error. Error occurs whether you want it to or not. Error is difficult to avoid. It’s not clear that research or preparation have an enormous impact on error, especially marketing error. Error is clearly not in short supply. Trial, on the other hand, is quite scarce, especially in some organizations. People mistakenly believe that one way to successfully avoid error is to avoid trial. We need more trial.”
Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
Tribes [Book]
Book Overview: The Web can do amazing things, but it can’t provide leadership. That still has to come from individuals—people just like you who have passion about something. The explosion in tribes means that anyone who wants to make a difference now has the tools at her fingertips. If you think leadership is for other people, think again―leaders come in surprising packages. Ignore an opportunity to lead and you risk turning into a “sheepwalker”―someone who fights to protect the status quo at all costs, never asking if obedience is doing you (or your organization) any good. Sheepwalkers don’t do very well these days. Tribes will make you think (really think) about the opportunities for leading your fellow employees, customers, investors, believers, hobbyists, readers…. It’s not easy, but it’s easier than you probably imagine.
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Post(s) Inspired by this Book:
10 Inspiring Seth Godin Quotes from Tribes and Why We Need YOU to Lead Us
Excerpt: The way people become leaders has drastically changed. Our list of 10 quotes from Tribes will motivate you to start leading today.
Read More »10 Inspiring Seth Godin Quotes from Tribes and Why We Need YOU to Lead Us
“If I fail more than you do, I win. Built into this notion is the ability to keep playing. If you get to keep playing, sooner or later you’re gonna make it succeed. The people who lose are the ones who don’t fail at all, or the ones who fail so big they don’t get to play again.”
Seth Godin | Read Matt’s Blog on this quote ➜
“One theory says that if you treat people well, you’re more likely to encourage them to do what you want, making all the effort pay off. Do this, get that. Another one, which I prefer, is that you might consider treating people with kindness merely because you can. Regardless of what they choose to do in response, this is what you choose to do. Because you can.”
Seth Godin
“Emotions are far more contagious than any disease. A smile or a panic will spread through a group of people far faster than any virus ever could. When you walk into the office or a negotiation, then, wash your bad mood away before you see us. Don’t cough on us, don’t sneeze on us, sure, but don’t bring your grouchiness, your skepticism or your fear in here either. It might spread.”
Seth Godin
“The people who are good in the long run fail a lot, especially at the beginning. So, when you fail early, it might be worth realizing that this is part of the deal, the price you pay for being good in the long run. Every rejection is a gift. A chance to learn and to do it better next time. An opportunity to figure out how to bounce, not break. Don’t waste them.”
Seth Godin
“You don’t win an Olympic gold medal with a few weeks of intensive training. There’s no such thing as an overnight opera sensation. Great law firms or design companies don’t spring up overnight… Every great company, every great brand, and every great career has been built in exactly the same way: bit by bit, step by step, little by little.” ~ Seth Godin
10 Empowering Seth Godin Quotes from The Icarus Deception To Help You Take Your Leap
Excerpt: 10 Quotes from The Icarus Deception to help you take your leap of courage into the world of art and start designing it the way we see fit!
Read More »10 Empowering Seth Godin Quotes from The Icarus Deception To Help You Take Your Leap
“The notion that I do my work here, now, like this, even when I do not feel like it, and especially when I do not feel like it, is very important. Because lots and lots of people are creative when they feel like it, but you are only going to become a professional if you do it when you don’t feel like it. And that emotional waiver is why this is your work and not your hobby.” ~ Seth Godin
“You don’t make art after you become an artist. You become an artist by ceaselessly making art.” ~ Seth Godin, The Icarus Deception
“The rest of the world isn’t nearly as important as the few who are here.” ~ Seth Godin, The Icarus Deception
“The YouTube video maker gets more out of making a video than you get out of watching it.” ~ Seth Godin, The Icarus Deception
“You can risk being wrong or you can be boring.” ~ Seth Godin, The Icarus Deception
“If you are afraid to write or edit or assemble or disassemble, you are merely a spectator. And you are trapped, trapped by the instructions of those you’ve chosen to follow. Twenty people in the field and eighty thousand in the stands. The spectators are the ones who paid to watch, but it’s the player on the field who are truly alive.” ~ Seth Godin, The Icarus Deception