Quotes by Seth Godin

Starting isn’t like that. Starting something is not an event; it’s a series of events. You decide to walk to Cleveland. So you take a first step in the right direction. That’s 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...

I define anxiety as experiencing failure in advance…and if you have anxiety about initiating a project, then of course you will associate risk with failure.

One thing that most comic artists avoid is showing decisions. They show action, sure, and they show results, but they don’t show (because it’s difficult to show) the hero or the villain making a choice.

Initiative and starting are about neither of these. They are about “let’s see” and “try.” If there’s 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.

The relentless act of invention and innovation and initiative is the best marketing asset.

Dont wait for the right answer and the golden path to present themselves.This is precisely why youre 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 cant help but improve, cant help but incrementally find yourself getting back toward your north star.You might not end up with perfect, but its significantly more valuable than being stuck.Dont just start. Continue. Ship. Repeat.

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)

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.

A genius looks at something that others are stuck on and gets the world unstuck.So the question is: Have you ever done that?

You need editors, not brand managers,who will push the envelope to make [a brand media property] go forward.

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

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. Youre not going to buy an armoir while standing on the subway.

The ironic thing is that marketers have responded to this problem with the single worst cure possible. To deal with the clutter and the diminished effectiveness of Interruption Marketing, theyre interrupting us even more!

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.

If the New Marketing can be characterized by just one idea, its 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 doesnt 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, youre faced with a difficult choice. Its difficult because it represents giving up something you may be quite comfortable with, and its difficult because it requires an all-or-nothing commitment.

It’s all a risk. Always. That’s not true, actually. The only exception: it’s a certainty that there’s risk. The safer you play your plans for the future, the riskier it actually is. That’s because the world is certainly, definitely, and more than possibly changing.

The secret to being wrong isnt to avoid being wrong! The secret is being willing to be wrong. The secret is realizing that wrong isnt fatal.

Don’t be different just to be different. Be different to be better.

So sure, start with a slogan. But dont bother wasting any time on it if youre merely going for catchy. Aim for true instead.

Rich is my word for someone who can afford to make choices, who has enough resources to do more than merely survive.