Seth Godin
Seth Godin
Seth Godinis an American author, entrepreneur, marketer, and public speaker...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth10 July 1960
CityMount Vernon, NY
CountryUnited States of America
art creating maps
It's time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map. Stop settling for what's good enough and start creating art that matters.
believe people empathy
In fact, most of the time, people with similar information, similar beliefs and similar apparent choices will choose similar actions. So if you want to know why someone does what they do, start with what they know, what they believe and where they came from. Dismissing actions we don't admire merely because we don't care enough to have empathy is rarely going to help us make the change we seek. It doesn't help us understand, and it creates a gulf that drives us apart.
mistake making-mistakes lessons
Be bold, make mistakes, learn a lesson, and fix what doesn't work.
mind needs evidence
What evidence would you need to see to change your mind about this?
succeed fit being-the-best
Will you succeed because you are more well-rounded than others? Because you fit in better than everyone else? Bloody unlikely. We succeed when we are trusted to be the best at what we do.
return favors ifs
Gifts are not favors. If you expect something in return, it's not a gift.
motivation self long
The only long-term motivation is self motivation. So hire people who are self motivated and get out of their way.
obvious-things choices looks
And in a world where we have too many choices and too little time, the obvious thing to do is just ignore stuff. And my parable here is, you're driving down the road and you see a cow, and you keep driving 'cause you've seen cows before. Cows are invisible. Cows are boring. Who's going to stop and pull over and say, oh, look, a cow? Nobody.
home space decision
I look at Starbucks, Howard Schultz has made many brilliant decisions, and one of the things that they did was they invented the third space. It's not work, it's not home. That's one of the engines of its spread. But at the same time he was doing that, he bet the farm to open more and more stores in any given town, and making it ubiquitous made it much easier to say to your friend, I'll meet you at Starbucks.
responsibility people survivor
If you're passionate, be passionate enough to fail. Fail small, accept responsibility, repeat. The people who make change are the survivors of serial failure.
dark done boxes
The edge is a great place to be. Inside the box is too dark. Outside the box, there's no leverage. But on the edge of the box, you can get things done!
fire people trying
Developing expertise or assets that are not easily copied is essential; otherwise you’re just a middleman. “ “Don’t try to be the ‘next’. Instead, try to be the other, the changer, the new. “ “Everyone is not your customer. “ “Fire the committee. No great website in history has been conceived of by more than three people. Not one. This is a deal breaker.
art greatness best-work
Art is what we're doing when we do our best work.
interesting people hot-sauce
That's why there's lots and lots and lots of kinds of hot sauces and not so many kinds of mustard. Not 'cause it's hard to make interesting mustard - you can make interesting mustard. But people don't because no one's obsessed with it, and thus no one tells their friends.