Seth Godin Quotes

Change is not a threat, it's an opportunity. Survival is not the goal, transformative success is.

We are too focused on avoiding criticism and not enough on making a difference.

Criticism comes to those who stand out.

So much easier to aim for the smallest possible audience, not the largest, to build long-term value among a trusted, delighted tribe, to create work that matters and stands the test of time.

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.

Build it, and they will come" only works in the movies. Social Media is a "build it, nurture it, engage them, and they may come and stay.

There are always limits, and opportunities. The ones we rehearse and focus on are the ones that shape our future.

Creating art is a habit, one that we practice daily or hourly until we get good at it

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.

The key to success is to find a way to stand out--to be the purple cow in a field of monochrome Holsteins.

More than anything else, I think prospects, customers and citizens watch what you do more than they listen to what you say.

I don't think we have any choice. I think we have an obligation to change the rules, to raise the bar, to play a different game, and to play it better than anyone has any right to believe is possible.

The way you feel about giving money to good causes has a lot to do with the way you feel about money.

An organization filled with honest, motivated, connected, eager, learning, experimenting, ethical and driven people will always defeat the one that merely has talent. Every time.

What I mean by art is the human act of doing something that connects us to someone else

The only purpose of customer service is to change feelings.

The largest enemy of change isn't 'no', it's 'not yet' - that is the easiest way to forestall change.

I find that it's almost essential to fall in love with an idea to invest the time it takes to make it good and worth sharing. And then, the hard part: deleting that idea when it's just not what it could be. Too often, organizations are good at the first part, but struggle with the second. And so we defend expired business models, support the status quo and have a knee-jerk inclination to preserve what we've got.

At the age of four, you were an artist. And at seven, you were a poet.

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.

Transformation al leaders don't start by denying the world around them. Instead, they describe a future they'd like to create instead.

Fitting in is a short-term strategy, standing out pays off in the long run.

Fear for a linchpin is a clue that you're getting close to doing something important.

Make a decision. It doesn't have to be a wise decision or a perfect one. Just make one.

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.

No is the foundation that we can build our yes on.

A book is a souvenir of an idea.

I think the most productive thing to do during times of change is to be your best self, not the best version of someone else.

So by giving people a tool that they can share and benefit from, it's a form of media that isn't controlled by Rupert Murdoch or the guys at Viacom. It is a form of media that is earned every single time it spreads.

Most people have been brainwashed into believing that their job is to copyedit the world, not to design it.

Don't create for the masses. Create for the people who are your kind of weird.

It might be bold to put your work into the world unadorned, but it's probably ineffective.

If you wait until there is another case study in your industry, you will be too late!

The resistance is the voice in your head telling you to use bullets in your PowerPoint slides...It’s the voice that tells you to leave controversial ideas out of the paper you’re writing, because the teacher won’t like them. The resistance pushes relentlessly for you to fit in.

Evolution is the most popular way we have for dealing with change.

The goal has never been to always succeed. The goal is to be allowed to keep initiating.

If you take action, you will be judged. There's no way around it. The alternative, of course, is much safer. To be ignored. Up to you.

I've found that giving gifts is transformative. It makes me better. It clarifies my thinking and allows me to do better work.

Attention is a bit like real estate, in that they're not making any more of it. Unlike real estate, though, it keeps going up in value.

A well-defined backup plan is sabotage waiting to happen. Why push through the dip, why take the risk, why blow it all when there's the comfortable alternative instead? The people who break through usually have nothing to lose, and they almost never have a backup plan.

You can win with consistent benefits, delivered over time. You win by incrementally earning share, attention and trust.

Marketers have to move upstream now. We have to stop being the last step in the process and start being the first step.

The job isn't to catch up to the status quo; the job is to invent the status quo.

If you speak up online and your ideas have currency, people are going to show up and want to connect with you. What we need more of are people with the guts and emotional labour to do this. The greatest shortage in today's society is an instinct to produce.

As the amount of inputs go up, as the number of people and ideas that clamor for attention continue to increase, we do what people always do: we rely on the familiar, the trusted and the personal. The incredible surplus of digital data means that human actions, generosity and sacrifice are more important than they ever were before.

Art is frightening. Art isn't pretty. Art isn't painting. Art isn't something you hang on the wall. Art is what we do when we're truly alive. An artist is someone who uses bravery, insight, creativity, and boldness to challenge the status quo. And an artist takes it (all of it, the work, the process, the feedback from those we seek to connect with) personally.

The enemy of creativity is fear.

Successful people are the ones who are breaking the rules.