Basically you create your experience through your beliefs about yourself and the nature of reality. Another way to understand this is to realize that you create your experiences through your expectations.
Seth GodinTwo different things: A crowd is a tribe without a leader. A crowd is a tribe without communication. Most organizations spend their time marketing to the crowd. Smart organizations assemble the tribe.
Seth GodinIf you're different somehow and have made yourself unique, people will find you and pay you more.
Seth GodinOne way to sell a consumer something in the future is simply to get his or her permission in advance.
Seth GodinMy best advice: win little battles. Get in the habit of winning, of shipping, of having customers that can't live without you. Once you've demonstrated you know how to do the art, then go after the windmills.
Seth GodinWhen we think about what might go wrong, we're more likely to design something that goes right.
Seth GodinIf you need to conceal your true nature to get in the door, understand that you'll probably have to conceal your true nature to keep that job.
Seth GodinI'll confess that I don't watch the Olympics, but you'd have to be living under a rock to be unaware of the corruption and the expense. An amorphous organization with no transparency, unclear lines of responsibility, huge amounts of politics and a great deal of unearned power.
Seth GodinThe brand of the future...is patient, consistent, connected, and trusted. The new brand is based on the truth that only comes from experiencing the product, not just yelling about it. Word of mouth is more important (by a factor of 20) than TV advertising, and the remarkability word of mouth demands comes from what we experience, not from spin or taglines or a campaign slogan.
Seth GodinFundamentalist is a person who considers whether a fact is acceptable to their faith before they explore it. As opposed to a curious person who explores first and then considers whether or not they want to accept the ramifications.
Seth GodinThe easiest way to thrive as an outlier is to avoid being one. At least among your most treasured peers. Surround yourself with people in at least as much of a hurry, at least as inquisitive, at least as focused as you are.
Seth GodinLeaders lead when they take positions, when they connect with their tribes, and when they help the tribe connect to itself.
Seth GodinSuccessful people fail often, and, worth noting, learn more from that failure than everyone else.
Seth GodinWhat makes someone an artist? I don't think is has anything to do with a paintbrush. There are painters who follow the numbers, or paint billboards, or work in a small village in China, painting reproductions. These folks, while swell people, aren't artists. On the other hand, Charlie Chaplin was an artist, beyond a doubt. So is Jonathan Ive, who designed the iPod. You can be an artist who works with oil paints or marble, sure. But there are artists who work with numbers, business models, and customer conversations. Art is about intent and communication, not substances.
Seth GodinNo one ever gets talker's block. No one wakes up in the morning, discovers he has nothing to say, and sits quietly, for days or weeks, until the muse hits, until the moment is right, until all the craziness in his life has died down.
Seth GodinThe mirror we hold up to the person next to us is one of the most important pictures she will ever see.
Seth GodinAfter you produce you can select. you can curate. you can censor. But for now, have bad ideas, lots and lots of bad ideas.
Seth GodinThe unhappy theory of business ethics is this: you have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize profit. Period. To do anything other than that is to cheat your investors. And in a competitive world, you don't have much wiggle room here.
Seth GodinYou have to find a group that really desperately cares about what it is you have to say. Talk to them. They have something I call otaku. It's a great Japanese word. It describes the desire of someone who's obsessed to, say, drive across Tokyo to try a new Ramen noodle place 'cause that's what they do, they get obsessed with it.
Seth GodinIf failure isn't an option, then success isn't either. Success is just failure repeated until it works.
Seth GodinWhat people want is the extra, the emotional bonus they get when they buy something they love.
Seth GodinYou can raise the bar or you can wait for others to raise it, but it's getting raised regardless.
Seth GodinMaking an average pitch to average people, or having an average gala for average people isn't going to scale anymore. You've got to find the people who care. Those people are worth all of your time.
Seth GodinI think that any time reality doesn't match your expectations, it means that marketing was involved.
Seth GodinI think if you're remarkable, amazing or just plain spectacular, you probably shouldn't have a resume at all.
Seth GodinYou don't make art after you become an artist. You become an artist by ceaselessly making art.
Seth Godin