Seth Godin Quotes

Just about everything you learned in school about life is wrong, but the wrongest thing might very well be this: Being well rounded is the secret to success. ~ Seth Godin

You become a winner because you're good at losing. ~ Seth Godin

One way to figure out a great theory is to look at what's working in the real world and figure out what the various successes have in common. With ~ Seth Godin

The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there.
People will follow. ~ Seth Godin

What if there were no longer only two sides? Not just capital versus labor, but a third team, one that straddled elements of both? I think there's a huge opportunity for a third kind of participant, a linchpin, and now there is an opportunity to change all the rules that we've lived with all our lives. There is a shortage of this third kind of worker, and that shortage means that the market needs you desperately. The con game is ending, at least for people passionate enough to do something about it. ~ Seth Godin

Caring, it turns out, is a competitive advantage, and one that takes effort, not money. ~ Seth Godin

If you don't know how it works, find out. If you're not sure if it will work, try it. If it doesn't make sense, play with it until it does. If it's not broken, break it. If it might not be true, find out. ~ Seth Godin

The merits of leadership are so ingrained that it's natural to say, "I'll take the lead."
Sometimes, though, it may make more sense to take the follow. Leading when you don't know where to go, when you don't have the commitment or the passion, or worst of all, when you can't overcome your fear- that sort of leading is worse than none at all.
It takes guts to acknowledge that perhaps this time, right now, you can't lead. So get out of the way and take the follow instead. ~ Seth Godin

If you had a chance to do a TED talk, what would it be about? What have you discovered, what do you know, what can you teach? You should do one. Even if you don't do one, you should be prepared to do one. ~ Seth Godin

Fact is, the first 100 years of our country's history were about who could build the biggest, most efficient farm. And the second century focused on the race to build factories. Welcome to the third century, folks. The third century is about ideas. ~ Seth Godin

Crash diets don't work.
They don't work for losing weight, they don't work for making sales quota and they don't work for getting and keeping a job.
The reason they don't work has nothing to do with what's on the list of things to be done (or consumed). No, the reason they don't work is that they don't change habits, and habits are where our lives and careers and bodies are made. ~ Seth Godin

The only thing all successful people have in common is that they're successful, so don't waste your time copying "the successful strategies" of others. ~ Seth Godin

The way to work with a bully is to take the ball and go home. First time, every time. When there's no ball, there's no game. Bullies hate that. So they'll either behave so they can play with you or they'll go bully someone else. ~ Seth Godin

We fail when we give up too soon. ~ Seth Godin

You succeed because you've chosen to be confident. It's not really useful to require yourself to be successful before you're able to become confident. ~ Seth Godin

Deadlines? Surely you know someone who is late all the time. Someone who can't deliver anything of value unless they've stalled so much they've created an urgency, an emergency that requires mind-blowing effort and adrenaline to deliver. This is not efficient or reliable behavior, and yet they persist. The reason is simple: they can't push through the common fear of completion unless they can create a greater fear of total failure. ~ Seth Godin

Art is the act of doing work that matters while dancing with the voice in your head that screams for you to stop. ~ Seth Godin

We need to care enough to connect, to put ourselves at emotional risk and play one note worth hearing. ~ Seth Godin

Data is not useful until it becomes information. ~ Seth Godin

All motivation is self-motivation. Your family, your boss, or your co-workers can try to get your engine going, but until you decide what to accomplish, nothing will happen. ~ Seth Godin

The reason Steve Herrell's shop did so well is that it was famous for having a line! People brought folks from out of town to have the experience. ~ Seth Godin

You win by trying. And failing. Test, try, fail, measure, evolve, repeat, persist, ... ~ Seth Godin

Personalizatio n wasn't supposed to be a cleverly veiled way to chase prospects around the web, showing them the same spammy ad for the same lame stuff as everyone else sees. No, it is a chance to differentiate at a human scale, to use behavior as the most important clue about what people want and more important, what they need. ~ Seth Godin

Don't waste time looking for a better pencil: learn to write better. ~ Seth Godin

So we take the deal. We agree to do a job in exchange for a set of instructions. And for the hundred years that it led to increasing standards of living, it seemed like a very good deal. ~ Seth Godin

No one can be responsible for where or how we each begin. No one has the freedom to do anything or everything, and all choices bring consequences. What we choose to do next, though, how to spend our resources or attention or effort, this is what defines us. ~ Seth Godin

Defending mediocrity is exhausting. ~ Seth Godin

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. ~ Seth Godin

Being surrounded by educated people makes democracy stronger, and it benefits our entire economy. ~ Seth Godin

Ideas don't get smaller when they're shared, they get bigger. ~ Seth Godin

Everyone is not your customer. ~ Seth Godin

How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be remarkable? ~ Seth Godin

Mass attention is almost unattainable and it's not clear that you want it. ~ Seth Godin

Be remarkable Be generous Create art Make judgment calls Connect people and ideas . . . and we have no choice but to reward you. ~ Seth Godin

Turn strangers into friends. Turn friends into donors. And then do the most important job: Turn your donors into fundraisers. ~ Seth Godin

The reason social media is so difficult for most organizations: It's a process, not an event. ~ Seth Godin

Make more decisions. That's the only way to get better at it. ~ Seth Godin

If you can influence the outcome, do the work.
If you can't influence the outcome, ignore the possibility. It's merely a distraction. ~ Seth Godin

No more than six words on a slide. Ever. There is no presentation so complex that this rule needs to be broken. ~ Seth Godin

If you're not the best in the world at what you do, then you have to get better. ~ Seth Godin

Leaders who set out to give are more productive than leaders who seek to get. ~ Seth Godin

Leadership, on the other hand, is about creating change you believe in. ~ Seth Godin

You cannot buy your way to share of voice today; you cannot buy attention anymore. ~ Seth Godin

Our job is obvious: we need to get out of the way, shine a light, and empower a new generation to teach itself and to go further and faster than any generation ever has. ~ Seth Godin

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

Your first mistake might be assuming that people are rational.
Your second mistake could be assuming that people are eager for change.
And the marketer's third mistake is assuming that once someone knows things the way you know them, they will choose what you chose. ~ Seth Godin

We're often in a hurry to finish. Or in a hurry to close a sale. What happens when we adopt the posture of being in a hurry to be generous? With resources or insight or access or kindness ... It's an interesting sort of impatience. ~ Seth Godin

It's okay. Let your ego push you to be the initiator. But tell your ego that the best way to get something shipped is to let other people take the credit. The real win for you (and your ego) is seeing something get shipped, not in getting the credit when it does. ~ Seth Godin

There's nothing wrong with having a plan. Plans are great. But missions are better. Missions survive when plans fail, and plans almost always fail. ~ Seth Godin

If your project or organization depends on knowing things that other people don't know (but could find out if they wanted to), your days are probably numbered. Ask a travel agent The alternative, while difficult, is obvious. Provide enough non-commodity service and customization that it doesn't matter if the ideas spread. In fact, it will help you when they do. ~ Seth Godin

'Good enough' stopped being good enough a long time ago. so why not be great? ~ Seth Godin

Self sufficiency appears to be a worthy goal, but it's now impossible if you want to actually get anything done. All our productivity, leverage and insight comes from being part of a community, not apart from it. The goal, I think, is to figure out how to become more dependent, not less. ~ Seth Godin

If you're a marketer who doesn't know how to invent, design, influence, adapt, and ultimately discard products, then you're no longer a marketer. You're deadwood. ~ Seth Godin

Trust is precious and easily wasted, and guessing is a lousy foundation for future progress. ~ Seth Godin

The people who are the best in the world specialize at getting really good at the questions they don't know. ~ Seth Godin

Go ahead, fail. Try to avoid mistakes, though. ~ Seth Godin

Many people believe that great designers get great clients. It's the other way around. ~ Seth Godin

Real gifts don't demand reciprocation (at least not direct reciprocation), and the best kinds of gifts are gifts of art. ~ Seth Godin

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

Great boss is challenging people in the right way. Leading, not managing. Supporting them by giving them both a platform they can count on and expectations they can stretch for. ~ Seth Godin

The only way to consistently grow in B2B is to be better than very good. ~ Seth Godin

If the game is designed for you to lose, don't play that game. Play a different one. ~ Seth Godin

the new form of marketing is leadership, and leadership is about building and connecting tribes of like-minded people. ~ Seth Godin

Going out of your way to find uncomfortable situations isn't natural, but it's essential. ~ Seth Godin

It doesn't hurt to ask Actually, it does hurt. It does hurt to ask the wrong way, to ask without preparation, to ask without permission. It hurts because you never get another chance to ask right. ~ Seth Godin

At least at first, the new thing is rarely as good as the old thing was. If you need the alternative to be better than the status quo from the very start, you'll never begin. ~ Seth Godin

The key to getting a reputation for being brilliant is actually being brilliant, not just acting like you are. ~ Seth Godin

The enemy of fear is creativity. ~ Seth Godin

Your positions on EVERYTHING are based on the story you tell yourself and not some universal fact from the universal fact database. ~ Seth Godin

Expertise gives you enough insight to reinvent what everyone else assumes is the truth. Sure, it's possible to randomly challenge the conventions of your field and luckily find a breakthrough. It's far more likely, though, that you will design a great Web site or direct a powerful movie or lead a breakthrough product development if you understand the status quo better than anyone else. Beginner's luck is dramatically overrated. Emotional ~ Seth Godin

If you think your organization needs a bigger marketing budget, maybe you just need to be less average instead. ~ Seth Godin

Loving what you do is almost as important as doing what you love, especially if you need to make a living at it. ~ Seth Godin

Permission marketing is marketing without interruptions. ~ Seth Godin

What we most need in our lives, though, is something worth doing, worth it because we care. ~ Seth Godin

Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you male, but about the stories you tell. ~ Seth Godin

The fatigue was there, but some people understood that putting it aside was the single most important factor in succeeding. ~ Seth Godin

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. ~ Seth Godin

That's your opportunity
to approach your work in a way that generates unique learning and interactions that are worth sharing. ~ Seth Godin

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. ~ Seth Godin

The 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 Godin

Once you've engaged with an organization or a relationship or a community, you owe it to your team to start. To initiate. To be the one who makes something happen. To do less is to steal from them. ~ Seth Godin

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.
Seth Godin ~ Seth Godin

We'd like to believe that efficient, useful, cost-effective products and services are the way to succeed. That hard work is its own reward. Most marketers carry around a worldview that describes themselves as innovators, not storytellers. ~ Seth Godin

Permission marketing turns strangers into friends and friends into loyal customers. It's not just about entertainment - it's about education. Permission marketing is curriculum marketing. ~ Seth Godin

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. ~ Seth Godin

They say the best way to complain is to make things better. ~ Seth Godin

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 ~ Seth Godin

Do you have enough money in the bank to make it if everything goes wrong?
If you do, congratulations. Go run your business with focus and with confidence. Stick with the high road and do the things you need to realize your business plan.
If not, donʼt despair. You need an alternate plan. A plan that allows you to spend a percent- age of your time each week on low-risk revenue sources. A way to bring in freelance income while you build your core business. ~ Seth Godin

Facts are irrelevant. What matters is what the consumer believes. ~ Seth Godin

The wettest, weirdest environment is human interaction. Whatever we build gets misunderstood, corroded and chronic, and it happens quickly and in unpredictable ways. That's one reason why the web is so fascinating-it's a collision between the analytic world of code and wet world of people. ~ Seth Godin

When you work under the cloud of anxiety, the best strategy is to play it safe, because if (when!) it fails, you'll be blameless. ~ Seth Godin

The combination of fear and ignorance (two sides of the same coin) can be paralyzing. ~ Seth Godin

Low price is a great way to sell a commodity. That's not marketing though, that's efficiency. ~ Seth Godin

We're not going to outgrow our need for information. ~ Seth Godin

Reputation is what people expect us to do next. It's their expectation of the quality and character of the next thing we produce or say or do.
We control our actions (even when it feels like we don't) and our actions over time (especially when we think no one is looking) earn our reputation. ~ Seth Godin

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

Leadership is scarce because few people are willing to go through the discomfort required to lead. This scarcity makes leadership valuable ... It's uncomfortable to stand up in front of strangers. It's uncomfortable to propose an idea that might fail. It's uncomfortable to challenge the status quo. It's uncomfortable to resist the urge to settle ... If you're not uncomfortable in your work as a leader, it's almost certain you're not reaching your potential as a leader. ~ Seth Godin

Risking the appearance of weakness takes strength. And the market knows it. ~ Seth Godin

Sign your work ... If you're not proud of it, don't ship it. If you are, sign your work and own the results. We'll know who to thank. If you work for a place where work goes unsigned (internally, in particular) it's worth asking why. ~ Seth Godin

By all means, fire the customers who aren't worth the time and the trouble. But understand that the moment you insist the customer is wrong, you've just started the firing process. ~ Seth Godin