Seth Godin Quotes

Art has no right answer. The best we can hope for is an interesting answer.

Your tactics can make a difference, but your strategy — your commitment to a way of being and a story to be told and a promise to be made — can change everything.

strategy is empty without change, empty without passion, and empty without people willing to confront the void.

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.

Industries don’t die by surprise. It’s not as if you didn’t know it was coming. It’s not as if you didn’t know whom to call (or hire). What was missing was leadership — an individual (a heretic) ready to describe the future and build the coalitions necessary to get there. This isn’t about having a great idea (it almost never is). The great ideas are out there, for free, on your neighborhood blog. Nope, this is about taking initiative and making things happen.

People don't believe what you tell them.
They rarely believe what you show them.
They often believe what their friends tell them.
They always believe what they tell themselves.
What leaders do: they give people stories they can tell themselves. Stories about the future and about the change.

We do not need to teach students to embrace the status quo.

Great bosses and world-class organizations hire motivated people, set high expectations, and give their people room to become remarkable.

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

The status quo doesn’t shift because you’re right. It shifts because the culture changes. And the engine of culture is status.

Consumers are not loyal to cheap commodities. They crave the unique, the remarkable, and the human.

A lifeguard doesn’t have to spend much time pitching to the drowning person. When you show up with a life buoy, if the drowning person understands what’s at stake, you don’t have to run ads to get them to hold on to it.

If consumers have everything they need, there’s nothing left to buy except stuff that they want. And the reason they buy stuff they want is because of the way it makes them feel.

believe that giving up is the same thing as being realistic.

The desire to fail on the way to reaching a bigger goal is the untold secret of success.