Seth Godin Quotes

The object of the new school is to teach reasonable doubt. Not the unreasonable doubt of the wild-eyed heckler, but the evidence-based doubt of the questioning scientist and the reason-based doubt of the skilled debater.

To be willing to do new things you don't think you'll like requires you to prefer the unknown. Not just tolerate it, but to prefer it.

1. Your business needs more linchpins. It’s scary to rely on a particular employee, but in a postindustrial economy, you have no choice. 2. You are capable of becoming a linchpin. And if you do, you’ll discover that it’s worth the effort.

Do not internalize the industrial model. You are not one of the myriad of interchangeable pieces, but a unique human being, and if you’ve got something to say, say it, and think well of yourself while you’re learning to say it better. — David Mamet

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.

Quit the wrong stuff. Stick with the right stuff. Have the guts to do one or the other.

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

Risk, to some, is a bad thing, because risk brings with it the possibility of failure. It might be only a temporary failure, but that doesn’t matter so much if the very thought of it shuts you down. So, for some, risk comes to equal failure (take enough risks and sooner or later, you will fail). Risk is avoided because we’ve been trained to avoid failure.

Great teachers are wonderful. They change lives. We need them. The problem is that most schools don’t like great teachers. They’re organized to stamp them out, bore them, bureaucratize them, and make them average.

We hire for perfect, we manage for perfect, we measure for perfect, and we reward for perfect. So why are we surprised that people spend their precious minutes of self-directed, focused work time trying to achieve perfect? The problem is simple: Art is never defect-free. Things that are remarkable never meet spec, because that would make them standardized, not worth talking about.

Don’t listen to the cynics. They’re cynics for a reason. For them, the resistance won a long time ago. When the resistance tells you not to listen to something, read something, or attend something, go. Do it. It’s not an accident that successful people read more books.

I think most people have it upside down. Being charismatic doesn’t make you a leader. Being a leader makes you charismatic.

Abundance is possible, but only if we can imagine it and then embrace it.

In an era of grassroots change, the top of the pyramid is too far away from where the action is to make much of a difference.

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