Quotes from Seth Godin

Seth runs TheMarketingSeminar.com, which is the intensive workshop that this book is based on.

There's nothing that we can do to ensure that tomorrow turns out exactly as we hope it will.

The fact that we can't repay him is precisely why his gift is so valuable

Authenticity in the marketplace is a myth, what people want is to be understood and to be served, not merely witness whatever you feel like doing in a given moment.

Like scared civilians eager to do whatever a despot tells them, we give up our freedoms and responsibilities in exchange for the certainty that comes from being told what to do.

Why is it that a common, safe, and important task is so feared by so many people? In Iconoclast, Gregory Berns uses his experience running a neuroscience research lab to explain the biological underpinnings of the resistance. In fact, public speaking is the perfect petri dish for exposing what makes us tick. It turns out that the three biological factors that drive job performance and innovation are social intelligence, fear response, and perception.

Reacting, as Zig Ziglar has said, is what your body does when you take the wrong kind of medicine. Reacting is what politicians do all the time.

Marketing is not a battle, and it's not a war, or even a contest Marketing is the generous act of helping someone solve a problem. Their problem. It's a chance to change the culture for the better. Marketing involves very little in the way of shouting, hustling, or coercion. It's a chance to serve, instead.

Organizations respond to competitive threats. Individuals respond to colleagues or to opportunities. Response is always better than reaction.

Initiating is really and truly difficult, and that's what leaders do.

It's not for you- It shows the ability to respect someone enough that you're not going to waste their time. It's the freedom to ignore the critics who don't get the joke.

It's hard to imagine Tim Cook blurbing a Samsung phone. That's because Apple seeks to corner the market, not to spread an idea or create a positive change. They're in the business of raising their stock price, and everything else is merely a tactic.

great marketing is the generous and audacious work of saying, "I see a better alternative; come with me.

When you market to someone who doesn't have a pattern yet, you don't have to persuade them that their old choices were mistakes.

Creativity Is an Action, Not a Feeling Marie Schacht points out that we can't always do much about how we feel, particularly when it's about something important. But we can always control our actions. Your work is too important to be left to how you feel today. On the other hand, committing to an action can change how we feel. If we act as though we trust the process and do the work, then the feelings will follow. Waiting for a feeling is a luxury we don't have time for.

It's okay to have someone you work for, someone who watches over you, someone who pays you. But the moment you treat that person like a boss, like someone in charge of your movements and your output, you are a cog, not an artist.

In order to lead a tribe, no such rule applies. All you need to do is motivate people who choose to follow you.

The same way soldiers realize that it's war that makes generals

Desire for gain versus avoidance of loss.

Si no acabas, es como si no hubieras empezado; y si no empiezas, no avanzas

Relieved of this easily measured outcome, I could focus on the practice alone. I focused on the rhythm, on my posture, on the magic of the physics of casting. At some point, the professional has to bring home the fish. That's the fuel that permits the professional to show up each day. But the catch is the side effect of the practice itself. Get the practice right, and your commitment will open the door for the market to engage with your work.

Some tribes are stuck. They embrace the status quo and drown out any tribe member who dares to question authority and the accepted order. Big charities, tiny clubs, struggling corporations—they're tribes and they're stuck. I'm not so interested in those tribes. They create little of value and they're sort of boring. Every one of those tribes, though, is a movement waiting to happen, a group of people just waiting to be energized and transformed.

When your organization becomes more human, more remarkable, faster on its feet, and more likely to connect

If you can get through the Dip, if you can keep going when the system is expecting you to stop, you will achieve extraordinary results. People who make it through the Dip are scarce indeed, so they generate more value.