Quotes from Seth Godin

The path forward is about curiosity, generosity, and connection. These are the three foundations of art.

We worry that we're not in the right emotional moment to do our work. And mostly, we give away our agency, begging someone, anyone, to do the hard part of summoning the muse or getting us approval or a gig or support so that we can maybe, just maybe, feel the light again. It's a trap. Flow is the result of effort. The muse shows up when we do the work. Not the other way around. Set up your tools, turn off the internet, and go back to work.

1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion. 2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done. 3. There is no editing stage. 4. Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it. 5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.

6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done. 7. Once you're done you can throw it away. 8. Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done. 9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right. 10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes. 11. Destruction is a variant of done.

If you're going to quit, quit before you start. Reject the system. Don't play the game if you realize you can't be the best in the world.

12. If you have an idea and publish it on the Internet, that counts as a ghost of done. 13. Done is the engine of more.

weren't smart enough or because they came from the wrong family. No, the reason that most of them didn't have a chance is that somewhere

The strongest foundation we can find is the realization that there isn't a foundation.

Forward motion isn't the default state of any group of people, particularly groups with lots of people.

120. What's It for? We have a meeting at 4:00 p.m. Okay, what's it for? Well, we always have this meeting . . . So, the "what's-it-for" is: It's easier to maintain the status quo than to risk not having the meeting. What the meeting is for is making sure that the people who like having the meeting aren't upset.

Becoming unattached doesn't eliminate our foundation. It gives us one.

And, if you're a designer, the typeface comic sans is a symbol of bad taste, low status, and laziness.

Skill and attitude are essential. Authority is not.

You're not the only person who looks for the best choice. Everyone does. As a result, the rewards for being first are enormous. It's not a linear scale. It's not a matter of getting a little more after giving a little more. It's a curve, and a steep one.

The moment you are willing to sell your time for money is the moment you cease to be the artist you're capable of being.

We have unlimited reasons to hide our work and only one reason to share it: to be of service.

Those who seek out discomfort are able to make a difference!

When you meet someone, you need to have a superpower. If you don't, you're just another handshake. It's not about touting yourself or coming on too strong. It's about making the introduction meaningful.

We need original thinkers, provocateurs, and people who care. We need marketers who can lead, salespeople able to risk making a human connection, passionate change makers willing to be shunned if it is necessary for them to make a point. Every organization needs a linchpin, the one person who can bring it together and make a difference. Some organizations haven't realized this yet, or haven't articulated it, but we need artists.

The time we spend worrying is actually time we're spending trying to control something that is out of our control.

The mass market is dying. There is no longer one best song or one best kind of coffee. Now there are a million micromarkets, but each micromarket still has a best. If your micromarket is "organic markets in Tulsa," then that's your world. And being the best in that world is the place to be.

Today, a hack isn't something you want to be. A hack reverse-engineers all the work, barely getting by. The hack has no point of view, no assertions to be made. It's simply "what do you need?" and "how little do I have to charge to get this gig?" (or "how much can I get away with?").

When we find the empathy to say, "I'm sorry, this isn't for you, here's the phone number of my competitor," then we also find the freedom to do work that matters.

average can mean mediocre. Not worth seeking out. Boring. Life's too short to fight the forces of change. Life's too short to hate what you do all day. Life's way too short to make mediocre stuff. And almost everything that's standard is now viewed as mediocre.