Inspired by — Seth Godin

Seth Godin is an author of business books and frequent blogger.

Seth Godin talks about the problems with trying to give customers what they want.

No one actually understands what the market wants. When you choose to make something magical instead, when you bring passion instead of calculation to your work, you’re as least as likely to get it right as the guy who is selling out.

Do you dare to follow your passion rather than the market?

So true, it almost hurts. From the great Seth Godin.

You don’t need more time
…you just need to decide.

It doesn’t get any simpler than that.

Something I believe strongly in, here expressed by Seth Godin.

If you can’t sign it, don’t ship it.

Easy to say, hard to do. Many people choose to work for a big organization precisely so they can avoid signing much of anything.

Are you proud of your work? Would you sign it?

From the always great Seth Godin comes the simple two-step process.

Step one: Open all doors. Learn a little about a lot. Consider as many options as possible, then add more.

Step two: Relentlessly dismiss, prune and eliminate. Choose. Ship.

As Seth points out later in his post, the problem is that is easy not to go far enough in each direction.

A somewhat provocative statement from Seth Godin.

No, everything is not going to be okay. It never is. It isn’t okay now. Change, by definition, changes things. It makes some things better and some things worse. But everything is never okay.

Finding the bravery to shun faux reassurance is a critical step in producing important change. Once you free yourself from the need for perfect acceptance, it’s a lot easier to launch work that matters.

Can you handle not doing perfect? Not even doing okay?

Seth Godin, on your plans for the future.

Seven years from now, what will you have to show for what you’re doing right now?

If your answer is, “not much,” perhaps you should consider a new plan, one that might generate a different answer, or, at the very least, be a more fun way to waste seven years.

So, seven years from now, what will you have to show?

Seth Godin nicely summarizes how all the things we consider good (apologizing, delegating, volunteering, sharing, etc) are actually rather hard.

Risking the appearance of weakness takes strength.

Are you strong enough to appear weak?

Seth Godin described anxiety in a way which really makes you realize how stupid it is.

Anxiety is nothing but repeatedly re-experiencing failure in advance. What a waste.

Sounds really stupid, doesn’t it?

Seth Godin talks about the fact that you are responsible for your own development, in rather harsh words.

Even if you’re not self-employed, your boss is you. You manage your career, your day, your responses. You manage how you sell your services and your education and the way you talk to yourself.

Odds are, you’re doing it poorly.

If you had a manager that talked to you the way you talked to you, you’d quit. If you had a boss that wasted as much as your time as you do, they’d fire her. If an organization developed its employees as poorly as you are developing yourself, it would soon go under.

Are you a good boss?

Seth Godin, in a guest post at Zen Habits, talks about why little companies get so much more out the door than big ones:

Because big companies have committees, groups of people designed to protect the status quo, to prevent failure, to avoid catastrophe. The committee is made up of humans, each of whom is battling her own version of the resistance. “If this ships, my boss will see it, and I might get fired.” “If this ships, a kid might use it, cut of his finger and I might get in trouble.” “If this ships, people are going to think it was my idea, and there’s a chance, just a chance, they might hate it.” Most of all, “if this ships, people might laugh at me.” And so the committee shoots for the lowest common denominator of safety, a product or service or idea that arouses no one’s lizard brain. Which means mediocre. Or late. Or both.

What does the resistance stop you from achieving?