Quotes from Seth Godin

Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department." David Packard

The habit of doing more than is necessary can only be earned through practice.

The reason you might choose to embrace the artist within you now is that this is the path to (cue the ironic music) security.

Initiating is really and truly difficult, and that's what leaders do. They see something others are ignoring and they jump on it. They cause the events that others have to react to. They make change.

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.

A fundamentalist is a person who considers whether a fact is acceptable to his religion before he explores it. As opposed to a curious person who explores first then considers whether or not he wants to accept the ramifications.

The relentless pursuit of mass will make you boring, because mass means average, it means the center of the curve, it requires you to offend no one and satisfy everyone.

The most important lesson I can share about brand marketing is this: you definitely, certainly, and surely don't have enough time and money to build a brand for everyone. You can't. Don't try. Be specific. Be very specific.

All coping does is waste your time and misdirect your energy. If the best you can do is cope, you're better off quitting.

Marketing is the act of telling stories about the things we make—stories that sell and stories that spread.

Initiative and starting are about neither of these. They are about "let's see" and "try." If there's no clear right answer, perhaps the thing you ought to do is something new. Something new is often the right path when the world is complicated.

Art is original. Marcel Duchamp was an artist when he pioneered Dadaism and installed a urinal in a museum. The second person to install a urinal wasn't an artist, he was a plumber.

Marketing is the name we use to describe the promise a company makes, the story it tells, the authentic way it delivers on that promise.

Change isn't made by asking permission. Change is made by asking forgiveness, later.

Our culture works hard to prevent change.

The secret of being wrong isn't to avoid being wrong! The secret is being willing to be wrong.

Teaching Fire a Lesson Fire is hot. That's what it does. If you get burned by fire, you can be annoyed at yourself, but being angry at fire doesn't do you much good. And trying to teach the fire a lesson so it won't be hot next time is certainly not time well spent. Our inclination is to give fire a pass, because it's not human. But human beings are similar, in that they're not going to change any time soon either.

Anyone who says failure is not an option has also ruled out innovation.

Once you've engaged with an organization or a relationship or a community, you owe it to your team to start. To initiate. To be the one who makes something happen. To do less is to steal from them.

To be a superstar, you must do something exceptional. Not just survive the Dip, but use the Dip as an opportunity to create something so extraordinary that people can't help but talk about it, recommend it, and, yes, choose it.

If the only side effect of the criticism is that you will feel bad about the criticism, then you have to compare that bad feeling with the benefits you'll get from actually doing something worth doing. Being remarkable is exciting, fun, profitable, and great for your career. Feeling bad wears off.

Being surrounded by educated people makes democracy stronger, and it benefits our entire economy.

Group projects are the exception in school, but they should be the norm.

Successful heretics create their own religions....You can recognize the need for faith in your idea, you can find the tribe you need to support you, and yes, you can create a new religion around your faith. Steve Jobs did it on purpose at Apple and Phil Knight is famous for doing it at Nike.