Quotes from Seth Godin

Why are you easily replaceable at one venue but not the other? Are you charming when you go on a date or meet a handsome guy at a party? But not at a meeting at work?

1. Providing a unique interface between members of the organization 2. Delivering unique creativity 3. Managing a situation or organization of great complexity 4. Leading customers 5. Inspiring staff 6. Providing deep domain knowledge 7. Possessing a unique talent

We seek out experiences and products that deliver more value, more connection, and more experience, and change us for the better.

Faced with an infinite number of choices, many people pick the market leader.

Just about everything you learned in school about life is wrong, but the wrongest thing might very well be this: Being well rounded is the secret to success. When

Selling ice cream on the beach in the summer is easy. Raising people's expectations, engaging in their hopes and dreams, helping them see further—that's the difficult work we signed up for. From now on, your customers know more than you do about your competitors. And so your commodity work, no matter how much effort you put into it, is not enough.

A factory demands a compliant workforce in order to succeed. And so we've organized around this idea of compliance in all things—in school, in the foods we eat, in the way we respond to marketing. And it's a dead end.

As we'll see, the greatest shortage in our society is an instinct to produce.

People settle. They settle for less than they are capable of. Organizations settle too. For good enough instead of best in the world. If you're not going to put in the effort to be my best possible choice, why bother?

Every day you stay is a bad strategic decision for your career because every day you get better at something that isn't that useful—and you are another day behind others who are learning something more useful.

As we'll see, the greatest shortage in our society is an instinct to produce. To create solutions and hustle them out the door.

How can I create something that critics will criticize?

Why is Nigerian spam so sloppy? If you've gotten an email from a prince offering to split millions of dollars with you, you may have noticed all the misspellings and other telltale clues that it can't possibly be real.

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. Average

It's insulting to call a professional talented. She's skilled, first and foremost. Many people have talent, but only a few care enough to show up fully, to earn their skill. Skill is rarer than talent. Skill is earned. Skill is available to anyone who cares enough.

The opportunity cost of investing your life in something that's not going to get better is too high.

The factory is a dead end and so is compliance. More obedience will not make us better. That's why graceful is in such demand.

people who are the best in the world specialize at getting really good at the questions they don't know. The people who skip the hard questions are in the majority, but they are not in demand.

One way to figure out a great theory is to look at what's working in the real world and figure out what the various successes have in common. With

Strategic quitting is the secret of successful organizations. Reactive quitting and serial quitting are the bane of those that strive (and fail) to get what they want. And most people do just that. They quit when it's painful and stick when they can't be bothered to quit.

we're seeing an explosion in new approaches, new models and new forms of interaction. This growth comes from change, insight and exploration, not obedience.

Every single important thing we do is something we didn't use to be good at, and in fact, might be something we used to fear.

The lesson is that one person with a persistent vision can make change happen, whether climbing rocks or delivering services.

That's it—three steps: motivate, connect, and leverage.