Seth Godin Quotes & Sayings

The web has made kicking ass easier to achieve, and mediocrity harder to sustain. Mediocrity now howls in protest." The — Seth Godin

Go for the edges. Challenge yourself and your team to describe what those edges are, and then test which edge is most likely to deliver the marketing results you seek. — Seth Godin

If you're not upsetting anyone, you're not changing the status quo. — Seth Godin

Starting isn't like that. Starting something is not an event; it's a series of events. You decide to walk to Cleveland. So you take a first step in the right direction. That's starting. You spend the rest of the day walking toward Cleveland, one step at a time, picking your feet up and putting them down. At the end of the day, twenty miles later, you stop at a hotel. And what happens the next morning? Either you quit the project or you start again, walking to Cleveland. In fact, every step is a new beginning. Sure, you're closer than you were yesterday or last week, but you're still ... — Seth Godin

Treat different people differently. Anything else is a compromise. — Seth Godin

This notion that it is up to each person to innovate in some way flies in the face of the industrial age, but you know what, the industrial age is over. — Seth Godin

Trying to appeal to everyone is almost sure to fail, for the simple reason that everyone wants something different! — Seth Godin

Any customer that walks away, disrespected and defeated, represents tens of thousands of dollars out the door, in addition to the failure of a promise the brand made in the first place. You can't see it but it's happening, daily. — Seth Godin

It's impossible to have a coin with only one side. You can't have heads without tails. Innovation is like that. Initiative is like that. Art is like that.
You can't have success unless you're prepared to have failure.
As soon as you say, 'failure is not an option,' you've just said, 'innovation is not an option.' — Seth Godin

Content marketing is the only marketing left — Seth Godin

The problem with requiring people to be loud and angry to get things done is that you're now surrounded by people who are loud and angry. — Seth Godin

It's not time," "Take it easy," "Wait and see," "It's someone else's turn" - none of these stalls are appropriate for a leader in search of change. There's a small price for being too early, but a huge penalty for being too late. The longer you wait to launch an innovation, the less your effort is worth. — Seth Godin

Giving people what they want isn't always what they want. — Seth Godin

Art is never defect-free. Things that are remarkable never meet spec, because that would make them standardized, not worth talking about. — Seth Godin

If all you do at work is hope to survive, your day can't be much fun. We're all working too hard. Putting in more hours than we'd like, nervous about the future, uncertain about our roles and our goals. We work too hard to hope for mere survival. Our goal must be to thrive and prosper, not just get by. — Seth Godin

I intentionally abandoned the hard stuff early on because not only do I think it's useless, I think it's a distraction. — Seth Godin

Once you free yourself from the need for perfect acceptance, it's a lot easier to launch work that matters. — Seth Godin

The media wants overnight successes (so they have someone to tear down). Ignore them. Ignore the early adopter critics that never have enough to play with. Ignore your investors that want proven tactics and predictable instant results. Listen instead to your real customers, to your vision and make something for the long haul. Because that's how long it's going to take, guys. — Seth Godin

The one path that never works is the most common one: doing nothing at all. — Seth Godin

Ideas aren't a sideshow that make our factory a little more valuable. Our factory is a sideshow that makes our ideas a little more valuable! — Seth Godin

Make something happen today, before you go home, before the end of the week. Launch that idea, post that post, run that ad, call that customer. Go the edge, that edge you've been holding back from ... and do it today. Without waiting for the committee or your boss or the market. Just go. — Seth Godin

If you are deliberately trying to create a future that feels safe, you will willfully ignore the future that is likely. — Seth Godin

Art is the act of doing work that matters while dancing with the voice in your head that screams for you to stop. — Seth Godin

One key to moving forward is knowing what to leave behind. — Seth Godin

Your biggest failure is the thing you dreamed of contributing but didn't find the guts to do. — Seth Godin

Believe in what you do, because you may have to do it for a long time before it catches on. — Seth Godin

This might end up in crying. If you're not prepared to cry about it, I'm not sure you're making art. And if you're not prepared to dance in anticipation, you're definitely not making art. — Seth Godin

The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there.
People will follow. — Seth Godin

It's all a risk. Always. That's not true, actually. The only exception: it's a certainty that there's risk. The safer you play your plans for the future, the riskier it actually is. That's because the world is certainly, definitely, and more than possibly changing. — Seth Godin

The key piece of leverage was this promise: follow these instructions and you don't have to think. Do your job and you don't have to be responsible for decisions. Most of all, you don't have to bring your genius to work. — Seth Godin

Traditional sales and marketing involves increasing market shares, which means selling as much of your product as you can to as many customers as possible. One-to-one marketing involves driving for a share of customer, which means ensuring that each individual customer who buys your product buys more product, buys only your brand, and is happy using your product instead of another to solve his problem. The true, current value of any one customer is a function of the customer's future purchases, across all the product lines, brands, and services offered by you. — Seth Godin

Our society is struggling because during times of change, the very last people you need on your team are well-paid bureaucrats, note takers, literalists, manual readers, TGIF laborers, map followers, and fearful employees. — Seth Godin

One way to work the system is to work the system. The other way is to refuse to work it. — Seth Godin

Real gifts don't demand reciprocation (at least not direct reciprocation), and the best kinds of gifts are gifts of art. — Seth Godin

Go ahead and act as if your decisions are temporary. Because they are. Be bold, make mistakes, learn a lesson, and fix what doesn't work. No sweat, no need to hyperventilate. — Seth Godin

Transferring your passion to your job is far easier than finding a job that happens to match your passion. — Seth Godin

The market ... demands a signal from you that you're serious, powerful, accepted, and safe. — Seth Godin

Evolution is the most popular way we have for dealing with change. — Seth Godin

Leadership, on the other hand, is about creating change you believe in. — Seth Godin

Products that are remarkable get talked about. — Seth Godin

If you demand that everything that happens be something you are adequately prepared for, I wonder if you've chosen never to leap in ways that we need you to leap. Once we embrace this chasm, then for the things for which we can never be prepared, we are of course, always prepared. — Seth Godin

Popular is not the same important, or often, not the same as good. — Seth Godin

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. — Seth Godin

My blogging life is basically goalless. I like the zen nature of that, and paradoxically, it improves results. — Seth Godin

Sure, ideas that spread, win, but ideas that don't get spoken always fail. — Seth Godin

Great boss is challenging people in the right way. Leading, not managing. Supporting them by giving them both a platform they can count on and expectations they can stretch for. — Seth Godin

When enough people care about autism or diabetes or global warming, it helps everyone, even if only a tiny fraction actively participate. — Seth Godin

The status quo is leaving the building, and quickly. — Seth Godin

No one has ever built a statue to a critic, it's true. On the other hand, it's only the people with statues that get pooped on by birds flying by. — Seth Godin

Learn. Ceaselessly. Learn to code, to write persuasively, to understand new technologies, to bring out the best in your team, to find underused resources and to spot patterns. — Seth Godin

Great design = getting people to do what you want. — Seth Godin

Where do you put the fear when you choose to innovate? The fear is there, but you have to find a place to put it. — Seth Godin

In every organization everyone rises to the level at which they become paralyzed with fear. — Seth Godin

Marketing is a contest for people's attention. — Seth Godin

Seizing new ground, making connections between people or ideas, working without a map - these are works of art, and if you do them, you are an artist, regardless of whether you wear a smock, use a computer, or work with others all day long. — Seth Godin

I wonder why anyone would hesitate to be generous with their writing. I mean, if you really want to make a living, go to Wall Street and trade oil futures ... We're writers. We're doing something that is inherently a generous act. We're exposing ourselves to the muse and to the things that frighten us. Why do that if you're not willing to be generous? And paradoxically, almost ironically, it turns out that the more generous you are, the more money you make. But that's secondary. For me, the privilege of being generous is why I get to do this. — Seth Godin

The industrial age is ending, and a new one is beginning. It produces art instead of stuff and it rewards gracefulness. — Seth Godin

The goal is to be on the hook, not to let someone else do the scary parts. — Seth Godin

Great bosses and world-class organizations hire motivated people, set high expectations, and give their people room to become remarkable. — Seth Godin

One way to become creative is to discipline yourself to generate bad ideas. The worse the better. Do it a lot and magically you'll discover that some good ones slip through. — Seth Godin

It's okay. Let your ego push you to be the initiator. But tell your ego that the best way to get something shipped is to let other people take the credit. The real win for you (and your ego) is seeing something get shipped, not in getting the credit when it does. — Seth Godin

Speak up. Not just tomorrow, but every day. — Seth Godin

It's easy to pretend expertise when there's no data to contradict you. — Seth Godin

We've been trained to prefer being right to learning something, to prefer passing the test to making a difference, and most of all, to prefer fitting in with the right people, the people with economic power. Now it's your turn to stand up and stand out. — Seth Godin

The myth that the CEO is going to discover you and nurture you and ask you to join her for lunch is just that, a Hollywood myth. — Seth Godin

Sometimes, we're so focused on being consistent that we also lower the bar on amazing. — Seth Godin

Part of leadership (a big part of it actually) is the ability to stick with the dream for a long time. — Seth Godin

The only purpose of starting is to finish, and while the projects we do are never really finished, they must ship. Shipping means hitting the publish button on your blog, showing a presentation to the sales team, answering the phone, selling the muffins, sending out your references. Shipping is the collision between your work and the outside world. — Seth Godin

The good news is that more than ever, value accrues to those that show up, those that make a difference, those that do work that matters. — Seth Godin

Habits like blogging often and regularly, writing down the way you think, being clear about what you think are effective tactics, ignoring the burbling crowd and not eating bacon. All of these are useful habits. — Seth Godin

It's much easier to spend a lot of time making your microphone louder than it is working on making your message more compelling. — Seth Godin

If I fail more than you do, I win. — Seth Godin

So great leaders don't try to please everyone. Great leaders don't water down their message in order to make the tribe a bit bigger. Instead, they realize that a motivated, connected tribe in the midst of a movement is far more powerful than a larger group could ever be. — Seth Godin

The power of this new era is simple: if you want to (need to, must!) lead, then you can. It's easier than ever and we need you. But if this isn't the right moment, if this isn't the right cause, then hold off. Generous and authentic leadership will always defeat the selfish efforts of someone doing it just because she can. — Seth Godin

Pain s the truth of art. Art is not a hobby or a pastime. It is the result of an internal battle royal, one between the quest for safety and the desire to matter. — Seth Godin

Gardens, not buildings
Great projects start out feeling like buildings. There are architects, materials, staff, rigid timelines, permits, engineers, a structure.
It works or it doesn't.
Build something that doesn't fall down. On time.
But in fact, great projects, like great careers and relationships that last, are gardens. They are tended, they shift, they grow. They endure over time, gaining a personality and reflecting their environment. When something dies or fades away, we prune, replant and grow again.
Perfection and polish aren't nearly as important as good light, good drainage and a passionate gardener.
By all means, build. But don't finish. Don't walk away.
Here we grow. — Seth Godin

An artist is someone who uses bravery, insight, creativity, and boldness to challenge the status quo. And an artist takes it personally. — Seth Godin

Human nature is to need a map. If you're brave enough to draw one, people will follow. — Seth Godin

Most people are searching for a path to success that is both easy and certain. Most paths are neither. — Seth Godin

By being remarkable, being genuine, you can be worth connecting with. And you don't have to have it figured out perfectly the first time - you can adjust. — Seth Godin

Which are you? ... competen t, inspiring, passionate, obsessed, provocative, impatient, hungry, driven, adoring, inspired, an artist, a genius, someone who cares ... ?
With all these remarkable, powerful, important options available to each of us, why do so many of us default to competent? — Seth Godin

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. — Seth Godin

If you can't sell to 1 in 1000, why market to a million? — Seth Godin

Your success is no longer about your ability to do what you are told, and do it well. — Seth Godin

Every revolution destroys the average middle first and most savagely. — Seth Godin

The future isn't so much about absorbing or tolerating change, it's about making change. — Seth Godin

The value we create is directly related to how much valuable information we can produce, how much trust we can earn, and how often we innovate. — Seth Godin

Marketing yourself to a new person often involves being charismatic, clever and quick-but most jobs and most relationships are about being consistent, persistent and brave. — Seth Godin

Your history of work is as important as the work you'll do tomorrow. — Seth Godin

Make enough mole hills, and eventually you will build a mountain. — Seth Godin

The current (educational) structure, which seeks low-cost uniformity that meets minimum standards, is killing our economy, our culture, and us. — Seth Godin

It turns out that the people who like their jobs the most are also the ones who are doing the best work, making the greatest impact, and changing the most. — Seth Godin

The secret to being wrong isn't to avoid being wrong! The secret is being willing to be wrong. The secret is realizing that wrong isn't fatal. — Seth Godin

Interruption Marketing was easy. Build a few ads, run them everywhere. Interruption Marketing was scalable. If you need more sales, buy more ads. Interruption Marketing was predictable. With experience, a mass marketer could tell how many dollars in revenue one more dollar in ad spending would generate. Interruption Marketing fit the command and control bias of big companies. It was totally controlled by the advertiser, with no weird side effects. — Seth Godin

It's almost impossible to have fun playing ping pong with someone who doesn't care, won't try or isn't any good. — Seth Godin

Insulate yourself ...
from anonymous angry people
Expose yourself to art you don't yet understand
Precisely measure the results that are important to you
Stay blind to the metrics that don't matter
Fail often
Ship
Lead, don't manage so much
Seek out uncomfortable situations
Make an impact on the people who matter to you
Be better at your baseline skills than anyone else
Copyedit less, invent more
Give more speeches
Ignore unsolicited advice — Seth Godin

When you set down the path to create art, whatever sort of art it is, understand that the path is neither short not easy. That means you must determine if the route is worth the effort. If it's not, dream bigger. — Seth Godin

I've found that giving gifts is transformative. It makes me better. It clarifies my thinking and allows me to do better work. — Seth Godin

Leaders have followers, managers have employees. Managers make widgets, leaders make change. — Seth Godin

If you are afraid to write or edit or assemble or disassemble, you are merely a spectator. And you are trapped, trapped by the instructions of those you've chosen to follow. Twenty people in the field and eighty thousand in the stands. The spectators are the ones who paid to watch, but it's the player on the field who are truly alive. — Seth Godin