Seth godin quotes

Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don't need to escape from.

Change is not a threat, it's an opportunity. Survival is not the goal, transformative success is.

Set a goal, and in small, consistent steps, work to reach it. Get support from your peers when you start flagging. Repeat. You will change.

Ideas that spread win.

There's a huge difference between being a replaceable cog on the assembly line and being the one who is missed, the one with a unique contribution, the one who made a difference.

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

Figure out the people part and the technology gets a whole lot simpler.

The best way to be missed when you're gone is to stand for something when you're here.

You have everything you need to build something far bigger than yourself.

If I fail more than you do, I win.

Not adding value is the same as taking it away.

People talking about you is far more effective than talking about yourself.

What are you working on? If someone asks you that, are you excited to tell them the answer? If you're not, you're wasting away.

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

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.

The big win is when you refuse to settle for average or mediocre.

If you wait until you are ready, it is almost certainly too late.

If it's worth listening to, it's worth questioning until you understand it.

Be bold, make mistakes, learn a lesson, and fix what doesn't work.

People are buying only one thing from you: the way the engagement (hiring you, working with you, dating you, using your product or service, learning from you) makes them feel.

If you take action, you will be judged. There's no way around it. The alternative, of course, is much safer. To be ignored. Up to you.

If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try.

Connect, create meaning, make a difference, matter, be missed.

The problem with taking offense is that it's really hard to figure out what to do with it after you're done using it. Better to just leave it on the table and walk away. Umbrage untaken quietly disappears.

The universal truth is beyond question-the only people who excel are those who have decided to do so.

People watch what you do more than listen to what you say.

Choices lead to habits. Habits become talents. Talents are labeled gifts. You’re not born this way, you get this way.

A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.

If you try to delight the undelightable, you've made yourself miserable for no reason.

Earn trust, earn trust, earn trust. Then you can worry about the rest.

Teaching young people to sell is a priceless gift.

People don't believe what you tell them. They rarely believe what you show them. They often believe what their friends tell them. They always believe what they tell themselves.

Own your dreams. There is no better way to make them happen.

Optimism is the most important human trait, because it allows us to evolve our ideas, to improve our situation, and to hope for a better tomorrow.

Quit or be exceptional. Average is for losers.

Your audacious life goals are fabulous. We're proud of you for having them. But it's possible that those goals are designed to distract you from the thing that's really frightening you--the shift in daily habits that would mean a re-invention of how you see yourself.

Make a decision. It doesn't have to be a wise decision or a perfect one. Just make one.

As you've probably discovered, great work makes us uncomfortable.

You can listen to what people say, sure. But you will be far more effective if you listen to what people do.

People who make a difference never wait for just the right time. They know that it will never arrive.

Just about anything worth doing is worth doing better.

So much easier to aim for the smallest possible audience, not the largest, to build long-term value among a trusted, delighted tribe, to create work that matters and stands the test of time.

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

It's not an accident that successful people read more books.

Don't find customers for your products, find products for your customers.

The only thing worse than starting something and failing... is not starting something.

Every great company, brand, career has been built in exactly the same way: bit by bit, step by step, little by little.

When we intentionally seek out the difficult tasks, we're much more likely to actually create value.

The first step toward becoming extraordinary is, of course, to stop being ordinary.

The job isn't to catch up to the status quo; the job is to invent the status quo.

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

There's nothing wrong with having a plan. Plans are great. But missions are better. Missions survive when plans fail, and plans almost always fail.

Somewhere in the world, someone is doing something that you decided couldn't be done.

People rarely buy what they need. They buy what they want.

Remarkable visions and genuine insights are always met with resistance.

One theory says that if you treat people well, you're more likely to encourage them to do what you want, making all the effort pay off. Do this, get that. Another one, which I prefer, is that you might consider treating people with kindness merely because you can. Regardless of what they choose to do in response, this is what you choose to do. Because you can.

If we can fall in love with serving people, creating value, solving problems, building valuable connections and doing work that matters, it makes it far more likely we're going to do important work

Leadership is scarce because few people are willing to go through the discomfort required to lead. This scarcity makes leadership valuable...It's uncomfortable to stand up in front of strangers. It's uncomfortable to propose an idea that might fail. It's uncomfortable to challenge the status quo. It's uncomfortable to resist the urge to settle...If you're not uncomfortable in your work as a leader, it's almost certain you're not reaching your potential as a leader.

The best time to start promoting your book is three years before it comes out. Three years to build a reputation, build a permission asset, build a blog, build a following, build credibility and build the connections you'll need later.

Plans are great, but missions are better.

A big part of doing your work is defending your time and your attention so you can do your work.

Successful people are successful for one simple reason: they think about failure differently.

If you can raise money, you're never going to have trouble getting a job.

There's a big difference between not settling and not starting.

We're all born creative, it takes a little while to become afraid.

Persistence isn't using the same tactics over and over. Persistence is having the same goal over and over.

The cost of being wrong is less than the cost of doing nothing.

The instinct to produce great work doesn't require a fancy notebook.

It's never too late to start heading in the right direction.

Do you believe in what you do? Every day? It turns out that belief happens to be a brilliant strategy.

We are leaving the industrial economy and entering the connection economy.

Fitting in is a short-term strategy that gets you nowhere. Standing out is a long-term strategy that takes guts and produces results.

You can raise the bar or you can wait for others to raise it, but it's getting raised regardless.

There's no shortage of remarkable ideas, what's missing is the will to execute them.

You can't have good ideas unless you're willing to generate a lot of bad ones.

People are not afraid of failure, they're afraid of blame.

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.

Forgive yourself for not being the richest, the thinnest, the tallest, the one with the best hair. Forgive yourself for not being the most successful, the cutest or the one with the fastest time. Forgive yourself for not winning every round. Forgive yourself for being afraid. But don’t let yourself off the hook, never forgive yourself, for not caring or not trying.

Your generosity is more important than your perfection.

Don’t be different just to be different. Be different to be better.

It will take you less time and effort to do a thing the difficult way than it will to buy, try and discard all the shortcuts.

Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.

Who you hang out with determines what you dream about and what you collide with. And the collisions and the dreams lead to your changes. And the changes are what you become. Change the outcome by changing your circle.

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

The job is not your work; what you do with your heart and soul is the work.

Set up a life you don't need to escape from.

Ideas in secret die. They need light and air or they starve to death.

Art isn't only a painting. Art is anything that is creative, passionate and personal. Art is the unique work of a human being created to touch another. Art is created to have an impact, to change someone else.

Positive thinking is hard. Worth it, though.

Before you tell yourself you have no right to invent this or improve that, remind yourself that the person before you had no right either, but did it anyway.

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

Measurement is fabulous. Unless you're busy measuring what's easy to measure as opposed to what's important

Your drudgery is another person's delight. It's only a job if you treat it that way. The privilege to do our work, to be in control of the promises we make and the things we build, is something worth cherishing.

You have brilliance in you, your contribution is valuable, and the art you create is precious. Only you can do, and you must.

Either you defend the status quo, or you invent the future.

Organizations that destroy the status quo win. Whatever the status quo is, changing it gives you the opportunity to be remarkable.

Getting picked is fine if it happens to you. But it's not a plan. It's a version of waiting and hoping.

In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is a failure. In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.

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

I define anxiety as experiencing failure in advance.

Life is like skiing. Just like skiing, the goal is not to get to the bottom of the hill. It's to have a bunch of good runs before the sun sets.

The people who are good in the long run fail a lot, especially at the beginning. So, when you fail early, it might be worth realizing that this is part of the deal, the price you pay for being good in the long run. Every rejection is a gift. A chance to learn and to do it better next time. An opportunity to figure out how to bounce, not break. Don't waste them.

Loving what you do is almost as important as doing what you love, especially if you need to make a living at it.

Good marketers tell a story.

Just about every great, brave or beautiful thing in our culture was created by someone who didn't do it for money.

If not enough people doubt you, you're not making a difference.

All motivation is self-motivation. Your family, your boss, or your co-workers can try to get your engine going, but until you decide what to accomplish, nothing will happen.

In the long run, doing work that's important leads to more happiness than doing work that's merely profitable.

Most people with a big idea, great talent and/or something to say don't get lucky at first. Or second. Or even third. It's so easy to conclude that if you're not lucky, you're not good. So persistence becomes an essential element of good, because without persistence, you never get a chance to get lucky.

Communication is the transfer of emotion.

You win by trying. And failing. Test, try, fail, measure, evolve, repeat, persist.

You dont need to convince everyone. All you need to do is motivate people who choose to follow you.

How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be remarkable?

Making promises and keeping them is a great way to build a brand.

Please stop waiting for a map. We reward those who draw maps, not those who follow them.

Just because the tide is out, doesn't mean there is less water in the ocean.

If you treat your employees like mushrooms (keep them in the dark and regularly throw crap on them), it's entirely likely you will get precisely the work you deserve in return.

Today, not starting is far, far worse than being wrong. If you start, you've got a shot at evolving and adjusting to turn your wrong into a right. But if you don't start, you never get a chance.

Keep starting until you finish.

The edge is a great place to be. Inside the box is too dark. Outside the box, there's no leverage. But on the edge of the box, you can get things done!

If you don't require the journey to be easy or comfortable or safe, you can change the world.

The key to success is to find a way to stand out--to be the purple cow in a field of monochrome Holsteins.

Human nature is to need a map. If you’re brave enough to draw one, people will follow.

One key to moving forward is knowing what to leave behind.

Don't waste time looking for a better pencil: learn to write better.