|
Archives
Latest Entries
Links
  |
Bestselling author, Entrepreneur and Agent of change. Seth's blog can be found at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
October 2009
Saturday October 31, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:07AM EST on October 31, 2009
Because everyone else does. Why believe that people once put razor blades into apples and you should only eat wrapped candies? Because everyone else believes it (it's an urban legend). Most of what we believe is not a result of...
Friday October 30, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:21AM EST on October 30, 2009
Every year, tens of thousands of people die because organ donor status in the US is opt in. If you want to be an organ donor when you're dead, you need to go through steps now to opt in. The...
Thursday October 29, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:13AM EST on October 29, 2009
Wednesday October 28, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:49AM EST on October 28, 2009
Hint: you don't buy a future of money. People who win the lottery are almost always unhappy in the long run, and most of them continue to buy lottery tickets. It's not the destination, it's the journey. Same thing with...
Tuesday October 27, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:25AM EST on October 27, 2009
By 'better', of course I mean better customers, better prospects, better sneezers, better at spreading the word. Here are two interesting lessons from the book industry: Kindle readers buy two or three times as many books as book readers. Why?...
Monday October 26, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:18AM EST on October 26, 2009
Dunbar's number is 150. And he's not compromising, no matter how much you whine about it. Dunbar postulated that the typical human being can only have 150 friends. One hundred fifty people in the tribe. After that, we just aren't...
Sunday October 25, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:33AM EST on October 25, 2009
I don't know if this happens to you, but I'm noticing it more and more. Someone offers you a refund, or agrees to sell you something or even hires you to do a project, but then spend a lot of...
Saturday October 24, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 8:00AM EST on October 24, 2009
If you drive a fair amount and have an ipod, it's essential that you visit radiolab and see what they've been up to. You can easily (and for free) subscribe to their podcast in iTunes and listen to every one...
Friday October 23, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:02AM EST on October 23, 2009
The governor of New York faces an interesting choice. He can do the natural thing, the thing with momentum, the thing he's been trained to do his entire life: run for a full term. That involves raising a lot of...
Thursday October 22, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:25AM EST on October 22, 2009
That might be exactly the strategy you need to have an impact on the market. Consistent as in not stopping to say, "my turn." Persistent as in long-lasting, not as in annoyingly over the top. And with permission, because interacting...
Wednesday October 21, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:39AM EST on October 21, 2009
Diablo Cody on the pressure to outdo herself: So what kind of pressure did you feel, post-Juno, to write something good? None. I don't believe you. Seriously. How could I possibly? The experience that I had with Juno is something...
Tuesday October 20, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:02AM EST on October 20, 2009
I have no idea what it's like to be pregnant. And for most of us, we have no idea what it's like to have $3 to spend on a day's food, or $4,000,000 to spend on a jet. We have...
Monday October 19, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:19AM EST on October 19, 2009
The internet has amplified the volume of the true believers, the defenders of any faith. If you're into high end stereo, it's far easier to find strident voices in defense of $100,000 stereos than ever before. If you have strong...
Sunday October 18, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:16AM EST on October 18, 2009
At the farmer's market the other day, not one but three people (perfect strangers) asked me what sort of apple to buy. What do I look like, some sort of apple expert? Apparently. In our industrialized world, people are now...
Saturday October 17, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:41AM EST on October 17, 2009
If the new web has a mantra, that's it. So much time and effort is now put into finding followers, accumulating comments and generating controversy... all so that people will notice you. People say and do things that don't benefit...
Friday October 16, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:46AM EST on October 16, 2009
Any sufficiently overheated industry will eventually resemble high school. High school is filled with insecurity, social climbing, backbiting, false friends, faux achievements, high drama and not much content. Much of this insecurity comes from a market that doesn't make good...
Thursday October 15, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:11AM EST on October 15, 2009
Not only the networks of all political persuasions that come to mind, but the mindset they represent... When I was growing up, Eyewitness News always found a house on fire in South Buffalo. "Tonight's top story," Irv Weinstein would intone,...
Wednesday October 14, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:44AM EST on October 14, 2009
No successful web company (not eBay, Flickr, Amazon, Facebook...) succeeds because of a significant technological barrier to entry. It's not insanely difficult to copy what they've done. Yet they win and the copycats don't. Few organizations succeed in the long...
Tuesday October 13, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:36AM EST on October 13, 2009
It doesn't have to be a wise decision or a perfect one. Just make one. In fact, make several. Make more decisions could be your three word mantra. No decision is a decision as well, the decision not to decide....
Monday October 12, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:43AM EST on October 12, 2009
I haven't done a public seminar in six months or so. It's clearly time. All the details are here. There is one in New York City on November 19th and for the first time, a small roundtable session in my...
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:56AM EST on October 12, 2009
There are people who I will never encounter in a restaurant. That's because when these people go out for dinner, they go to chain restaurants. These are the tourists in New York who seek out the familiar Olive Garden instead...
Sunday October 11, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:36AM EST on October 11, 2009
A big car on a wet frozen lake goes nowhere. No traction, no motion. A small bug working its way across a gravel driveway takes forever. Too much friction, too little motion. If you're stuck, it's probably because one of...
Saturday October 10, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:04AM EST on October 10, 2009
Tom's Shoes continues to make a difference, combining an innovative business model with brilliant storytelling. Which leads to parodies, of course, which Tom's loves. Spread the word, share the story. If it's worth telling, it's worth parodying. When will we...
Friday October 9, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 4:59AM EST on October 9, 2009
You will never be out of work if you can demonstrably offer one of the following: Sales Additive effort Initiation Sales speaks for itself. If you can sell enough to cover what you cost and then some, there will always...
Thursday October 8, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:41AM EST on October 8, 2009
This is a question that defines the person asking it. It is very different from, "here's what you might need..." If you ask people for the next task on the list, if you allow them to define the thing they...
Wednesday October 7, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:54AM EST on October 7, 2009
[click picture to enlarge] Our Culture (high and popular) is usually created by people who are happy with the systems the world has given them. Magazine editors don't spend a lot of time wishing for better technology. Opera singers focus...
Tuesday October 6, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:41AM EST on October 6, 2009
I just went through the hassle of trying to get some B2B firms the details needed to give me an informed quote on a project. I visited eight sites. Six of them hide their email address. They use forms of...
Monday October 5, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:35AM EST on October 5, 2009
In the 260 weeks from 1966 to 1970, there were only thirteen musical acts responsible for every #1 album on the Billboard charts. In the 260 weeks that accounted for the first half of the 1970s, it was 26. (hat...
Sunday October 4, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:35AM EST on October 4, 2009
The long tail is real, but sometimes the longest parts reach underwater. When there's enough choices, it means that some things will never get picked. Charles Blow reports in the NY Times that: "A study last year conducted by members...
Saturday October 3, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 8:58AM EST on October 3, 2009
30,000,000 people suffer from sinusitis, making it the most popular (!) disease in the US. I've had it off and on for years. After much research, I'd like to share three tips: This book is the single best one on...
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:59AM EST on October 3, 2009
Jeff sent over this video, which I didn't know was online. It's almost two years old, and more informal (and a lot more self-focused) than my usual talks. In my presentations, I don't often go into detail about the tactics...
Friday October 2, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:42AM EST on October 2, 2009
Here are the two most common pleas I hear from marketers, "Our product is as remarkable as we can make it, and we're trying really hard and it's very important to us that people buy it, but despite our hard...
Thursday October 1, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:33AM EST on October 1, 2009
Just because someone offers you a lift, doesn't mean you have to take it. In a joint venture or possible business arrangement, it's reassuring when the other person offers to drive. "Leave it to me," they might say, or, "I'm...
|
