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Bestselling author, Entrepreneur and Agent of change. Seth's blog can be found at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
November 2008
Sunday November 30, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:39AM EST on November 30, 2008
In 2000, I invented a gadget called RadaR. Fred Wilson told me that I was ahead of my time, and he was right. RadaR.com was a hardware/internet hybrid that could eliminate boatloads of traffic (and frustration). The idea is this:...
Saturday November 29, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:28AM EST on November 29, 2008
If you want to avoid being stuck with inventory or downtime during a recession, you might profit from realizing that people tell themselves a different story when they go to buy something. During good times, we wonder, "can I get...
Friday November 28, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 7:04AM EST on November 28, 2008
IWantSandy is folding, as are a number of web companies. So is that restaurant you loved down the street. Users are outraged. Outraged! When you find a service or establishment or product that gives you joy, it's tempting to keep...
Thursday November 27, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 7:48AM EST on November 27, 2008
This has always been my favorite holiday. No gifts, no guilt, no doctrine. For me, the holiday celebrates people who contribute with no expectation of anything in return. Online, the rules are no different. There are plenty of people typing...
Wednesday November 26, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 3:55PM EST on November 26, 2008
The decisions you make with your hard-earned money this year will have more impact than ever before. So put your money where your mouth is. Here are a few ideas to consider:1. Buy handmade items from people you like. 2....
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:16AM EST on November 26, 2008
A quick look at the list of the 'top' blogs in the world will show you that almost all of them are written by teams of people. There isn't one in the top 10 that's personal. The best way to...
Tuesday November 25, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:09AM EST on November 25, 2008
A friend was telling me about some job interviews she went on. She enjoyed them. Of course she did, I thought. She was starring in a show, a show about her. I wrote about this five months ago, but it's...
Monday November 24, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 10:48AM EST on November 24, 2008
The KitchenAid tea kettle (adorned in bright Squidoo orange, of course) in my office melted, leaving hot orange plastic on my thumb. Yes, it hurts as much as you probably imagine it does. But that wasn't the worst part. I...
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:48AM EST on November 24, 2008
I typically write posts that are three to six paragraphs long. I try to be clear and direct. And yet, just about everything I write is misunderstood by someone. (Not the same someone, alas). They write to me and I...
Sunday November 23, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 8:25AM EST on November 23, 2008
Page by page, section by section, the influence of the New York Times is fading away. Great people on an important mission, but their footprint is shrinking and the company is losing stock value and cash and power and the...
Saturday November 22, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 1:19PM EST on November 22, 2008
What a bogus excuse. If you take a job, you've bought into what the company does. You're responsible. If you work for a company headed off a cliff, hey, you're going too. The fact that you're just doing your job...
Friday November 21, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 7:00AM EST on November 21, 2008
I was in Detroit last week... I have family there. I also drive a car. And I would rather that the world doesn't melt and the economy thrive. So I'm uniquely qualified to weigh in on the automobile industry. Not...
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:53AM EST on November 21, 2008
If you're a signed in user of Google, you'll notice the most significant change in search since their launch. You can now interact with search results, wiki style. You can vote them up or down and leave comments. And they...
Thursday November 20, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:40AM EST on November 20, 2008
Make money: not by building an internet company, but by using the net as a tool to create value and get paid. Use the internet as a tool, not as an end. Do it when you are part of a...
Wednesday November 19, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:50AM EST on November 19, 2008
Why do banks spend so much money on marble lobbies, high ceilings and yes, $400 million to name a baseball stadium? Why do marketers buy TV ads that don't increase sales in the short run? Why have a receptionist and...
Tuesday November 18, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:14PM EST on November 18, 2008
[This post is cynical. You've been warned.] If you think that's a friend of yours on twitter, don't be so sure. If you wonder why your boss sent such an insane email to you, don't be so sure. If you...
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:38AM EST on November 18, 2008
You hear yourself saying: "First, let me apologize for the lighting. We tried very hard to make the screen brighter, but we failed. Before I start, I want to thank seventeen people by name... Now, on this third slide, we...
Monday November 17, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 1:52PM EST on November 17, 2008
That's the current motto of the folks over at Motrin. There's been a ton of buzz the last two days about a botched ad campaign they ran, but this post isn't really about that. It's about being a human being...
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:15AM EST on November 17, 2008
I had lunch (a big lunch) with a college student last week. An hour later, she got up and announced she was going to get a snack. Apparently, she was hungry. By any traditional definition of the word, she wasn't...
Sunday November 16, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:53AM EST on November 16, 2008
Dozens of volunteers, working together, put together this ebook: Download TribesQA.pdf Yours to share or print or email, but please don't sell it or change it. Not only is there a juicy insight on every page, but I'm comfortable saying...
Saturday November 15, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:21AM EST on November 15, 2008
If not, what are you doing about it? If so, who do you think you're kidding? [Interesting side alley: I was talking to a friend yesterday and encouraged her to speak at an upcoming conference. She said, "No way. I...
Friday November 14, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 2:03PM EST on November 14, 2008
Scott reminded me of this post today. If you've been waiting for an opportunity, this might just be the opportunity you've been waiting for.
Posted by: Seth Godin at 7:22AM EST on November 14, 2008
Every one of them leads a tribe. Boingboing readers recognize each other at conferences. We use the same shorthand, we recognize the same memes. Huffingtonpost editors don't try to reach everyone. Instead, they are hosting a digital cocktail party for...
Thursday November 13, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 4:53AM EST on November 13, 2008
You probably don't need to read this, but I bet you know people who do. Please feel free to repost or forward: Times are tough, and many say they are going to be tougher. That makes some people more focused,...
Wednesday November 12, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 1:41PM EST on November 12, 2008
Rama wrote in and asked why I mentioned this. What's so hard about selling advertising to bar owners, and what can we learn from that? My answer: 1. they're not eager to buy new stuff (like ads) 2. they don't...
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:06AM EST on November 12, 2008
Number one rule for avoiding alligator attacks: Don't swim in bodies of water containing large alligators. Of course, sometimes the thing you want is on the other side of that body of water. If so, don't complain, just swim fast.
Tuesday November 11, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 7:05AM EST on November 11, 2008
Traditional job requirements: show up, sober. Listen to the boss, lift heavy objects. Here's what I'd want if I were hiring a marketer: You're relentlessly positive. You can visualize complex projects and imagine alternative possible outcomes. It's one thing to...
Monday November 10, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:12AM EST on November 10, 2008
What can you assume about your audience? If you're running a commercial, sending out a sales letter, making a presentation--what have they seen? What do they know? A hundred years ago, when people when to see live music, the expectation...
Sunday November 9, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 8:53AM EST on November 9, 2008
One of the best lines of Animal House, sanitized here for your enjoyment: "You screwed up. You trusted me." In a world where everyone owns a media channel, I guess that makes us all journalists. Journalists have more power than...
Saturday November 8, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 8:42AM EST on November 8, 2008
Every company that works online today ought to consider hiring three amazing people to lead these projects: COMMUNITY ORGANIZER. Find and connect and lead a tribe of dedicated users that contribute to and benefit from the work you do. STATS...
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:56AM EST on November 8, 2008
This map from the New York Times is eye opening. It shows the counties that recorded an increase in Republican voting. That is, counties with more Republican votes than in the close re-election campaign George W. Bush ran. Judging from...
Friday November 7, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:41AM EST on November 7, 2008
Doing 4% less does not get you 4% less. Doing 4% less may very well get you 95% less. That's because almost good enough gets you nowhere. No sales, no votes, no customers. The sad lie of mediocrity is the...
Thursday November 6, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:40AM EST on November 6, 2008
Most hiring managers don't understand organizations that go to extraordinary lengths to find and retain amazing people. And from their point of view, they're completely correct. Pay market wage, run a classified, process the resumes. Done. It only takes 10%...
Wednesday November 5, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:38AM EST on November 5, 2008
Your customers and employees and investors will remember how you treated them when times were tough, when they needed a break, when a little support meant everything. No one in particular will remember how you acted during the boom times.
Tuesday November 4, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:26AM EST on November 4, 2008
The polls open in a few minutes, and unlike pundits that wait until after the polls have closed, I thought I'd do the opposite. It's obvious that this is the most talked about election in the history of the world,...
Monday November 3, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 12:55PM EST on November 3, 2008
Micah points us to the Twitter Vote Report. If you see something, say something. The transformation of communication is real, it's permanent and it's more powerful than most of us notice.
Posted by: Seth Godin at 9:07AM EST on November 3, 2008
Most knowledge workers spend their day doing one of three things: React (badly) to external situations Respond (well) to external inputs Initiate new events or ideas Zig taught me the difference between the first two. When you react to a...
Sunday November 2, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 7:40AM EST on November 2, 2008
Wealth is not created by financial manipulation, the trading of equities or the financing of banks. They just enable it. Wealth is created by productivity. Productive communities generate more of value. Productivity comes from innovation. Innovation comes from investment and...
Saturday November 1, 2008
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:26AM EST on November 1, 2008
"He can't be a man because he doesn't smoke [syncopated pause] the same cigarette as me." When your product becomes the badge for a tribe, you sell a lot of products. The Stones don't mean "a man" in the sense...
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