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Bestselling author, Entrepreneur and Agent of change. Seth's blog can be found at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
December 2009
Thursday December 31, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:23AM EST on December 31, 2009
A friend worried out loud to me the other day, "I spent the last seven months doing this [job] and I have nothing to show for it. If I had known I would have spent seven months and gotten nothing,...
Wednesday December 30, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:36AM EST on December 30, 2009
For most products and services, most of the time, people sign up for the Cheapest Reliable Alternative Plan. If everything appears to be the same, then of course they're going to pick the cheapest one that's good enough. In the...
Tuesday December 29, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:50AM EST on December 29, 2009
Here's a positive step to avoid the faceless bureaucracy that wants to take over your organization: Every new rule needs to be associated with one and only one person who is willing to stand up for it and explain it...
Monday December 28, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:03AM EST on December 28, 2009
If you want to know if a ship is going to sink, watch what the richest passengers do. iTunes and file sharing killed Tower Records. The key symptom: the best customers switched. Of course people who were buying 200 records...
Sunday December 27, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:25AM EST on December 27, 2009
Let's try a thought experiment: A flying saucer comes to Earth, destroys a major city to get our attention, then announces that in 10,000 years it is coming back to destroy the Earth. In order to eliminate any doubt, it...
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:10AM EST on December 27, 2009
The great brands of our time are not about what they are. They are about what they represent. Apple, Sarah Palin, Harley Davidson, Tom's Shoes... In each case, the reality of the product means far less than what the brand...
Saturday December 26, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:47AM EST on December 26, 2009
Yesterday's Times features a blog post about the Kindle. There's a lot wrong with the post (which hopefully has been corrected by the time you read this) and I thought I'd point out two useful lessons. Nick Bilton, the author...
Friday December 25, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:06AM EST on December 25, 2009
If the tooth fairy didn't exist, we'd probably have to invent her. Perfect fable for that moment. What would you say to your kid when he lost a tooth if there wasn't a tooth fairy legend? Kwanzaa is only 43...
Thursday December 24, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:35AM EST on December 24, 2009
Bob wonders if there's a difference. I'm pretty sure there is. Hiring is what you do when you let the world know that you're accepting applications from people looking for a job. Recruiting is the act of finding the very...
Wednesday December 23, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:46AM EST on December 23, 2009
Kevin Kelly really changed our thinking with his post about 1,000 true fans. But what if you're not an artist or a musician? Is there a business case for this? I think the ability to find and organize 1,000 people...
Tuesday December 22, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:41AM EST on December 22, 2009
I just set up a friend's PC. I haven't done that in a while. Wow. Apparently, a computer is now not a computer, it's an opportunity to upsell you. First, the setup insisted (for my own safety) that I sign...
Monday December 21, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:40AM EST on December 21, 2009
A few people are afraid of good ideas, ideas that make a difference or contribute in some way. Good ideas bring change, that's frightening. But many people are petrified of bad ideas. Ideas that make us look stupid or waste...
Sunday December 20, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:09AM EST on December 20, 2009
Many brands want deep and long-lasting relationships with their customers. Social media makes these interactions even more likely, because it encourages customers to speak up and to connect. The fallacy is believing that whining equals intimacy. It doesn't. Whining and...
Saturday December 19, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:07AM EST on December 19, 2009
A friend is building a skating rink. Unfortunately, he started with uneven ground and the water keeps ending up on one side of the rink. Water's like that, and you need a lot of time and power and money if...
Friday December 18, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:20AM EST on December 18, 2009
When you're trying to sell your idea, it's natural to assume that the people you're selling to think the way you do. If you can only show them the facts and stories that led you to believe what you believe,...
Thursday December 17, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:16AM EST on December 17, 2009
If your boss asks you to move a box from point a to point b, it's probably not okay to say, "I don't feel like it right now." If you work on the chain gang and it's time to dig...
Wednesday December 16, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 2:22PM EST on December 16, 2009
I'm doing a live presentation on the morning of January 15th in New York. The low price for general admission is basically the retail price of the new book, and we're giving ticket buyers a copy of the book as...
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:35AM EST on December 16, 2009
It's far easier to mix up a Rubik's cube than to solve one. People are often paid to enforce compliance. The job is to ensure that everything is in its place, that errors are zero, that things are delivered on...
Tuesday December 15, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:11AM EST on December 15, 2009
Who are you trying to please? What are you promising? How much money are you trying to make? How much freedom are you willing to trade for opportunity? What are you trying to change? What do you want people to...
Monday December 14, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:14AM EST on December 14, 2009
If you read the previous post this morning, you saw tons of links, many from some of the smartest people I know. And too many were broken (they're all fixed now... click through to see the accurate list, which I'll...
Posted by: Seth Godin at 4:59AM EST on December 14, 2009
Now, more than ever, we need to shake things up. Now, more than ever, we need a different way of thinking, a useful way to focus and the energy to turn the game around. I hope a new ebook I've...
Sunday December 13, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 4:57AM EST on December 13, 2009
A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another. If the consumer (whether it’s a business, a buyer, a voter or a...
Saturday December 12, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 11:31AM EST on December 12, 2009
Here it is. Alas, it doesn't work for groups, won't even let you share a username. That's what we need. Everyone on your team adds items, everyone can cross off items. Go. Maybe next revision. In the meantime, it's so...
Posted by: Seth Godin at 7:03AM EST on December 12, 2009
You can find the traffic of a popular website (and compare it to another site) by entering the URL into compete.com. Or quantcast. This data is far more accurate than the charts Alexa offers, because most of the sites being...
Friday December 11, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:03AM EST on December 11, 2009
1966: NBC, CBS and ABC decided what I did every night at 8 pm. Today: are you still ceding control to others? It's easy to allow 'them' to dictate how (and how often) you friend or post or follow or...
Thursday December 10, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 4:17PM EST on December 10, 2009
Status quo seekers in publishing are now talking about delaying Kindle and other ebook editions of their new books. The idea would be to come out with a hardcover, then a few months later an ebook, then a year later...
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:22AM EST on December 10, 2009
It's a process, not an event. Dating is a process. So is losing weight, being a public company and building a brand. On the other hand, putting up a trade show booth is an event. So are going public and...
Wednesday December 9, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:36AM EST on December 9, 2009
Here's one way businesses can profit from a social media presence: Make it easy to get hurt. If you're in a low trust industry (like car sales), a social media presence dramatically increases the opportunity people have to call you...
Tuesday December 8, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:16AM EST on December 8, 2009
If you ask one hundred people to do a task (particularly one that involves following instructions or using a computer or both), figure that two of them will mess it up. It doesn't matter if you use ALL CAPITAL LETTERS....
Monday December 7, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:23AM EST on December 7, 2009
If we're in the idea business, how to protect those ideas? One way is to misuse trademark law. With the help of search engines, greedy lawyers who charge by the letter are busy sending claim letters to anyone who even...
Sunday December 6, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:46AM EST on December 6, 2009
Can you imagine how difficult it was to sell the jalapeño when it came over from the new world? "What's it like?" you'd be asked. Well, it's like a pepper (of course, it wasn't. Black pepper is dried and tastes...
Saturday December 5, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:41AM EST on December 5, 2009
Do you really expect that the first time we transact, it will involve me giving you money in exchange for a product or service? Perhaps this is a good strategy for a pretzel vendor on the street, but is that...
Friday December 4, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 11:04AM EST on December 4, 2009
You never cease to amaze me. Just 48 hours after launching a review copy fundraiser for Acumen Fund, we have crossed the goal of raising $100,000. People gave far more than the minimum, which delighted but didn't surprise me. I'm...
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:29AM EST on December 4, 2009
Often, someone will riff on a concept or approach that characterizes the revolution that we're living through online, and heads will nod. "Sure, that sounds great [insert idea here... like Free, or social media or permission or ideaviruses or empowered...
Thursday December 3, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:01AM EST on December 3, 2009
What if your organization or your client has done nothing? What if they've just watched the last fourteen years go by? No real website, no social media, no permission assets. What if now they're ready and they ask your advice?...
Wednesday December 2, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 10:00AM EST on December 2, 2009
There used to be one hundred people who mattered. That's true in a lot of industries, but particularly in books. One hundred people who could make a book a hit. These were key buyers at bookstores, reviewers and editors at...
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:46AM EST on December 2, 2009
As a client, your job isn’t to be innovative. Your job is to foster innovation. Big difference. Fostering innovation is a discipline, a profession in fact. It involves making difficult choices and causing important things to get shipped out the...
Tuesday December 1, 2009
Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:22AM EST on December 1, 2009
You should be careful about headlines. It's pretty easy to write a headline that will get someone to forgive your spam, and perhaps even to open your note (CyberMonday! 85% off...). It's pretty easy to write a headline that will...
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