Top 931 Quotes & Sayings by Seth Godin - Page 2

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Communication is the transfer of emotion.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

I define anxiety as experiencing failure in advance.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Remarkable visions and genuine insights are always met with resistance.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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