Top 931 Quotes & Sayings by Seth Godin - Page 3

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Your generosity is more important than your perfection.

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.

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

The opportunity of a lifetime is to pick yourself. Quit waiting to get picked; quit waiting for someone to give you permission; quit waiting for someone to say you are officially qualified... and pick yourself.

Selling to people who actually want to hear from you is more effective than interrupting strangers who don't.

Quit or be exceptional. Average is for losers.

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

Positive thinking is hard. Worth it, though.

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

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

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

A brand that stands for what all brands stand for stands for nothing much.

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

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

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.

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

I don't think we have any choice. I think we have an obligation to change the rules, to raise the bar, to play a different game, and to play it better than anyone has any right to believe is possible.

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

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.

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.

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

Teaching young people to sell is a priceless gift.

The world is begging for you to lead.

Playing safe is very risky.

Just about anything worth doing is worth doing better.

If you speak up online and your ideas have currency, people are going to show up and want to connect with you. What we need more of are people with the guts and emotional labour to do this. The greatest shortage in today's society is an instinct to produce.

Increasingly, there are only two kinds of companies: brave and dead.

Writing a book is a tremendous experience. It pays off intellectually. It clarifies your thinking. It builds credibility. It is a living engine of marketing and idea spreading, working every day to deliver your message with authority. You should write one.

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

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.

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

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

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

Good marketers tell a story.

More than anything else, I think prospects, customers and citizens watch what you do more than they listen to what you say.

The problem with the race to the bottom is that you might win

A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stores and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer's decision to choose one product or service over another.

Traditional sales and marketing involves increasing market shares, which means selling as much of your product as you can to as many customers as possible. One-to-one marketing involves driving for a share of customer, which means ensuring that each individual customer who buys your product buys more product, buys only your brand, and is happy using your product instead of another to solve his problem. The true, current value of any one customer is a function of the customer's future purchases, across all the product lines, brands, and services offered by you.

If you love writing or making music or blogging or any sort of performing art, then do it. Do it with everything you've got. Just don't plan on using it as a shortcut to making a living.

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!

The brand of the future...is patient, consistent, connected, and trusted. The new brand is based on the truth that only comes from experiencing the product, not just yelling about it. Word of mouth is more important (by a factor of 20) than TV advertising, and the remarkability word of mouth demands comes from what we experience, not from spin or taglines or a campaign slogan.

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

I see things differently when I'm focused on opening doors for other people, and more often than not, my doors are opened as well.

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

The question is not Will you succeed? but rather, Will you matter?

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

The librarian isn't a clerk who happens to work in a library. A librarian is a data hound, a guide, a sherpa and a teacher. The librarian is the interface between reams of data and the untrained but motivated user.

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

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

Ideas that spread win.

Not adding value is the same as taking it away.

Everyone has failed, everyone has misspoken, everyone has meant well but done the wrong thing. Your favorite restaurants, cafes and books have all gotten a one-star review along the way. No brand is perfect, no individual can pretend to be either. Perfect can't possibly be the goal, we're left with generous, important and human instead.

Art isn't only a painting. Art is anything that's creative, passionate, and personal. And great art resonates with the viewer, not only with the creator... Art is a personal gift that changes the recipient. The medium doesn't matter. The intent does. Art is a personal act of courage, something one human does that creates change in another.