“Most of all, are you mis­nam­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and call­ing them risks instead?” ~~Seth Godin

Let’s start the coalition of Yes!

This is a very powerful concept. It seems some days, we do live in a culture of No. I don’t want to live there. I want to be able to be able to say yes. Let’s start the coalition of Yes!!

It’s easy to join.

There are a million reasons to say no, but few reasons to stand up and say yes.

No requires just one objection, one defensible reason to avoid change. No has many allies–anyone who fears the future or stands to benefit from the status quo. And no is easy to say, because you actually don’t even need a reason.

No is an easy way to grab power, because with yes comes responsibility, but no is the easy way to block action, to exert the privilege of your position to slow things down.

No comes from fear and greed and, most of all, a shortage of openness and attention. You don’t have to pay attention or do the math or role play the outcomes in order to join the coalition that would rather things stay as they are (because they’ve chosen not to do the hard work of imagining how they might be).

And yet the coalition of No keeps losing. We live in a world of yes, where possibility and innovation and the willingness to care often triumph over the masses that would rather it all just quieted down and went back to normal.

Yes is the new normal. And just in time.

via Seth’s Blog: The coalition of No.

“The stress we have over change is completely wasted.” ~~Seth Godin

The only standard is impermanence.

It’s very easy to believe that the world we live in has always been this way.

Your ethnic group has always had a similar standing.

Technology has always permitted certain kinds of interactions and is always improving.

Real estate values always rise from decade to decade. (Until they didn’t).

A job has always been the standard way to make a living.

Your chosen religion has always been practiced the way you practice it.

People in positions of authority and leverage have always had degrees from famous colleges.

Information has always been widely available.

As soon as you accept that just about everything in our created world is only a few generations old, it makes it a lot easier to deal with the fact that the assumptions we make about the future are generally wrong, and that the stress we have over change is completely wasted.

~~Seth Godin

“Trust exeperienced is remarkable, trustiness once discovered leaves a bad taste in your mouth.” ~~Seth Godin

“The pupose of an elevator pitch is to describe a solution so compelling that the person wants to hear more even after the ride is over.” ~~Seth Godin

“We need a lot more failures. Failures that don’t kill us make us bolder.” ~~Seth Godin

“Remarkable work often comes from making choices when everyone else feels as though there is no choice.” ~~Seth Godin

I agree with Seth. We have a choice. It may be tough. We may not want to make it. We may want to avoid it. But … we have a choice and we should make it. Seeing it any other way leads down the “victim road” to ruin.

No choice -Seth’s Blog

“I had no choice, I just couldn’t get out of bed.”

“I had no choice, it was the best program I could get into.”

“I had no choice, he told me to do it…”

Really?

It’s probably more accurate to say, “the short-term benefit/satisfaction/risk avoidance was a lot higher than anything else, so I chose to do what I did.”

Remarkable work often comes from making choices when everyone else feels as though there is no choice. Difficult choices involve painful sacrifices, advance planning or just plain guts.

Saying you have no choice cuts off all options, absolves responsibility and is the dream killer.

“A decision without tradeoffs isn’t a decision. The art of good decision making is looking forward to and celebrating the tradeoffs, not pretending they don’t exist” ~~Seth Godin

One at a time

Some good insight from Seth Godin. We are constantly looking for the big breakthrough or preparing for the worst disaster. I hear some friends say “Hope for the best; prepare for the worst”. It seems that is to some extent, ingrained in us. Not sure why. There is another way.

That’s what we spend most of our time doing. The breakthrough speech that will change everything, or the giant insight that opens every door. We fret about the apocalyptic ending, the big crash, the slam climax as well.

Of course, it almost never happens that way.

Products and services succeed one person at a time, as the word slowly spreads. Customers defect one person at a time, as hearts are broken and people are disappointed. Doors open, sure, but not all at once. One at a time.

One at a time is a little anticlimactic and difficult to get in a froth over, but one at a time is how we win and how we lose.

“More time on the problem isn’t the way. More guts is.” ~~Seth Godin

“More time on the problem isn’t the way. More guts is. When you expose yourself to the opportunities that scare you, you create something scarce, something others won’t do.” ~~Seth Godin

Lifetime value of a customer/cost per customer

In the world of marketing and the customer experience, there are two things worth knowing. Do we know the answers? If not, we should. Seth Godin nails them both.

Two things every business and non-profit needs to know:

• How much does it cost you to get one new customer?
• On average, what’s that customer worth over the relationship you have with her?

The internet revolutionizes both sides of the equation.

For more, read Seth’s Blog: Lifetime value of a customer/cost per customer

 

“Busy does not equal important. Measured doesn’t mean mattered.” ~~Seth Godin

Why wait?

This is such a great question. Why wait? Seriously. Why wait? Seth says it well. Speed can make a difference.

If you’re on the critical path, if someone is waiting for your contribution, ship now.

We have deadlines for a reason, but the key word is ‘dead’. In fact, you don’t have to wait for the deadline or get anywhere near it, especially if you want to speed things up.

Seth’s Blog: Why wait?

Great technology organization charts

You have to love this funny chart but also Seth Godin’s great questions in his blog.

Is it because it was built when geography mattered more than it does now? Is it an artifact of a business that had a factory at its center? Does the org chart you live with every day leverage your best people or does it get in their way?

Difficult conversations

Seth Godin has some pretty good thoughts on difficult conversations, whether work or personal. We know it but we need to do it. If it is going to be difficult, do it face to face.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/07/difficult-conversations-at-wor.html

When technology and tradition diverge

When technology and tradition diverge

Seth’s Blog

What be the effect on voting patterns if we used digital technology to announce the current vote tally every hour (or every hundred votes).

People would see the direction an election was going and be more likely to be pulled in. Voter attention and ultimately voter involvement would go up, and fraud would be more difficult. I’m well aware this is a fairly lame variation, there’s actually a million interesting alternatives, I just picked a simple one.

A post-industrial A to Z digital battledore

Seth Godin
A post-industrial A to Z digital battledore
New times demand new words, because the old words don’t help us see the world differently.

Along the way, I’ve invented a few, and it occurs to me that sometimes I use them as if you know what I’m talking about. Here, with plenty of links, are 26 of my favorite neologisms (the longest post of the year, probably):

A is for Artist: An artist is someone who brings humanity to a problem, who changes someone else for the better, who does work that can’t be written down in a manual. Art is not about oil painting, it’s about bringing creativity and insight to work, instead of choosing to be a compliant cog. (from Linchpin).

Being first

The cost of being first is higher than it’s ever been…

It’s entirely possible that you’re racing.

Racing to the market with a new product or a news story or a decision or an innovation. The race keeps getting faster, doesn’t it?

Perfect Problems

Seth Godin tells me that he only problems I have left are the perfect ones. The imperfect ones, the ones with a clearly evident solution, well, if they were important, I would have solved them already.

It’s the perfect problems that keep me stuck.

Self marketing might be the most important kind

I know that marketers tell stories. We tell them to clients, prospects, bosses, suppliers, partners and voters. If the stories resonate and spread and seduce, then we succeed.