And In A World Where We Have Too Many Choices And Too Little Time, The Obvious Thing To Do Is Just Ignore Stuff. And My Parable Here Is, You're Driving Down The Road And You See A Cow, And You Keep Driving 'cause You've Seen Cows Before. Cows Are Invisible. Cows Are Boring. Who's Going To Stop And Pull Over And Say, Oh, Look, A Cow? Nobody.

-Seth Godin

Please Wait....
Translating....

And In A World

Seth Godin

Topic

Obvious Things

Choices

Littles

More From Seth Godin

We Are Too Focused On Avoiding Criticism And Not Enough On Making A Difference.

Differences

Criticism

Making A Difference

Flexible In The Face Of Change, Resilient In The Face Of Confusion. All Of These Attributes Are Choices, Not Talents, And All Of Them Are Available To You.

Confusion

Choices

Faces

Ideas Aren't A Sideshow That Make Our Factory A Little More Valuable. Our Factory Is A Sideshow That Makes Our Ideas A Little More Valuable!

Ideas

Littles

Factories

Being Aware Of Your Fear Is Smart. Overcoming It Is The Mark Of A Successful Person.

Inspirational

Fear

Smart

The Big Win Is When You Refuse To Settle For Average Or Mediocre.

Winning

Average

Settling

You Have Brilliance In You, Your Contribution Is Valuable, And The Art You Create Is Precious. Only You Can Do, And You Must.

Art

Marketing

Brilliance

The Innovator Creates A Business Where They Are Making Money, Even When They Sleep.

Sleep

Making Money

Innovators

The World Is Begging For You To Lead.

World

Begging

In Contemporary Art Or Movies, It Makes Perfect Sense To Be Focused On The Bleeding Edge, On The New Idea That's Never Been Previously Contemplated. But When We're Discussing Our Goals, Our Passion And The Way We Interact With The Culture, It Seems To Me That What Works Is Significantly More Important Than What's New.

Art

Passion

Ideas

Instead Of Focusing On Arguing With People Who Say No, It Might Be Easier To Get Near The People Who Like To Say Yes.

People

Might

Arguing

Facts Are Irrelevant. What Matters Is What The Consumer Believes.

Believe

What Matters

Facts

The World Doesn't Owe You A Living, But Just When You Needed It, A Door Was Opened For You To Make A Difference.

Doors

Differences

Making A Difference

Your History Of Work Is As Important As The Work You'll Do Tomorrow.

Important

Tomorrow

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.

Book

Writing

Thinking

Caring, It Turns Out, Is A Competitive Advantage, And One That Takes Effort, Not Money.

Caring

Effort

Advantage

It's Uncomfortable To Resist The Urge To Settle.

Mediocrity

Settling

Status Quo

As You've Probably Discovered, Great Work Makes Us Uncomfortable.

Great Work

Uncomfortable

People That Take Responsibility Are Often Given Responsibility!

Responsibility

People

Taking Responsibility

Quality Is Not An Absolute Measure. It Doesn't Mean 'deluxeness' Or 'perfection'. It Means Keeping The Promise The Customer Wants You To Make.

Mean

Perfection

Promise

It Will Take You Less Time And Effort To Do A Thing The Difficult Way Than It Will To Buy, Try And Discard All The Shortcuts.

Effort

Trying

Way

It's Not An Accident That Successful People Read More Books.

Motivational

Success

Reading

If You're A Marketer Who Doesn't Know How To Invent, Design, Influence, Adapt, And Ultimately Discard Products, Then You're No Longer A Marketer. You're Deadwood.

Design

Marketing

Influence

Part Of Leadership (a Big Part Of It Actually) Is The Ability To Stick With The Dream For A Long Time.

Dream

Long

Sticks

Surprise And Differentiation Have Far More Impact Than Noise Does.

Impact

Doe

Differentiation

Great Projects, Like Great Careers And Relationships That Last, Are Gardens. They Are Tended, They Shift, They Grow. They Endure Over Time, Gaining A Personality And Reflecting Their Environment. When Something Dies Or Fades Away, We Prune, Replant And Grow Again.

Garden

Careers

Personality

Living With Doubt ... Is Almost Always More Profitable Than Living With Certainty. People Don't Like Doubt, So They Pay Money And Give Up Opportunities To Avoid It. Entrepreneurshi P Is Largely About Living With Doubt. If You Need Reassurance, You're Giving Up Quite A Bit To Get It. On The Other Hand, If You Can Get In The Habit Of Seeking Out Uncertainty, You'll Have Developed A Great Instinct.

Giving Up

Opportunity

Hands

Are You Copying Others? People Won't Pay Extra For That. You Won't Be Followed For That.

People

Copying

Pay

When We Intentionally Seek Out The Difficult Tasks, We're Much More Likely To Actually Create Value.

Tasks

Difficult

Difficult Tasks

Catering To The Passionate Is Exactly What You Should Do.

Passionate

Should

Catering

Go For The Edges. Challenge Yourself And Your Team To Describe What Those Edges Are, And Then Test Which Edge Is Most Likely To Deliver The Marketing Results You Seek.

Team

Challenges

Marketing

The Mirror We Hold Up To The Person Next To Us Is One Of The Most Important Pictures She Will Ever See.

Mirrors

Important

The Internet Has Opened The Door For Millions Of Businesses To Do Things Differently, Because There Are Other Assets Now, Assets That Can Transcend Location. Your Permission To Talk To Customers, Your Reputation, Your Unique Products-you Can Build A Business Around Them Online.

Unique

Doors

Location

Becoming A Superstar Takes About 10,000 Hours Of Hard Work.

Hard Work

Greatness

Becoming

You Can't Have Good Ideas Unless You're Willing To Generate A Lot Of Bad Ones.

Fear

Failure

Ideas

A Book Is A Souvenir Of An Idea.

Book

Ideas

Souvenirs

I Have Something To Say. I Know How To Do Something. I’m Doing It. If You Want Me To Do It With You, Raise Your Hand.

Hands

Want

Raises

Good Marketers Tell A Story.

Marketing

Stories

Marketers

Make More Decisions. That's The Only Way To Get Better At It.

Decision

Get Better

Way

Human Beings, Thanks To Culture And Genetics, Are Inclined To Be Pessimistic, Fearful, Skeptical And Believers In Conspiracy Theories. We Also Don't Like Change.

Culture

Pessimistic

Thanks

You Don't Need More Time In Your Day. You Need To Decide.

Needs

More Time

What I Mean By Art Is The Human Act Of Doing Something That Connects Us To Someone Else

Art

Mean

Art Is

Own Your Dreams. There Is No Better Way To Make Them Happen.

Dream

Way

Happens

The Thing Is, The Future Happens. Every Single Day, Like It Or Not. Sure, Tomorrow Is Risky, Frightening And In Some Way Represents One Step Closer To The End. But It Also Brings With It The Possibility Of Better And The Chance To Do Something That Matters.

Matter

Way

Steps

The Real Power Of Tribes Has Nothing To Do With The Internet And Everything To Do With People.

Real

People

Tribes

Just Saying Yes Because You Can't Bear The Short-term Pain Of Saying No Is Not Going To Help You Do The Work.

Pain

Choices

Saying Yes

In Nearly Every Case, Trying To Lead Everyone Results In Leading No One In Particular.

Authenticy In Marketing Is Telling A Story People Want To Hear.

People

Marketing

Stories

Sharing An Idea You Care About Is A Generous Way To Change Your World For The Better.

Ideas

World

Care

We Don't Become Mediocre All At Once, And We Rarely Do It On Purpose.

Entrepreneur

Purpose

Mediocre

Just Because Something Is Easy To Measure Doesn't Mean It's Important.

Motivational

Christian

Mean

No Niche Is Too Small If It's Yours.

Niche

Ifs

Just About Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Doing Better.

Anything Worth Doing

I Wonder If Real Art Comes When You Build The Thing That They Don't Have A Prize For Yet.

Art

Real

Wonder

I Believe That Uncertainty Is Really My Spirit's Way Of Whispering, I'm In Flux. I Can't Decide For You. Something Is Off-balance Here.

Believe

Choices

Balance

I Find That It's Almost Essential To Fall In Love With An Idea To Invest The Time It Takes To Make It Good And Worth Sharing. And Then, The Hard Part: Deleting That Idea When It's Just Not What It Could Be. Too Often, Organizations Are Good At The First Part, But Struggle With The Second. And So We Defend Expired Business Models, Support The Status Quo And Have A Knee-jerk Inclination To Preserve What We've Got.

Falling In Love

Struggle

Organization

I Made A Decision To Write For My Readers, Not To Try To Find More Readers For My Writing.

Writing

Decision

Trying

If It Were Any Other Way, It Would Be Easy. And If It Were Any Other Way, Everyone Would Do It And Your Work Would Ultimately Be Devalued. The Yin And Yang Are Clear: Without People Pushing Against Your Quest To Do Something Worth Talking About, It's Unlikely It Would Be Worth The Journey. Persist.

Journey

Talking

People

The Challenge Of Our Time Is To Find A Journey Worthy Of Your Heart And Your Soul.

Heart

Journey

Challenges

What People Want Is The Extra, The Emotional Bonus They Get When They Buy Something They Love.

Emotional

People

Marketing

Someone Can Always Do Your Job A Little Better Or Faster Or Cheaper Than You Can.

Jobs

Littles

Faster

Too Often, We Don't Give People The Opportunity To Fill In The Blanks.

Opportunity

People

Giving

Not Changing Your Strategy Merely Because You're Used To The One You Have Now Is A Lousy Strategy.

Strategy

Used

I Think If You're Remarkable, Amazing Or Just Plain Spectacular, You Probably Shouldn't Have A Resume At All.

Thinking

Resumes

Remarkable

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.

Alternatives

Up To You

Way

Say What You Believe And See Who Follows.

Believe

The Only Reason To Build A Website Is To Change Someone. If You Can't Tell Me The Change And You Can't Tell Me The Someone, Then You're Wasting Your Time.

Reason

Wasting Your Time

Website

Tell Your Lizard (brain) To Shut Up.

Brain

Lizards

Shut Up

More Than Anything Else, I Think Prospects, Customers And Citizens Watch What You Do More Than They Listen To What You Say.

Thinking

Watches

Citizens

A Business Owner Is The Boss, But It's A Job, A Place That Is Stable And Profitable. An Entrepreneur Is An Artist Of Sorts, Throwing His/herself Into Impossible Situations And Seeking Out Problems That Require Heart And Guts To Solve. Both Are Fine, But Choose.

Jobs

Heart

Artist

The Problem With Putting It All On The Line Is That It Might Not Work Out. The Problem With Not Putting It All On The Line Is That It Will Never (ever) Change Things For The Better. Not Much Of A Choice, I Think.

Thinking

Work Out

Choices

The Fatigue Was There, But Some People Understood That Putting It Aside Was The Single Most Important Factor In Succeeding.

Perseverance

Determination

People

There's No Shortage Of Remarkable Ideas, What's Missing Is The Will To Execute Them.

Motivational

Business

Ideas

You Can Raise The Bar Or You Can Wait For Others To Raise It, But It's Getting Raised Regardless.

Waiting

Bars

Mediocrity

Leadership Is A Choice. It's The Choice Not To Do Nothing.

Choices

I'll Confess That I Don't Watch The Olympics, But You'd Have To Be Living Under A Rock To Be Unaware Of The Corruption And The Expense. An Amorphous Organization With No Transparency, Unclear Lines Of Responsibility, Huge Amounts Of Politics And A Great Deal Of Unearned Power.

Responsibility

Rocks

Organization

Whining Isn't A Scalable Solution.

Whining

Solutions

How Often Do Our Heroes Stand Still? It's Hard To Imagine Spock And Kirk Landing On A Planet And Just Relaxing For A Month Or Two. Just Hanging Out Has Nothing To Do With Boldly Going Where No One Has Gone Before. What Makes Us Different From Every Other Creature Is That We Go Places, Places We've Not Gone Before. We Do It Willingly, And Often. What Makes Our Work And Our Life Interesting Is Discovery, Surprise, And The Risk Of Exploration.

Hero

Discovery

Two

Permission Marketing Turns Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Loyal Customers. It's Not Just About Entertainment - It's About Education. Permission Marketing Is Curriculum Marketing.

Educational

Loyal Customers

Marketing

Ideas In Secret Die. They Need Light And Air Or They Starve To Death.

Business

Light

Air

The Problem With Words Is That They Easily Lose Their Meaning. Say Something Often Enough And It Becomes A Tic, Not An Expression Of How You Actually Feel. Not Only That, But Words Rarely Change Things. Actions Do.

Expression

Action

Problem

Leading Is A Skill, Not A Gift. You're Not Born With It, You Learn How.

Skills

Born

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.

Running

Home

Ideas

What Evidence Would You Need To See To Change Your Mind About This?

Mind

Needs

Evidence

Gifts Are Not Favors. If You Expect Something In Return, It's Not A Gift.

Favors

Return

Ifs

Real Content Marketing Isn’t Repurposed Advertising, It Is Making Something Worth Talking About.

Real

Talking

Marketing

Or, If I Take That Same Auditorium And I Make It Much Bigger And Put More Space Between Seats, It'll Be Quieter Because It's Much Harder When You're Not In Physical Contact With People To Spread A Virus From Person-to-person, Right? There Are All Sorts Of Patterns That We See In Epidemiology That Help Us Understand Why Something Spreads.

Epidemiology

Space

People

If You Want To Be A Leader, Go Lead

Leader

Want

Ifs

We Need Students Who Can Learn How To Learn, Who Can Discover How To Push Themselves And Are Generous Enough And Honest Enough To Engage With The Outside World To Make Those Dreams Happen.

Dream

Needs

World

If You Don't Like Your Definition Of 'good Enough', Then Feel Free To Change That, But The Goal Before Shipping Is Merely That. Not Perfect.

Perfect

Goal

Definitions

Competition And The Market Are Like Water, They Go Where They Want

Water

Competition

Want

Put Aside Your Need For A Step-by-step Manual And Instead Realize That Analogies Are Your Best Friend.

Needs

Analogies

Steps

If You're Not Uncomfortable In Your Work As A Leader, It's Almost Certain You're Not Reaching Your Potential As A Leader.

Leadership

Management

Reaching

After You Produce You Can Select. You Can Curate. You Can Censor. But For Now, Have Bad Ideas, Lots And Lots Of Bad Ideas.

Ideas

Select

Produce

Anxiety Is Practising Failure In Advance. Anxiety Is Needless And Imaginary. It's Fear About Fear, Fear That Means Nothing.

Mean

Anxiety

Imaginary

Remarkable Visions And Genuine Insights Are Always Met With Resistance.

Vision

Resistance

Genuine

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.

Believe

Thinking

Games

Effort Is Its Own Reward If You Allow It To Be.

Effort

Rewards

Ifs

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.

Years

Ideas

Two

Books Work As An Art Form (and An Economic One) Because They Are Primarily The Work Of An Individual.

Art

Book

Writing

I've Found That Giving Gifts Is Transformative. It Makes Me Better. It Clarifies My Thinking And Allows Me To Do Better Work.

Thinking

Giving

Found

Once You Have Permission To Talk To Someone, Finding New Products Or Services For Them Is A Smart Way To Grow.

Business

Smart

Way

Two Different Things: A Crowd Is A Tribe Without A Leader. A Crowd Is A Tribe Without Communication. Most Organizations Spend Their Time Marketing To The Crowd. Smart Organizations Assemble The Tribe.

Smart

Communication

Organization

Sometimes, We're So Focused On Being Consistent That We Also Lower The Bar On Amazing. After All, The Thinking Goes, If We Can't Be Amazing All The Time, Better To Reset The Expectation To Merely Good. Which Robs Us Of The Ability To (sometimes) Be Amazing.

Thinking

Expectations

Bars

...treasure What It Means To Do A Day's Work. It's Our One And Only Chance To Do Something Productive Today, And It's Certainly Not Available To Someone Merely Because He Is The High Bidder. A Day's Work Is Your Chance To Do Art, To Create A Gift, To Do Something That Matters. As Your Work Gets Better And Your Art Becomes More Important, Competition For Your Gifts Will Increase And You'll Discover That You Can Be Choosier About Whom You Give Them To.

Motivational

Art

Business

The Essence Of Marketing Today Is To Tell A Story To People Who Want To Hear It, In A Way That Resonates With Them So They Are Likely To Either Respond Or Connect To You, Or Tell Their Friends.

Essence

People

Marketing

You Don't Have To Settle For The Status Quo, For Being Good Enough, For Getting By, For Working All Night.

Night

Good Enough

Settling

The Wettest, Weirdest Environment Is Human Interaction. Whatever We Build Gets Misunderstood, Corroded And Chronic, And It Happens Quickly And In Unpredictable Ways. That's One Reason Why The Web Is So Fascinating-it's A Collision Between The Analytic World Of Code And Wet World Of People.

People

Misunderstood

Way

If It Scares You, It Might Be A Good Thing To Try.

Inspirational

Philosophical

Bravery

If The Game Is Designed For You To Lose, Don't Play That Game. Play A Different One.

Games

Play

Different

If You're Not Upsetting Anyone, You're Not Changing The Status Quo.

Upset

Status Quo

Ifs

If You Set Your Bar At 'amazing' It's Awfully Difficult To Start. Your First Paragraph, Sketch, Formula, Sample Or Concept Isn't Going To Be Amazing. Your Tenth One Might Not Be Either. Confronted With The Gap Between Your Vision Of Perfect And The Reality Of What You've Created, The Easiest Path Is No Path. Shrug. Admit Defeat. Hit Delete. One More Reason To Follow Someone Else And Wait For Instructions. Of Course, The Only Path To Amazing Runs Directly Through Not-yet-amazing. But Not-yet-amazing Is A Great Place To Start, Because That's Where You Are.

Running

Reality

Perfect

The Market And The Consumer And Idea Trump The System.

Business

Ideas

Trump

Art Is Never Defect-free. Things That Are Remarkable Never Meet Spec, Because That Would Make Them Standardized, Not Worth Talking About.

Art

Talking

Free Things

The Only Path To Amazing Runs Directly Through Not-yet-amazing

Running

Path

We Know What You Want To Accomplish... The Real Question Is, 'what Are You Willing To Push Through The Dip For?' What Are You Willing To Stand Up For, Bleed For, Commit To And Generally Be Unreasonable About? Because That's What's Going To Actually Get Done.

Real

Done

Want

Marketing Is The Act Of Inventing The Product. The Effort Of Designing It. The Craft Of Producing It. The Art Of Pricing It. The Technique Of Selling It.

Art

Design

Effort

Keep Starting Until You Finish.

Starting

All Artists Are Entrepreneurs. All Entrepreneurs Are Artists.

Artist

Entrepreneur

What Makes Someone An Artist? I Don't Think Is Has Anything To Do With A Paintbrush. There Are Painters Who Follow The Numbers, Or Paint Billboards, Or Work In A Small Village In China, Painting Reproductions. These Folks, While Swell People, Aren't Artists. On The Other Hand, Charlie Chaplin Was An Artist, Beyond A Doubt. So Is Jonathan Ive, Who Designed The Ipod. You Can Be An Artist Who Works With Oil Paints Or Marble, Sure. But There Are Artists Who Work With Numbers, Business Models, And Customer Conversations. Art Is About Intent And Communication, Not Substances.

Art

Communication

Thinking

The Enemy Of Creativity Is Fear.

Creativity

Enemy

By The Time There Is A Case Study About Your Industry, You Are Already Too Late.

Too Late

Study

Case Studies

Not Only Must You Be An Artist, Must You Be Generous, And Must You Be Able To See Where You Can Help But You Must Also Be Aware. Aware Of Where Your Skills Are Welcomed.

Artist

Skills

Able

Doing Justice To The Work Is Your Task, Not Setting A World Record.

Greatness

Justice

Tasks

It's Clearly More Fun To Make The Rules Than To Follow Them.

Fun

What I Learned: Shun Nonbelievers. Ignore Critics. Do Your Best For People Who Want To Dance With You.

People

Want

Critics

You Can Be Right Or You Can Have Empathy. You Can't Do Both.

Relationship

Inspiring

Empathy

Choices Lead To Habits. Habits Become Talents. Talents Are Labeled Gifts. You’re Not Born This Way, You Get This Way.

Choices

Way

Talent

We're All Born Creative, It Takes A Little While To Become Afraid.

Creative

Littles

Born

Increasingly, There Are Only Two Kinds Of Companies: Brave And Dead.

Two

Brave

Kind

Every Revolution Destroys The Average Middle First And Most Savagely.

Average

Firsts

Revolution

Earn Trust, Earn Trust, Earn Trust. Then You Can Worry About The Rest.

Worry

Earning Trust

The Way To Work With A Bully Is To Take The Ball And Go Home. First Time, Every Time. When There's No Ball, There's No Game. Bullies Hate That. So They'll Either Behave So They Can Play With You Or They'll Go Bully Someone Else.

Hate

Home

Games

Being A Leader Gives You Charisma. If You Look And Study The Leaders Who Have Succeeded, That's Where Charisma Comes From, From The Leading.

Giving

Leader

Looks

Your Success Is No Longer About Your Ability To Do What You Are Told, And Do It Well.

Ability

Wells

If You Wait Until You Are Ready, It Is Almost Certainly Too Late.

Waiting

Too Late

Ready

Many People Believe That Great Designers Get Great Clients. It's The Other Way Around.

Believe

People

Way

It Takes Confidence And Guts To Intentionally Create Tension.

Tension

Guts

Saying 'no' Or Even 'stop' Is The Hallmark Of The Professional You Want On Your Team.

Team

Want

Saying No

Solving Problems—actually Solving Them, Not Just Claiming You Do—solving Perceived, Urgent Problems, Is A Surefire Way To Get The World To Beat A Path To Your Door.

Doors

World

Way

If You Are Wiling To Do Something That Might Not Work, You Are Closer To Being An Artist.

Creativity

Artist

Might

You Can't Lose. Go, Go, Go!

Positivity

Loses

Learn. Ceaselessly. Learn To Code, To Write Persuasively, To Understand New Technologies, To Bring Out The Best In Your Team, To Find Underused Resources And To Spot Patterns.

Team

Writing

Technology

Empathy Requires Something Extremely Difficult: Accepting The Fact That We Are Not And Never Will Be In The Other Person's Shoes. There's No Rational, Universal Course Because Individuals Have Different Goals, Different Worldviews And Different Experiences.

Shoes

Different Experiences

Goal

How Dare You Settle For Less When The World Has Made It So Easy For You To Be Remarkable?

Entrepreneur

World

Social Media

Surprise Comes From Defying Expectations.

Expectations

Surprise

Defying

If It's Worth Listening To, It's Worth Questioning Until You Understand It.

Listening

Questioning

Ifs

There's A Big Difference Between Not Settling And Not Starting.

Differences

Settling

Starting

Making Promises And Keeping Them Is A Great Way To Build A Brand.

Promise

Marketing

Way

Everyone Has A Comfort Zone. Worth Considering: How Hard (and How Often) Are You Willing To Work To Get Out Of It? You Can Turn That Into A Habit If You Choose.

Comfort

Habit

Considering

The Next Thing You Do Today Will Be The Most Important Thing On Your Agenda, Because, After All, You're Doing It Next. Well, Perhaps It Will Be The Most Urgent Thing. Or The Easiest. In Fact, The Most Important Thing Probably Isn't Even On Your Agenda.

Important

Agendas

Today

When The Room Brightens When You Walk In, You Matter.

Greatness

Matter

Rooms

If You Don't Require The Journey To Be Easy Or Comfortable Or Safe, You Can Change The World.

Journey

World

Safe

Now, Before Sliced Bread Was Invented In The 1910s I Wonder What They Said? Like The Greatest Invention Since The Telegraph Or Something. But... The Thing About The Invention Of Sliced Bread Is This - That For The First 15 Years After Sliced Bread Was Available No One Bought It; No One Knew About It; It Was A Complete And Total Failure.

Years

Bread

Firsts

Dreamers Don't Have Special Genes. They Find Circumstances That Amplify Their Dreams.

Dream

Special

Amplify

School Is At Its Best When It Gives Students The Expectation That They Will Not Only Dream Big, But Dream Dreams That They Can Work On Every Day Until They Accomplish Them-not Because They Were Chosen By A Black-box Process, But Because They Worked Hard Enough To Reach Them.

Dream

School

Giving

Our Best Work Can't Possibly Appeal To The Average Masses, Only Our Average Work Can. Finding The Humility To Happily Walk Away From Those That Don't Get It Unlocks Our Ability To Do Great Work.

Humility

Average

Great Work

No Organization Ever Created An Innovation. People Innovate, Not Companies.

Organization

Ideas

People

We've Greatly Exaggerated The Risk Of Sinking, Without Celebrating The Value Of Swimming.

Swimming

Risk

Celebrate

Art...is The Intentional Act Of Using Your Humanity To Create A Change In Another Person...passion Is Caring Enough About Your Art That You Will Do Almost Anything To Give It Away, To Make It A Gift, To Change People.

Art

Passion

Caring

The Danger Of The Web Is That You Can Go From Idea To Public Announcement In Under Ten Minutes.

Ideas

Danger

Minutes

Art Is Frightening. Art Isn't Pretty. Art Isn't Painting. Art Isn't Something You Hang On The Wall. Art Is What We Do When We're Truly Alive. An Artist Is Someone Who Uses Bravery, Insight, Creativity, And Boldness To Challenge The Status Quo. And An Artist Takes It (all Of It, The Work, The Process, The Feedback From Those We Seek To Connect With) Personally.

Art

Wall

Creativity

Don't Fix Me; Love Me For What's Broken.

Love

Motivational

Broken

Transformation Al Leaders Don't Start By Denying The World Around Them. Instead, They Describe A Future They'd Like To Create Instead.

Leader

World

Als

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.

Inspirational

Goal

Support

More And More People Now Have Jobs That Require Them To Confront The Risk Of Appearing Stupid On A Regular Basis.

Jobs

Stupid

People

Isn't The Drawing Board The Place Where All The Best Work Happens? It's Not A Bad Thing To Go Back There. It's The Entire Point.

Drawing

Boards

Best Work

Too Often, The Person Who Wrecks Our Work Is Us.

Wrecks

Persons

Where Do You Put The Fear When You Choose To Innovate? The Fear Is There, But You Have To Find A Place To Put It.

Perseverance

Fear

Failure

Courage Doesn't Always Involve Physical Heroism In The Face Of Death. It Doesn't Always Require Giant Leaps Worthy Of Celebration. Sometimes, Courage Is The Willingness To Speak The Truth About What You See And To Own What You Say.

Life

Motivational

Work

The Resistance Is Not Something To Be Avoided, It's Something To Seek Out.

Resistance

Avoided

The Future Of Marketing Is Leadership

Marketing

Getting Picked Is Fine If It Happens To You. But It's Not A Plan. It's A Version Of Waiting And Hoping.

Waiting

Fine

Plans

... Outsiders Are Way More Likely To Approach Your Organization With Fabulous Projects If They Think They're Likely To Both Get A Good Reception And Succeed When They Get To Market.

Thinking

Organization

Succeed

The Competitive Advantages The Marketplace Demands Is Someone More Human, Connected, And Mature. Someone With Passion And Energy, Capable Of Seeing Things As They Are And Negotiating Multiple Priorities As She Makes Useful Decisions Without Angst. Flexible In The Face Of Change, Resilient In The Face Of Confusion. All Of These Attributes Are Choices, Not Talents, And All Of Them Are Available To You.

Passion

Confusion

Choices

The Key To Getting A Reputation For Being Brilliant Is Actually Being Brilliant, Not Just Acting Like You Are.

Keys

Acting

Reputation

The Question Is Not Will You Succeed? But Rather, Will You Matter?

Matter

Succeed

If You Are Afraid To Write Or Edit Or Assemble Or Disassemble, You Are Merely A Spectator. And You Are Trapped, Trapped By The Instructions Of Those You've Chosen To Follow. Twenty People In The Field And Eighty Thousand In The Stands. The Spectators Are The Ones Who Paid To Watch, But It's The Player On The Field Who Are Truly Alive.

Motivational

Writing

Player

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.

Memories

Taken

Expectations

When You Set Down The Path To Create Art, Whatever Sort Of Art It Is, Understand That The Path Is Neither Short Not Easy. That Means You Must Determine If The Route Is Worth The Effort. If It's Not, Dream Bigger.

Dream

Art

Mean

Shame Must Be Accepted To Be Effective.

Shame

Accepted

As Our Society Gets More Complex And Our People Get More Complacent, The Role Of The Jester Is More Vital Than Ever Before. Please Stop Sitting Around. We Need You To Make A Ruckus.

People

Needs

Roles

A One-hit Wonder Is A Legend Who Stopped Early.

Legends

Wonder

The Way I Understand Gifts Is That The Giver Must Make A Sacrifice, Create An Uneven Exchange, Bring Himself Closer To The Recipient, Create Change And Do It All With The Right Spirit.

Sacrifice

Way

Spirit

If You're Passionate, Be Passionate Enough To Fail. Fail Small, Accept Responsibility, Repeat. The People Who Make Change Are The Survivors Of Serial Failure.

Responsibility

People

Survivor

The Only Way To Consistently Grow In B2b Is To Be Better Than Very Good.

Way

Very Good

Grows

Believe That Giving Up Is The Same Thing As Being Realistic.

Giving Up

Believe

Realistic

Ideas That Spread Win.

Winning

Ideas

Ironic

You Succeed Because You've Chosen To Be Confident. It's Not Really Useful To Require Yourself To Be Successful Before You're Able To Become Confident.

Successful

Able

Succeed

Reject The Tyranny Of Picked. Pick Yourself.

Mind Your Own Business

Tyranny

Poke

Art Is The Work Of A Human Being – Something A Person Does With Generosity To Touch Someone Else To Make A Change For The Better.

Art

Generosity

Doe

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.

Dream

Circles

Outcomes

Be With The Ones You Love (and The Ones That Love You.) Ignore Everyone Else.

Relationship

Love You

But What If I Fail? You Will. A Better Question Might Be, ‘after I Fail, What Then?’ If You’ve Chosen Well, After You Fail You Will Be One Step Closer To Succeeding, You Will Be Wiser And Stronger And You Almost Certainly Will Be More Respected By All Of Those That Are Afraid To Try.

What If

Stronger

Trying

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.

Book

Writing

Years

People Don't Believe What You Tell Them. They Rarely Believe What You Show Them. They Often Believe What Their Friends Tell Them. They Always Believe What They Tell Themselves.

Business

Believe

People

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.

Yelling

Important

Campaigns

You Can't Shrink Your Way To Greatness!

Greatness

Way

Shrinks

The Youtube Video Maker Gets More Out Of Making A Video Than You Get Out Of Watching It.

Motivational

Video

Makers

How Was Your Day? If Your Answer Was "fine," Then I Don't Think You Were Leading.

Thinking

Answers

Fine

Understanding Quotes: Their Essence and Application

Quotes, or quotations, are powerful tools in communication, encapsulating ideas, emotions, and wisdom in concise expressions. They serve various purposes across different contexts, from academic writing to everyday conversation.

1. Defining Quotes

A quote is a repetition of someone else's statement or thoughts. It can be a direct replication of words spoken or written by another individual, often used to support arguments, provide evidence, or convey profound insights.

2. The Importance of Quotes

2.1. Enhancing Credibility

Incorporating quotes from authoritative sources can bolster the credibility of your work. By referencing experts or primary sources, you demonstrate thorough research and a solid foundation for your arguments.

2.2. Providing Evidence

Quotes serve as concrete evidence to support claims. In academic and professional writing, they validate points made, offering readers a basis to trust the information presented.

2.3. Conveying Emotions and Perspectives

Quotes can encapsulate emotions and perspectives succinctly. They allow writers to express complex feelings or viewpoints through the words of others, often more eloquently than paraphrasing.

3. Types of Quotes

3.1. Direct Quotes

Direct quotes involve copying the exact words from a source, enclosed in quotation marks. They are used when the original wording is significant or particularly well-expressed.

3.2. Indirect Quotes (Paraphrasing)

Indirect quotes restate the original message in your own words. While not enclosed in quotation marks, they still require proper attribution to the original source.

3.3. Block Quotes

Block quotes are lengthy direct quotations, formatted as a separate block of text. They are typically used for quotes exceeding a certain length, varying by citation style. For instance, in APA style, quotes longer than 40 words are formatted as block quotes.

4. Proper Usage of Quotes

4.1. Contextual Relevance

Ensure that the quote you choose is relevant to the topic and adds value to your content. Avoid inserting quotes solely for decorative purposes.

4.2. Integration into Your Writing

Seamlessly integrate quotes into your writing. Introduce them appropriately and follow up with analysis or commentary to connect them to your main points.

4.3. Attribution and Citation

Always attribute quotes to their original authors and provide proper citations according to the required style guide (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).

5. Common Mistakes to Avoid

5.1. Overusing Quotes

Relying too heavily on quotes can overshadow your voice. Use them sparingly to support your arguments, not replace them.

5.2. Lack of Analysis

Presenting a quote without analysis or explanation can leave readers questioning its relevance. Always follow up with your interpretation or discussion.

5.3. Misquoting or Taking Out of Context

Ensure that quotes are accurate and not taken out of context, as this can mislead readers and undermine your credibility.

6. Quotes in Different Contexts

6.1. Academic Writing

In academic writing, quotes are used to support arguments, provide evidence, and engage with existing literature. Proper citation is crucial to avoid plagiarism.

6.2. Journalism

Journalists use quotes to provide firsthand accounts, add authenticity, and present multiple perspectives within a story.

6.3. Literature and Creative Writing

In literature, quotes can be used to convey character voices, themes, and stylistic elements. They enrich narratives and provide depth to storytelling.

7. Punctuation and Formatting

Understanding the correct punctuation and formatting of quotes is essential:

Quotation Marks: Always enclose direct quotes within quotation marks.

Punctuation Placement: In American English, periods and commas are placed inside quotation marks, while colons and semicolons are placed outside.

Block Quotes: For longer quotes, format them as block quotes without quotation marks, and indent the entire block.

8. Ethical Considerations

Ethical use of quotes involves accurate representation, proper attribution, and respect for intellectual property. Misuse can lead to plagiarism, which carries serious academic and professional consequences.

9. Tools for Managing Quotes

Utilize tools like citation generators and plagiarism checkers to manage quotes effectively. These tools help ensure proper formatting and originality in your writing.

Conclusion

Quotes are invaluable in enriching content, providing evidence, and conveying complex ideas succinctly. When used appropriately, they enhance the quality and credibility of your writing. Always ensure relevance, proper integration, and ethical usage to maximize their impact.

Trending Author