Forgive Yourself For Not Being The Richest, The Thinnest, The Tallest, The One With The Best Hair. Forgive Yourself For Not Being The Most Successful, The Cutest Or The One With The Fastest Time. Forgive Yourself For Not Winning Every Round. Forgive Yourself For Being Afraid. But Don’t Let Yourself Off The Hook, Never Forgive Yourself, For Not Caring Or Not Trying.

-Seth Godin

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Forgive Yourself For Not

Seth Godin

Topic

Skepticism Doesn't Help You Hear.

Helping

Skepticism

You Can Win With Consistent Benefits, Delivered Over Time. You Win By Incrementally Earning Share, Attention And Trust.

Winning

Marketing

Attention

Sure, Compare. But Compare The Things That Matter To The Journey You're On. The Rest Is Noise.

Journey

Noise

Matter

The Art Of Good Decision Making Is Looking Forward To And Celebrating The Tradeoffs, Not Pretending They Don't Exist.

Art

Decision

Looking Forward

The Best Marketing Strategy Is To Destroy Your Industry Before Your Competition Does.

Competition

Marketing

Doe

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

Journey

World

Safe

There Are Lots Of Good Reasons To Abandon A Project. Having A Little Competition Is Not One Of Them.

Competition

Littles

Reason

Making An Average Pitch To Average People, Or Having An Average Gala For Average People Isn't Going To Scale Anymore. You've Got To Find The People Who Care. Those People Are Worth All Of Your Time.

Average

People

Who Cares

No One Can Be Responsible For Where Or How We Each Begin. No One Has The Freedom To Do Anything Or Everything, And All Choices Bring Consequences. What We Choose To Do Next, Though, How To Spend Our Resources Or Attention Or Effort, This Is What Defines Us.

Motivational

Choices

Effort

Following The Well-lit Path, Offers Little In The Way Of Magic.

Magic

Littles

Way

Repeating Easy Tasks Again And Again Gets You Not Very Far. Attacking Only Steep Cliffs Where No Progress Is Made Isn’t Particularly Effective Either. No, The Best Path Is An Endless Series Of Difficult (but Achievable) Hills.

Progress

Tasks

Path

Seek Out Habits That Help You Overcome Fear Or Inertia. Destroy Those That Do The Opposite.

Opposites

Overcoming

Helping

The People Who Are The Best In The World Specialize At Getting Really Good At The Questions They Don't Know.

People

World

Knows

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

Needs

More Time

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

Choices

It’s Okay. Let Your Ego Push You To Be The Initiator. But Tell Your Ego That The Best Way To Get Something Shipped Is To Let Other People Take The Credit. The Real Win For You (and Your Ego) Is Seeing Something Get Shipped, Not In Getting The Credit When It Does.

Real

Winning

People

At The Age Of Four, You Were An Artist. And At Seven, You Were A Poet.

Artist

Age

Four

I Find That I Have About Six Bloggable Ideas A Day. I Also Find That Writing Twice As Long A Post Doesn't Increase Communication, It Usually Decreases It. And Finally, I Found That People Get Antsy If There Are Unread Posts In Their Queue.

Communication

Writing

Ideas

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

Opportunity

People

Giving

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

Don't Have Any Meetings About Your Web Strategy. Just Do Stuff. First You Have To Fail, Then You Can Improve.

Failure

Stuff

Firsts

The Tiny Cost Of Failure...is Dwarfed By The Huge Cost Of Not Trying.

Leadership

Trying

Cost

And The Reason Is That Until Wonder Came Along And Figured Out How To Spread The Idea Of Sliced Bread, No One Wanted It. That The Success Of Sliced Bread... Is Not Always About What The Patent Is Like, Or What The Factory Is Like - It's About Can You Get Your Idea To Spread, Or Not.

Ideas

Patents

Bread

In Our Desire To Please Everyone, It's Very Easy To End Up Being Invisible Or Mediocre.

Desire

Mediocrity

Invisible

Competence Is No Longer Scarce.

Competence

Scarce

No One Has Ever Built A Statue To A Critic, It's True. On The Other Hand, It's Only The People With Statues That Get Pooped On By Birds Flying By.

Hands

People

Bird

You Can Game The Social Media In The Short Run, But Not For Long.

Running

Media

Games

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

Art

Real

Wonder

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

People

Marketing

Stories

Shame Must Be Accepted To Be Effective.

Shame

Accepted

Good Marketers Tell A Story.

Marketing

Stories

Marketers

People That Take Responsibility Are Often Given Responsibility!

Responsibility

People

Taking Responsibility

The Public Square Is More Public Than Ever, But Minds Are Rarely Changed In 140 Character Bursts And By Selfies.

Character

Squares

Mind

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.

Art

Writing

Blogging

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!

Dark

Done

Boxes

If We Live In A World Where Information Drives What We Do, The Information We Get Becomes The Most Important Thing. The Person Who Chooses That Information Has Power.

Important

World

Information

If You Measure It, It Will Improve.

Ifs

Self Sufficiency Appears To Be A Worthy Goal, But It's Now Impossible If You Want To Actually Get Anything Done. All Our Productivity, Leverage And Insight Comes From Being Part Of A Community, Not Apart From It. The Goal, I Think, Is To Figure Out How To Become More Dependent, Not Less.

Thinking

Self

Goal

Discomfort Brings Engagement And Change. Discomfort Means You're Doing Something That Others Were Unlikely To Do, Because They're Hiding Out In The Comfortable Zone. When Your Uncomfortable Actions Lead To Success, The Organization Rewards You And Brings You Back For More.

Mean

Organization

Engagement

I'm Not A Psychopath-i'm Wearing A Tie!

Ties

Psychopath

We Don't Need To Be Taught To Make Art, But Sometimes We Need Permission To Do So. Following Instructions Is Overrated.

Art

Following Instructions

Needs

By All Means, Fire The Customers Who Aren't Worth The Time And The Trouble. But Understand That The Moment You Insist The Customer Is Wrong, You've Just Started The Firing Process.

Mean

Fire

Marketing

Go Ahead And Make Something For The Elites. Not The Elites Of Class Or Wealth, But The Elites Of Curiosity, Passion And Taste. Every Great Thing Ever Created Was Created By And For This Group.

Passion

Class

Curiosity

The Goal, Then, Isn't To Draw Some Positioning Charts And Announce That You Have Differentiated Your Product. No, The Opportunity Is To Actually Create Something That People Choose To Talk About, Regardless Of What The Competition Is Doing.

Opportunity

People

Goal

I Think That Any Time Reality Doesn't Match Your Expectations, It Means That Marketing Was Involved.

Mean

Reality

Thinking

As Creators, Our Pursuit Of Perfection Might Be Misguided, Particularly If It Comes At The Expense Of The Things That Matter.

Perfection

Might

Matter

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

Most People Have Been Brainwashed Into Believing That Their Job Is To Copyedit The World, Not To Design It.

Jobs

Believe

People

Things That Look Like Shortcuts Are Actually Detours (disguised As Less Work).

Looks

Detours

Shortcuts

More Process, Less Innovation. More Operations, Less Innovation. More Management, Less Innovation. More Entrepreneurs, More Innovation.

Entrepreneur

Innovation

Management

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

Dream

Special

Amplify

It's Far Easier To Put Your Future Into Someone Else's Hands Than It Is To Slog Your Way Forward, Owning The Results As You Go.

Hands

Way Forward

Easier

If You Think Your Organization Needs A Bigger Marketing Budget, Maybe You Just Need To Be Less Average Instead.

Thinking

Average

Organization

My Blogging Life Is Basically Goalless. I Like The Zen Nature Of That, And Paradoxically, It Improves Results.

Blogging

Life Is

Results

When Your Art Fails, Make Better Art.

Art

Deception

Failing

The Job Is Not Your Work; What You Do With Your Heart And Soul Is The Work.

Life

Motivational

Jobs

Do You Know What People Want More Than Anything? They Want To Be Missed.

People

Want

Knows

Just About Every Great, Brave Or Beautiful Thing In Our Culture Was Created By Someone Who Didn't Do It For Money.

Beautiful

Brave

Culture

If You Don't Get It Built, The Work Doesn't Matter.

Matter

Built

Ifs

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

Real

Talking

Marketing

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

Jobs

Littles

Faster

Not Adding Value Is The Same As Taking It Away.

Adding Value

Values

Art Is What We Do When We're Truly Alive.

Art

Alive

Art Is

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

Greatness

Matter

Rooms

Whining Isn't A Scalable Solution.

Whining

Solutions

In General, Organizations Are Afraid To Fire Customers, No Matter How Unreasonable. This Is A Mistake. It's Good For You.

Mistake

Fire

Organization

It's Never Too Late To Start Heading In The Right Direction.

Too Late

Heading In The Right Direction

Headings

... 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 Status Quo Is Leaving The Building, And Quickly.

Leaving

Mediocrity

Building

Rehearsing Failure Is Simply A Bad Habit, Not A Productive Use Of Your Time. When You Choose To Visualize The Path That Works, You're More Likely To Shore It Up And Create An Environment Where It Can Take Place.

Path

Use

Environment

New Fashions (of All Sorts) Come From Unexpected Places, Not From The Arbiters Of What's Correct.

Fashion

Unexpected

Unexpected Places

If You Try To Delight The Undelightable, You've Made Yourself Miserable For No Reason.

Trying

Delight

Miserable

If You're Working With A Spreadsheet Or A Thread Of Correspondence Or A Set Of Data, I'm Not Sure You're Doing Your Best Work If You're Doing It On An Iphone.

Iphone

Data

Doing Your Best

Surprise And Delight And Connection Are Remarkable.

Connections

Delight

Surprise

A Well-defined Backup Plan Is Sabotage Waiting To Happen. Why Push Through The Dip, Why Take The Risk, Why Blow It All When There's The Comfortable Alternative Instead? The People Who Break Through Usually Have Nothing To Lose, And They Almost Never Have A Backup Plan.

Motivational

Success

Blow

Everyone Is Not Your Customer.

Business

Customers

The Reason Social Media Is So Difficult For Most Organizations: It’s A Process, Not An Event.

Media

Organization

Events

How Do I Dance With The Fear? Fear Is Not The Enemy. Paralysis Is The Enemy.

Inspirational

Inspiration

Enemy

And It Turns Out That Tribes, Not Money, Not Factories, That Can Change Our World, That Can Change Politics, That Can Align Large Numbers Of People. Not Because You Force Them To Do Something Against Their Will. But Because They Wanted To Connect.

Our World

Numbers

People

Decide, Before You Start, That You're Going To Change Three Things About What You Do All Day At Work. Then, As You're Reading, Find The Three Things And Do It. The Goal Of The Reading, Then, Isn't To Persuade You To Change, It's To Help You Choose What To Change.

Business

Reading

Goal

If You're Not Proud Of Where You Work, Go Work Somewhere Else.

Somewhere Else

Choices

Proud

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

Winners Quit All The Time. They Just Quit The Right Stuff At The Right Time.

Stuff

Quitting

Winner

Low Price Is A Great Way To Sell A Commodity. That's Not Marketing Though, That's Efficiency.

Marketing

Way

Commodity

Any Customer That Walks Away, Disrespected And Defeated, Represents Tens Of Thousands Of Dollars Out The Door, In Addition To The Failure Of A Promise The Brand Made In The First Place. You Can't See It But It's Happening, Daily.

Doors

Promise

Dollars

The Goal In Blogging/ Business/ Inspiring Non-fiction Is To Share A Truth, Or At Least A Truth As The Writer Sees It. To Not Just Share It, But To Spread It And To Cause Change To Happen. You Can Do That In At Least Three Ways: With Research (your Own Or Reporting On Others), By Building And Describing Conceptual Structures, Or With Stories That Resonate.

Goal

Three

Fiction

Either You Defend The Status Quo, Or You Invent The Future.

Status Quo

Don't Try To Be The 'next'. Instead, Try To Be The Other, The Changer, The New.

Business

Trying

Organizations That Destroy The Status Quo Win. Whatever The Status Quo Is, Changing It Gives You The Opportunity To Be Remarkable.

Motivational

Winning

Opportunity

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

Mirrors

Important

I've Never Once Met A Successful Blogger Who Questioned The Personal Value Of What She Did.

Successful

Mets

Personal Values

Marketing Is No Longer About The Stuff That You Male, But About The Stories You Tell.

Marketing

Stuff

Males

You Can Define Advertising As The Science Of Creating And Placing Media That Interrupts The Consumer And Then Gets Him Or Her To Take Some Action.

Technology

Media

Creating

I Look At Starbucks, Howard Schultz Has Made Many Brilliant Decisions, And One Of The Things That They Did Was They Invented The Third Space. It's Not Work, It's Not Home. That's One Of The Engines Of Its Spread. But At The Same Time He Was Doing That, He Bet The Farm To Open More And More Stores In Any Given Town, And Making It Ubiquitous Made It Much Easier To Say To Your Friend, I'll Meet You At Starbucks.

Home

Space

Decision

If You're In The Idea Business, It Doesn't Matter Where You're From. It Matters If We Care About The Change You're Making.

Ideas

Care

Matter

Selling To People Who Actually Want To Hear From You Is More Effective Than Interrupting Strangers Who Don't.

Motivation

People

Marketing

Way More Productive, I Think, To Push Yourself To Be More In The World, Not To Encourage Yourself To Hide.

Thinking

World

Way

Habits Are More Powerful Than Fears.

Powerful

Habit

Every Great Company, Brand, Career Has Been Built In Exactly The Same Way: Bit By Bit, Step By Step, Little By Little.

Careers

Littles

Way

Anxiety Is Experiencing Failure In Advance. Tell Yourself Enough Vivid Stories About The Worst Possible Outcome Of Your Work And You'll Soon Come To Believe Them. Worry Is Not Preparation, And Anxiety Doesn't Make You Better.

Believe

Worry

Anxiety

To Make A Product, To Market An Idea, To Come Up With Any Problem You Want To Solve That Doesn't Have A Constituency With An Otaku, Is Almost Impossible... There's A Hot Sauce Otaku, But There's No Mustard Otaku.

Ideas

Hot Sauce

Want

There's No Shortage Of Great Ideas. There's A Shortage Of Execution.

Ideas

Execution

Great Idea

The Combination Of Fear And Ignorance (two Sides Of The Same Coin) Can Be Paralyzing.

Ignorance

Two Sides

Coins

It's Uncomfortable To Challenge The Status Quo.

Challenges

Mediocrity

Status Quo

As Soon As You Are Willing To Say 'it's Not For You', You're Freed Up To Make Art.

Art

Willing

The Second Person To Write A Story About A Young Boy And An Escaped Slave On The Mississippi Wasn't A Novelist, He Was A Typist.

Writing

Boys

Novelists

The Object Isn't To Be Perfect. The Goal Isn't To Hold Back Until You've Created Something Beyond Reproach. I Believe The Opposite Is True. Our Birthright Is To Fail And To Fail Often, But To Fail In Search Of Something Bigger Than We Can Imagine. To Do Anything Else Is To Waste It All.

Believe

Opposites

Perfect

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

What Is School For? If You're Not Asking That, You're Wasting Time And Money.

School

Asking

Wasting Time

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

Perseverance

Determination

People

Mass Attention Is Almost Unattainable And It's Not Clear That You Want It.

Attention

Unattainable

Want

Instead Of Wondering When Your Next Vacation Is, Maybe You Should Set Up A Life You Don't Need To Escape From.

Inspirational

Change

Inspiring

Big Ideas Are Little Ideas That No-one Killed Too Soon.

Acceptance

Ideas

Rejection

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

Way

Very Good

Grows

Anticipated, Personal, And Relevant Advertising Always Does Better Than Unsolicited Junk.

Marketing

Junk

Doe

Being Charismatic Doesn't Make You A Leader. Being A Leader Makes You Charismatic.

Leader

Charismatic

Being A Leader

Little Changes Cost You. Big Changes Benefit You By Changing The Game, But Only If You Go First.

Change

Games

Cost

In A Digital World, The Gift I Give You Almost Always Benefits Me More Than It Costs.

Giving

Cost

Benefits

Most People Are Searching For A Path To Success That Is Both Easy And Certain. Most Paths Are Neither.

People

Path

Easy

Turn Strangers Into Friends. Turn Friends Into Donors. And Then Do The Most Important Job: Turn Your Donors Into Fundraisers.

Jobs

Important

Stranger

Most People Don't See That They Have Options Beyond What Society Tells Them To Do. That's The Biggest Problem. They Honestly Believe That Compliance Is The Shortcut To Success.

Believe

People

Shortcuts

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

Competence Is The Enemy Of Change!

Change

Enemy

Competence

A Customer Is Never Out Of Warranty, Even If His Product Is.

Customers

Products

Ifs

The Market And The Consumer And Idea Trump The System.

Business

Ideas

Trump

The Reason It Seems That Price Is All Your Customers Care About Is That You Haven't Given Them Anything Else To Care About.

Marketing

Care

Reason

Art Is A Personal Act Of Courage.

Art

Acts Of Courage

Art Is

The Habit Of Doing More Than Is Necessary Can Only Be Earned Through Practice.

Practice

Habit

It's Not Reckless, Because When We Leap, When We Dive In, When We Begin, Only Begin, We Bring Our True Nature To The Project, We Make It Personal And Urgent. And It's Not Abandon, Not In The Sense That We've Abandoned Our Senses Or Our Responsibility. In Fact, Abandoning The Fear Of Fear That Is Holding Us Back Is The Single Best Way Not To Abandon The Work, The Pure Execution Of The Work. Later, There's Time To Backpedal And Water Down. But Right Now, Reckless Please.

Responsibility

Water

Way

Everyone We Interact With Is Changed Forever. The Only Questions Are: How Will They Be Different (and How Different Will They Be), And How Will We Be Different (and How Different Will We Be) As A Result?

Forever

Different

Results

You Get To Keep Making Art As Long As You Are Willing To Make The Choices That Let You Make Your Art.

Art

Long

Choices

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

My New Favorite Word Is 'awkward.'...th E Reason We Need To Be In Search Of Awkward Is That Awkward Is The Barrier Between Us And Excellence, Between Where We Are And The Remarkable. If It Were Easy, Everyone Would Have Done It Already, And It Wouldn't Be Worth The Effort.

Inspiration

Favorite Words

Effort

If You Can't Be Remarkable, Perhaps You Should Consider Doing Nothing Until You Can.

Doing Nothing

Should

Remarkable

If We Can Fall In Love With Serving People, Creating Value, Solving Problems, Building Valuable Connections And Doing Work That Matters, It Makes It Far More Likely We're Going To Do Important Work

Falling In Love

Creating Value

People

You Don't Have To Settle. It's A Choice You Get To Make Every Day.

Choices

Mediocrity

Settling

The Largest Enemy Of Change Isn't 'no', It's 'not Yet' - That Is The Easiest Way To Forestall Change.

Enemy

Way

We Long To Connect, All Of Us. We Long To Be Noticed, To Be Cared For, To Matter. Generosity Is The Invisible Salve On Our Wound Of Loneliness, One That Benefits Both Sides, Over And Over Again.

Loneliness

Long

Generosity

Permission Marketing Is Marketing Without Interruptions.

Marketing

Permission

Interruptions

The Reason They Want You To Fit In... Is That Once You Do, Then They Can Ignore You.

Mediocrity

Want

Fit

If You Borrow Money To Make Money, You've Done Something Magical. On The Other Hand, If You Go Into Debt To Pay Your Bills Or Buy Something You Want But Don't Need, You've Done Something Stupid. Stupid And Short-sighted And Ultimately Life-changing For The Worse.

Life Changing

Stupid

Hands

We Are Leaving The Industrial Economy And Entering The Connection Economy.

Leaving

Connections

Entering

Marketers Have To Move Upstream Now. We Have To Stop Being The Last Step In The Process And Start Being The First Step.

Moving

Lasts

Firsts

The Combination Of Passion And Art Is What Makes Someone A Linchpin.

Art

Passion

Combination

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

Motivational

Business

Ideas

Marketing Used To Be What You Say Now, Marketing Is What You Do. What You Make. How You Act. The Choices You Make When You Are Sure No One Is Looking.

Choices

Marketing

Used

Here's Conventional Wisdom: Success Makes You Happy. Happiness Permits You To Be Generous. In Fact, It Actually Works Like This: Generosity Makes You Happy. Happy People Are More Likely To Be Successful.

Successful

People

Generosity

Creating Art Is A Habit, One That We Practice Daily Or Hourly Until We Get Good At It

Art

Practice

Creating

Lack Of Resources (payroll), Time And Competing Priorities Are Why So Many Nonprofits Haven't Done Well. It's That Simple.

Business

Simple

Priorities

The Future Isn't So Much About Absorbing Or Tolerating Change, It's About Making Change.

Making Changes

Absorbing

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

Tasks

Difficult

Difficult Tasks

The Resistance Is The Voice In Your Head Telling You To Use Bullets In Your Powerpoint Slides...it’s The Voice That Tells You To Leave Controversial Ideas Out Of The Paper You’re Writing, Because The Teacher Won’t Like Them. The Resistance Pushes Relentlessly For You To Fit In.

Teacher

Writing

Ideas

Some People Read Business Books Looking For Confirmation. I Read Them In Search Of Disquiet. Confirmation Is Cheap, Easy And Ineffective. Restlessness And The Scientific Method, On The Other Hand, Create A Culture Of Testing And Inquiry That Can't Help But Push You Forward.

Business

Book

Hands

Real Change Comes From Finding And Embracing And Connecting And Amplifying Those That Are Inclined To Like You And Believe In You. Ideas Spread From Person To Person, Not So Much From You To Them. So Find Your Biggest Fans And Give Them A Story To Tell.

Real

Believe

Ideas

If You Have A Book To Write, Write It. If You Want To Record An Album, Record It. No Need To Wait For Someone In A Cubicle Halfway Across The Country To Decide If You're Worthy.

Country

Book

Writing

Most People Have Bosses Who Hire Them To Fill A Slot In The Work Chart And To Do What They Are Told. And Most People Who Are Doing What They Are Told Feel Safe; It Feels Reliable.

People

Boss

Safe

'good Enough' Stopped Being Good Enough A Long Time Ago. So Why Not Be Great?

Long

Why Not

Mediocrity

I Wonder Why Anyone Would Hesitate To Be Generous With Their Writing. I Mean, If You Really Want To Make A Living, Go To Wall Street And Trade Oil Futures ... We're Writers. We're Doing Something That Is Inherently A Generous Act. We're Exposing Ourselves To The Muse And To The Things That Frighten Us. Why Do That If You're Not Willing To Be Generous? And Paradoxically, Almost Ironically, It Turns Out That The More Generous You Are, The More Money You Make. But That's Secondary. For Me, The Privilege Of Being Generous Is Why I Get To Do This.

Wall

Writing

Mean

Dreams Are Difficult To Build And Easy To Destroy.

Dream

Easy

Difficult

If You Believe That A Given Situation Should Make You Unhappy, Then It Will, And The Unhappiness Will Then Reinforce The Condition.

Believe

Unhappy

Unhappiness

If You Don't Know How It Works, Find Out. If You're Not Sure If It Will Work, Try It. If It Doesn't Make Sense, Play With It Until It Does. If It's Not Broken, Break It. If It Might Not Be True, Find Out.

Play

Broken

Trying

It's Almost Impossible To Have Fun Playing Ping Pong With Someone Who Doesn't Care, Won't Try Or Isn't Any Good.

Fun

Trying

Ping Pong

What We Most Need In Our Lives, Though, Is Something Worth Doing, Worth It Because We Care.

Needs

Care

Our Lives

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

Marketing Management Is Now Tribal Leadership.

Marketing

Management

If Failure Isn't An Option, Then Success Isn't Either. Success Is Just Failure Repeated Until It Works.

Ifs

Networking That Matters Is Helping People Achieve Their Goals.

People

Goal

Networking

No One Can Force You To Stand Up, Speak Up And Make A Difference. But If You Back Off And Play Along, Please Understand That Whatever Happens Happened, At Least In Part, Because You Acquiesced.

Play

Differences

Making A Difference

If You Work In An Urgent-only Culture, The Only Solution Is To Make The Right Things Urgent.

Appreciation

Culture

Employee Engagement

Taking Delight In The Journey Takes Confidence. It Pushes The Envelope Of Design.

Journey

Design

Delight

What People Are Afraid Of Isn't Failure. It's Blame. Criticism.

People

Criticism

Blame

Life Is Not About Gutting Out Every Situation. It's About Identifying Opportunity Or The Lack Thereof. If Your Pride Is All That Is Standing In The Way Of Quitting, Quit. The Right People Won't Care And The Wrong People Don't Matter. If You Know You're On The Right Path, Persevere Though The Pain. It Will Be Worth It.

Pain

Pride

Opportunity

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.

Jobs

Promise

Delight

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

Perhaps Your Challenge Isn't Finding A Better Project Or A Better Boss. Perhaps You Need To Get In Touch With What It Means To Feel Passionate. People With Passion Look For Ways To Make Things Happen.

Passion

Mean

People

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

Fear

Failure

Ideas

The Unhappy Theory Of Business Ethics Is This: You Have A Fiduciary Responsibility To Maximize Profit. Period. To Do Anything Other Than That Is To Cheat Your Investors. And In A Competitive World, You Don't Have Much Wiggle Room Here.

Responsibility

Unhappy

Fiduciary

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

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.

Unique

Differences

Cogs

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

Skills

Born

The Question Isn’t Whether Or Not You Should Wait To Be Picked, The Question Is Whether You Care Enough To Pick Yourself.

Waiting

Care

Enough

Don’t Be Different Just To Be Different. Be Different To Be Better.

Different

I Define Anxiety As Experiencing Failure In Advance.

Anxiety

Challenges

By My Definition, Most Art Has Nothing To Do With Oil Paint Or Marble. Art Is What We're Doing When We Do Our Best Work.

Art

Oil

Definitions

Don’t Do It Because It’s Your Job, Do It Because You Can.

Jobs

It's Human Nature To Quit When It Hurts. But It's That Reflex That Creates Scarcity.

Hurt

Scarcity

Quitting

Here's The Fascinating Part, Call It The Golden Shoulder: We Have No Idea In Advance Who The Great Contributors Are Going To Be. We Know That There's A Huge Cohort Of People Struggling Outside The Boundaries Of The Curated, Selected Few, But We Don't Know Who They Are.

Struggle

Ideas

People

The Goal Of A Marketing Interaction Isn't To Close The Sale, Any More Than The Goal Of A First Date Is To Get Married. No, The Opportunity Is To Move Forward, To Earn Attention And Trust And Curiosity And Conversation.

Moving

Opportunity

Goal

We're Going To Spend Our Entire Future Living In Tomorrow-investing Now, When It's Difficult, Is The Single Best Moment.

Investing

Tomorrow

Moments

Nothing About Becoming Indispensable Is Easy. If It's Easy, It's Already Been Done And It's No Longer Valuable.

Done

Becoming

Easy

Which Are You?...competen T, Inspiring, Passionate, Obsessed, Provocative, Impatient, Hungry, Driven, Adoring, Inspired, An Artist, A Genius, Someone Who Cares...? With All These Remarkable, Powerful, Important Options Available To Each Of Us, Why Do So Many Of Us Default To Competent?

Powerful

Artist

Important

Leaders Lead When They Take Positions, When They Connect With Their Tribes, And When They Help The Tribe Connect To Itself.

Leader

Tribes

Helping

Even Good Excuses, Really Good Ones, Don't Help Very Much. Explanations, On The Other Hand, Are Both Scarce And Useful. And Accurate Forecasts And Insightful Intuition Are Priceless.

Hands

Insightful

Intuition

You Don't Become Indispensable Merely Because You Are Different. But The Only Way To Become Indispensable Is To Be Different. That's Because If You're The Same, So Are Plenty Of Other People.

People

Different

Way

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

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

When The Legacy You Leave Behind Lasts For Hours, Days Or A Lifetime, You Matter.

Greatness

Legacy

Matter

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.

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