If You Demand That Everything That Happens Be Something You Are Adequately Prepared For, I Wonder If You’ve Chosen Never To Leap In Ways That We Need You To Leap. Once We Embrace This Chasm, Then For The Things For Which We Can Never Be Prepared, We Are Of Course, Always Prepared.

-Seth Godin

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If You Demand That

Seth Godin

Topic

The Problem With Requiring People To Be Loud And Angry To Get Things Done Is That You're Now Surrounded By People Who Are Loud And Angry.

People

Done

Problem

The Problem With Working With A Coach Isn't That We Don't Know What To Do. The Real Problem Is That We Don't Want To Change Our Mind.

Real

Marketing

Mind

People Get Good Gigs Because They Stand Up....you Don't Get Picked. Reject The Tyranny Of Picked. Pick Yourself.

People

Mind Your Own Business

Gigs

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

Faced With The Opportunity To Become The Category Of One, We Almost Always Hesitate, Almost Always Compromise, Almost Always Dumb It Down To Play It A Little Bit Safer

Opportunity

Play

Dumb

The Secret To Being Wrong Isn't To Avoid Being Wrong! The Secret Is Being Willing To Be Wrong. The Secret Is Realizing That Wrong Isn't Fatal.

Failure

Secret

Realizing

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

Competition

Littles

Reason

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

Art

Practice

Creating

When We Think About What Might Go Wrong, We're More Likely To Design Something That Goes Right.

Thinking

Design

Might

Those That Spend The Most Effort In Search Of Shortcuts Are Often The Most Disappointed And The Least Successful.

Successful

Effort

Shortcuts

If You Have No Wish, How Can It Possibly Come True?

Passion

Wish

Ifs

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

Appreciation

Culture

Employee Engagement

As The Amount Of Inputs Go Up, As The Number Of People And Ideas That Clamor For Attention Continue To Increase, We Do What People Always Do: We Rely On The Familiar, The Trusted And The Personal. The Incredible Surplus Of Digital Data Means That Human Actions, Generosity And Sacrifice Are More Important Than They Ever Were Before.

Inspirational

Mean

Sacrifice

You Don't Need A New Plan For Next Year. You Need A Commitment.

Commitment

Years

Needs

Products That Are Remarkable Get Talked About.

Marketing

Remarkable

Products

Great Boss Is Challenging People In The Right Way. Leading, Not Managing. Supporting Them By Giving Them Both A Platform They Can Count On And Expectations They Can Stretch For.

People

Giving

Expectations

In Fact, Most Of The Time, People With Similar Information, Similar Beliefs And Similar Apparent Choices Will Choose Similar Actions. So If You Want To Know Why Someone Does What They Do, Start With What They Know, What They Believe And Where They Came From. Dismissing Actions We Don't Admire Merely Because We Don't Care Enough To Have Empathy Is Rarely Going To Help Us Make The Change We Seek. It Doesn't Help Us Understand, And It Creates A Gulf That Drives Us Apart.

Believe

People

Choices

A Big Part Of Doing Your Work Is Defending Your Time And Your Attention So You Can Do Your Work.

Attention

Bigs

Can Do

Every Day I Meet People Who Have So Much To Give But Have Been...frighten Ed Enough To Hold It Back. It's Time To Stop Complying With The System And Draw Your Own Map. You Have Brilliance In You, Your Contribution Is Essential, And The Art You Create Is Precious. Only You Can Do It, And You Must.

Art

People

Giving

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

Status Quo

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

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

Business

Smart

Way

Debt Creates Stress, Stress Creates Behaviors That Don't Lead To Happiness.

Stress

Health

Inspire

Genius Is The Act Of Solving A Problem In A Way No One Has Solved It Before.

Genius

Way

Problem

The Job Is Not The Work.

Jobs

Conformist

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

Business

Trying

A Brilliant Author Or Businesswoman Or Senator Or Software Engineer Is Brilliant Only In Tiny Bursts. The Rest Of The Time, They’re Doing Work That Most Any Trained Person Could Do.

Tiny

Brilliant

Software

Successful People Are Successful For One Simple Reason: They Think About Failure Differently.

Successful

Simple

Thinking

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

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.

Stars

Book

Perfect

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

Art

Real

Wonder

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

'how Was Your Day?' Is A Question That Matters A Lot More Than It Seems.

Matter

Seems

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

The Job Isn't To Catch Up To The Status Quo; The Job Is To Invent The Status Quo.

Jobs

Positivity

Status Quo

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

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

Believe

What Matters

Facts

Organizations Grow When They Persuade A Tiny Cadre To Be Passionate, Not When They Touch Millions With A Mediocre Message

Organization

Passionate

Tiny

If It's Work, We Try To Figure Out How To Do Less, If It's Art, We Try To Figure Out How To Do More

Art

Trying

Figures

I Don't Think There's A Shortage Of Remarkable Ideas. I Think Your Business Has Plenty Of Great Opportunities To Do Great Things. Nope, What's Missing Isn't The Ideas. It's The Will To Execute Them.

Opportunity

Thinking

Ideas

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

Real

Talking

Marketing

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

Opportunity

People

Giving

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

Leader

Charismatic

Being A Leader

Just As We Don't Spend A Lot Of Time Worrying About How All Those Poets Out There Are Going To Monetize Their Poetry, The Same Is True For Most Bloggers.

Funny

Thoughtful

Worry

I Think It's Fascinating To Note That Some Of The Most Successful Organizations Of Our Time Got There By Focusing Obsessively On Service, Viewing Compensation As An Afterthought Or A Side Effect. As Marketing Gets More And More Expensive, It Turns Out That Caring For People Is A Useful Shortcut To Trust, Which Leads To All The Other Things That A Growing Organization Seeks.

Successful

Caring

Thinking

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

Fashion

Unexpected

Unexpected Places

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

People

Marketing

Stories

When You Put Your Ideas In The World, Then, And Only Then, Do You Know If They're Real.

Real

Ideas

World

Be Relentlessly Generous, Without Focusing On When It Will Come Back To You.

Generous

People Are Not Afraid Of Failure, They're Afraid Of Blame.

Leadership

People

Engagement

If You Can Influence The Outcome, Do The Work. If You Can't Influence The Outcome, Ignore The Possibility. It's Merely A Distraction.

Outcomes

Influence

Distraction

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

Greatness

Justice

Tasks

So Sure, Start With A Slogan. But Don't Bother Wasting Any Time On It If You're Merely Going For Catchy. Aim For True Instead.

Catchy

Aim

Bother

My Problem With The Search For The Badge Of Real Is That It Trades Your Goals And Your Happiness For Someone Else's.

Real

Goal

Problem

Everyone Is Not Your Customer.

Business

Customers

Bullhorns Are Overrated: Having Ten Times As Many Twitter Followers Generates Approximately Zero Times As Much Value.

Zero

Marketing

Followers

People Watch What You Do More Than Listen To What You Say.

People

Watches

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

No One Knows More About The Way You Think Than You Do.

Thinking

Way

Knows

One Key To Learning And Success Is The Willingness To Try Something New, And Feel Momentarily Incompetent.

Keys

Trying

Something New

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

It's Rare To Find A Consistently Creative Or Insightful Person Who Is Also An Angry Person. They Can't Occupy The Same Space, And If Your Anger Moves In, Generosity And Creativity Often Move Out. It's Difficult To Use Revenge Or Animus To Fuel Great Work.

Revenge

Moving

Anger

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

Different

I Intentionally Abandoned The Hard Stuff Early On Because Not Only Do I Think It's Useless, I Think It's A Distraction.

Thinking

Entrepreneur

Useless

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

Mean

Anxiety

Imaginary

Great Leaders Create Movements By Empowering The Tribe To Communicate. They Establish The Foundation For People To Make Connections, As Opposed To Commanding People To Follow Them.

People

Empowering

Leader

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

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

Thinking

World

Way

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

Mirrors

Important

In A Battle Between Two Ideas, The Best One Doesn't Necessarily Win. No, The Idea That Wins Is The One With The Most Fearless Heretic Behind It.

Motivational

Inspiring

Leadership

We Do Not Need To Teach Students To Embrace The Status Quo.

Needs

Students

Embrace

Marketing Management Is Now Tribal Leadership.

Marketing

Management

Every Single Important Thing We Do Is Something We Didn't Use To Be Good At, And In Fact, Might Be Something We Used To Fear.

Important

Use

Might

A Dialogue Leads To Connection, Which Leads To Trust Which Leads To Engagement

Connections

Engagement

Dialogue

The Organizations Of The Future Are Filled With Smart, Fast, Flexible People On A Mission

Smart

Organization

People

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

Business

Light

Air

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

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

The Art, The New, The Ability To Connect The Dots And To Make An Impact - Sooner Or Later, That Can Only Come From One Who Creates, Not From A Teacher And Not From A Book.

Teacher

Art

Book

I Think Art Is The Ability To Change People With Your Work, To See Things As They Are And Then Create Stories, Images, And Interactions That Change The Marketplace.

Art

Thinking

People

Art Is The Act Of Navigating Without A Map.

Art

Maps

Art Is

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

The Only Long-term Motivation Is Self Motivation. So Hire People Who Are Self Motivated And Get Out Of Their Way.

Motivation

Self

Long

People Who Make A Difference Never Wait For Just The Right Time. They Know That It Will Never Arrive.

Differences

People

Waiting

Every Voice Doesn't Matter--only The Voices That Move Your Idea Forward, That Make It Better, That Make You Better, That Make It More Likely You Will Ship Work That Benefits Your Tribe.

Moving

Ideas

Voice

If I Fail More Than You Do, I Win.

Winning

Failing

Ifs

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. For Now.

Running

Path

Where You Are

The Only Thing All Successful People Have In Common Is That They're Successful, So Don't Waste Your Time Copying "the Successful Strategies" Of Others.

Creativity

Successful

People

Conversations Among The Members Of Your Marketplace Happen Whether You Like It Or Not. Good Marketing Encourages The Right Sort Of Conversations.

Inspirational

Marketing

Social Media

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

People

Copying

Pay

Here's The Thing: The Book That Will Most Change Your Life Is The Book You Write.

Book

Writing

Inspire

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

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

Communication Is The Transfer Of Emotion.

Communication

Emotion

Transfers

I Hope I'm Better Looking Than Yoda, But - I'm Really Interested In People Who Have Something To Say, A Change They Want To Make And Can't Figure Out Why They Can't Make It Spread.

People

Want

Figures

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

Learning Is Not Done To You, It Is Something You Choose To Do.

Done

You Choose

That's Your Opportunity - To Approach Your Work In A Way That Generates Unique Learning And Interactions That Are Worth Sharing.

Unique

Opportunity

Way

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

Business

Simple

Priorities

If You're Not Willing To Get Your 'worst One Ever' Out Of The Way, How Will You Possibly Do Better Than That?

Way

Worst

Willing

It Might Be Bold To Put Your Work Into The World Unadorned, But It's Probably Ineffective.

World

Might

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

Great Innovations, Powerful Interactions And Real Art Are Often Produced By Someone In A State Of Wonder. Looking Around With Stars In Your Eyes And Amazement At The Tools That Are Available To You Can Inspire Generosity And Creativity And Connection

Art

Stars

Powerful

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

Wrecks

Persons

An Artist Is Someone Who Uses Bravery, Insight, Creativity, And Boldness To Challenge The Status Quo. And An Artist Takes It Personally.

Art

Business

Creativity

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

Inspirational

Fear

Smart

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

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.

Dark

Mushrooms

Return

The Way To Get Unstuck Is To Start Down The Wrong Path, Right Now.

Way

Path

Wrong Path

Remarkable Work Is Always Not On The List, Because If It Was, It Would Be Commonplace, Not Remarkable.

Would Be

Lists

Remarkable

Canoeing Was Hard And Scary, And The Wind Could Blow You Across The Lake If You Did It Wrong. After A Year Of Not Doing It Right, I Could Talk To People And Get Them To Sit Up Straight, Take Different Kinds Of Chances, To Breathe Differently, To Engage In The Moment In The Boat. And I Changed Them, And I Changed Me In The Process.

Blow

Years

Wind

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

Marketing

Way

Commodity

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

Great Work Is Always Shunned At First.

Firsts

Great Work

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

Dream

Way

Happens

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

One Bad Review Doesn't Ruin My Day Because I Realize What A Badge Of Honor It Is To Get A Bit Of Criticism At All.

Honor

Criticism

Ruins

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

Inspirational

Philosophical

Bravery

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

Relationship

Inspiring

Empathy

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

Somewhere Else

Choices

Proud

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

Hurt

Scarcity

Quitting

If You Hear My Idea And Dont Believe It , Thats Not Your Fault Its Mine.

Believe

Ideas

Faults

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

Ideas

World

Care

The Value We Create Is Directly Related To How Much Valuable Information We Can Produce, How Much Trust We Can Earn, And How Often We Innovate.

Motivational

Information

Produce

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

The World Is Begging For You To Lead.

World

Begging

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

Ifs

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.

Inspirational

Positive

Positivity

If You Want To Dig A Big Hole, You Need To Stay In One Place.

Change

Needs

Want

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

Greatness

Matter

Rooms

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

Differences

Settling

Starting

Treat Different People Differently. Anything Else Is A Compromise.

People

Different

Compromise

If Failure Is Not An Option, Then Neither Is Success.

Failure Is Not An Option

Ifs

The Conversation Is Happening About Your Brand Whether You're A Part Of It Or Not.

Conversation

Brands

Happenings

Art Is The Act Of Doing Work That Matters While Dancing With The Voice In Your Head That Screams For You To Stop.

Art

Voice

Dancing

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

Way

Very Good

Grows

The Definition Of A Revolution: It Destroys The Perfect And Enables The Impossible.

Perfect

Definitions

Revolution

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

Tell Your Lizard (brain) To Shut Up.

Brain

Lizards

Shut Up

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

No Is The Foundation That We Can Build Our Yes On.

Foundation

Letting Your Customers Set Your Standards Is A Dangerous Game, Because The Race To The Bottom Is Pretty Easy To Win. Setting Your Own Standards--and Living Up To Them--is A Better Way To Profit. Not To Mention A Better Way To Make Your Day Worth All The Effort You Put Into It." -

Leadership

Business

Winning

The Mistake So Many Marketers Make Is That They Conjoin The Urgency Of Making Another Sale With The Timing To Earn The Right To Make That Sale. In Other Words, You Must Build Trust Before You Need It. Building Trust Right When You Want To Make A Sale Is Just Too Late.

Mistake

Book

Marketing

Do You Believe In What You Do? Every Day? It Turns Out That Belief Happens To Be A Brilliant Strategy.

Believe

Belief

Brilliant

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

Don't Find Customers For Your Products, Find Products For Your Customers.

Motivational

Business

Loyal Customers

For Most Modern Marketers, Quantity Isn't The Point. What Matters Is To Matter. Lives Changed. Work That Made An Actual Difference. Connection.

Life Changing

What Matters

Differences

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

Dream

Special

Amplify

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

Running

Media

Games

Fear Is The Dream Killer, The Silent Voice That Pushes Us To Lose Our Passion In A Vain Attempt To Seek Safety.

Dream

Passion

Voice

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

Hard Work

Greatness

Becoming

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.

Failing

Missions

Plans

Personalizatio N Wasn't Supposed To Be A Cleverly Veiled Way To Chase Prospects Around The Web, Showing Them The Same Spammy Ad For The Same Lame Stuff As Everyone Else Sees. No, It Is A Chance To Differentiate At A Human Scale, To Use Behavior As The Most Important Clue About What People Want And More Important, What They Need.

People

Important

Use

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

Leaders Who Set Out To Give Are More Productive Than Leaders Who Seek To Get.

Giving

Leader

Productive

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

Doing Nothing

Should

Remarkable

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

Matter

Succeed

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

When You Are Trusted Because You Care, It's Quite Likely The Revenue Will Take Care Of Itself

Care

Take Care

Revenue

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

Customers

Products

Ifs

No One Is As Smart As All Of Us.

Smart

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

The First Rule Of Doing Work That Matters: Go To Work On A Regular Basis.

Matter

Firsts

Bases

The Key To Success Is To Find A Way To Stand Out--to Be The Purple Cow In A Field Of Monochrome Holsteins.

Keys

Purple

Cows

The Enemy Of Fear Is Creativity.

Creativity

Enemy

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

There's No Map For Being An Artist.

Artist

Maps

Being An Artist

Be Genuine. Be Remarkable. Be Worth Connecting With.

Genuine

Remarkable

Connecting

The Problem With Holding A Grudge Is That Your Hands Are Then Too Full To Hold Onto Anything Else.

Hands

Problem

Grudge

Fitting In Is A Short-term Strategy That Gets You Nowhere. Standing Out Is A Long-term Strategy That Takes Guts And Produces Results.

Positivity

Long

Strategy

Go Ahead, Do Something Impossible.

Greatness

Impossible

My Best Advice: Win Little Battles. Get In The Habit Of Winning, Of Shipping, Of Having Customers That Can't Live Without You. Once You've Demonstrated You Know How To Do The Art, Then Go After The Windmills.

Art

Winning

Advice

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

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

Waiting

Bars

Mediocrity

A Brand That Stands For What All Brands Stand For Stands For Nothing Much.

Brands

Reject The Tyranny Of Picked. Pick Yourself.

Mind Your Own Business

Tyranny

Poke

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

Giving People What They Want Isn't Always What They Want.

People

Giving

Want

At The Heart Of Art Is Learning To See

Art

Heart

Art Is

That The Horrible Zika Virus Or Hiv, We Can Look At What It Means To Be Patient Zero, What It Means To Need Not Much Contact To Spread, And All Of Those Things Follow Into The Way Ideas Spread.

Zero

Mean

Ideas

Design Is The Last Great Competitive Advantage.

Design

Lasts

Advantage

Art Is When We Do Work That Matters In A Creative Way, In A Way That Touches (people) And Changes Them For The Better.

Art

People

Creative

Studying Entrepreneurshi P Without Doing It... Is Like Studying The Appreciation Of Music Without Listening To It.

Appreciation

Listening

Study

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

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.

Persons

Care. Care More Than You Need To, More Often Than Expected, More Completely Than The Other Guy.

Guy

Needs

Care

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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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