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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.
-Seth Godin
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If You Have A

Seth Godin
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.
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Book
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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.
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One Key To Learning And Success Is The Willingness To Try Something New, And Feel Momentarily Incompetent.
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Art Is What We Call...the Thing An Artist Does. It's Not The Medium Or The Oil Or The Price Or Whether It Hangs On A Wall Or You Eat It. What Matters, What Makes It Art, Is That The Person Who Made It Overcame The Resistance, Ignored The Voice Of Doubt And Made Something Worth Making. Something Risky. Something Human. Art Is Not In The ...eye Of The Beholder. It's In The Soul Of The Artist.
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The First Step To Getting Good Is Admitting That You Aren't (yet).
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You Are Far More Likely To Do Your Best Work If You Are Willing To Delight A Few As Opposed To Soothe The Masses.
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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.
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Believe In What You Do, Because You May Have To Do It For A Long Time Before It Catches On.
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Great Stories Agree With Our Worldview. The Best Stories Don't Teach People Anything New. Instead The Best Stories Agree With What The Audience Already Believes And Makes The Members Of The Audience Feel Smart And Secure When Reminded How Right They Were In The Thirst Place.
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Teaching Young People To Sell Is A Priceless Gift.
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I'm Not Proposing That You Let The Crowd Dictate, Or That You Work Hard To Fit In. Far From It. I'm Proposing That You Know The Impact Your Choices Are Having And Act Accordingly.
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The Goal Is To Be On The Hook, Not To Let Someone Else Do The Scary Parts.
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You Can Use Social Media To Turn Strangers Into Friends, Friends Into Customers And Customers Into Salespeople.
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No, The Only Way To Know What People Think Is To Watch What They Do, Not What They Say. Do They Come Back For More? Do You Cause Them To Change Their Behavior? Can You Make Them Smile?
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Sign Your Work...if You're Not Proud Of It, Don't Ship It. If You Are, Sign Your Work And Own The Results. We'll Know Who To Thank. If You Work For A Place Where Work Goes Unsigned (internally, In Particular) It's Worth Asking Why.
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The Combination Of Fear And Ignorance (two Sides Of The Same Coin) Can Be Paralyzing.
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Copy, Not From Your Industry, From Others. You Have To Go Where There Is No Competition.
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Don't Have Any Meetings About Your Web Strategy. Just Do Stuff. First You Have To Fail, Then You Can Improve.
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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.
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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.
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You Don't Make Art After You Become An Artist. You Become An Artist By Ceaselessly Making Art.
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At The Heart Of Art Is Learning To See
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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.
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If There Isn't A Good Reason, Go Home. If There Is, Then Do Something ... Loud, Now, And Memorable.
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You Don't Have Enough Time To Be Both Unhappy & Mediocre. It's Not Just Pointless; It's Painful.
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Anxiety Is Practising Failure In Advance. Anxiety Is Needless And Imaginary. It's Fear About Fear, Fear That Means Nothing.
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Instead Of Focusing On Arguing With People Who Say No, It Might Be Easier To Get Near The People Who Like To Say Yes.
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Blaming The System Is Soothing Because It Lets You Off The Hook. But When The System Is Broken, We Wonder Why You Were Relying In The System In The First Place.
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Emotional Labor Is Available To All Of Us, But It Is Rarely Exploited As A Competitive Advantage.
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Take The Long Way. Do The Hard Work, Consistently And With Generosity And Transparency. And Then You Won't Waste Time Doing It Over.
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Kickstarter Isn't A Profit Center, It's An Organizer And An Instigator.
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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.
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For Most Modern Marketers, Quantity Isn't The Point. What Matters Is To Matter. Lives Changed. Work That Made An Actual Difference. Connection.
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Skepticism Doesn't Help You Hear.
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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?
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We Don't Need More Stuff, We Need More Humanity.
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Anyone Who Says Failure Is Not An Option Has Also Ruled Out Innovation.
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Authenticy In Marketing Is Telling A Story People Want To Hear.
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The Purpose Of An Elevator Pitch Is To Describe A Situation Or Solution So Compelling That The Person You're With Wants To Hear More Even After The Elevator Ride Is Over.
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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.
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Conversations Among The Members Of Your Marketplace Happen Whether You Like It Or Not. Good Marketing Encourages The Right Sort Of Conversations.
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Making Promises And Keeping Them Is A Great Way To Build A Brand.
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If You Could Do Tomorrow Over Again, Would You?
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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.
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This Might End Up In Crying. If You're Not Prepared To Cry About It, I'm Not Sure You're Making Art. And If You're Not Prepared To Dance In Anticipation, You're Definitely Not Making Art.
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You Don't Win An Olympic Gold Medal With A Few Weeks Of Intensive Training. There's No Such Thing As An Overnight Opera Sensation. Great Law Firms Or Design Companies Don't Spring Up Overnight... Every Great Company, Every Great Brand, And Every Great Career Has Been Built In Exactly The Same Way: Bit By Bit, Step By Step, Little By Little.
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Instead Of Working Hard To Keep Their Share Of A Shrinking Pie, Or Working Even Harder To Make Sure The Industry Stays As Is, I Think The Most Essential Thing Legacy Book Industry Players Can Do Is Set Up Independent Ventures With Great People And Little Interference And Work Really Hard To Put Themselves Out Of Business By Starting At The Bottom, Not By Reinforcing The Top.
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If You Want To Get In Shape, Go To The #‎ Gym Every Single Day, Change Your Clothes And Take A Shower. If You Can Do That Every Single Day For A Month, Pretty Soon You'll Start Doing Something While You're There.
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The Only Long-term Motivation Is Self Motivation. So Hire People Who Are Self Motivated And Get Out Of Their Way.
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We Live In A Vague World. And It Gets Vaguer All The Time. In This Environment, The Power Of The Specific, Measurable And Useful Promise Made And Kept Is Difficult To Overstate.
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Excellence Isn’t About Working Extra Hard To Do What You’re Told. It’s About Taking The Initiative To Do Work You Decide Is Worth Doing.
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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.
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Acknowledge To Yourself That The Factory Job Is Dead. Having A Factory Job Is Not A Natural State. It Wasn't At The Heart Of Being Human Until Very Recently. We've Been Culturally Brainwashed.
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Your Audacious Life Goals Are Fabulous. We're Proud Of You For Having Them. But It's Possible That Those Goals Are Designed To Distract You From The Thing That's Really Frightening You--the Shift In Daily Habits That Would Mean A Re-invention Of How You See Yourself.
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By The Time There Is A Case Study About Your Industry, You Are Already Too Late.
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The Art Of Good Decision Making Is Looking Forward To And Celebrating The Tradeoffs, Not Pretending They Don't Exist.
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What Evidence Would You Need To See To Change Your Mind About This?
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The Rules Are Now Clear: No One Is Going To Inform You, But It's Easier Than Ever To Inform Yourself.
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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.
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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.
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The Librarian Isn't A Clerk Who Happens To Work In A Library. A Librarian Is A Data Hound, A Guide, A Sherpa And A Teacher. The Librarian Is The Interface Between Reams Of Data And The Untrained But Motivated User.
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Care. Care More Than You Need To, More Often Than Expected, More Completely Than The Other Guy.
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Market-driven Design Builds The Success Of The Product's Marketing Into The Product Itself.
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The Goal Has Never Been To Always Succeed. The Goal Is To Be Allowed To Keep Initiating.
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Being Charismatic Doesn't Make You A Leader. Being A Leader Makes You Charismatic.
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It Takes Three Years To Be An Overnight Success, Sometimes More.
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Do You Know What People Want More Than Anything? They Want To Be Missed.
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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!
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Our Cultural Instinct Is To Wait To Get Pickedno One Is Going To Pick You. Pick Yourself.
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It Takes Confidence And Guts To Intentionally Create Tension.
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The Problem With The Race To The Bottom Is That You Might Win
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Art Is The Act Of Navigating Without A Map.
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The Best Favors Are Worth Doing For The Doing, Not Because We'll Ever Get Paid Back Appropriately.
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Go Do Something Interesting. Ask If You Need Help.
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The Question Isn’t Whether Or Not You Should Wait To Be Picked, The Question Is Whether You Care Enough To Pick Yourself.
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Increasingly, There Are Only Two Kinds Of Companies: Brave And Dead.
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Embracing The Fear Of Freedom, Deciding To Determine Your Own Path, This Is The Work Of A Grownup.
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The Youtube Video Maker Gets More Out Of Making A Video Than You Get Out Of Watching It.
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As Soon As You Are Willing To Say 'it's Not For You', You're Freed Up To Make Art.
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Fundamentalist Is A Person Who Considers Whether A Fact Is Acceptable To Their Faith Before They Explore It. As Opposed To A Curious Person Who Explores First And Then Considers Whether Or Not They Want To Accept The Ramifications.
Curiosity
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Marketers Have To Move Upstream Now. We Have To Stop Being The Last Step In The Process And Start Being The First Step.
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Lasts
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Every Great Company, Brand, Career Has Been Built In Exactly The Same Way: Bit By Bit, Step By Step, Little By Little.
Careers
Littles
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Surprise Comes From Defying Expectations.
Expectations
Surprise
Defying
Art Is The Work Of A Human, An Individual Seeking To Make A Statement, To Cause A Reaction, To Connect. Art Is Something New, Every Time, And Art Might Not Work, Precisely Because It's New, Because It's Human And Because It Seeks To Connect.
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There's No Shortage Of Great Ideas. There's A Shortage Of Execution.
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Everyone Is Not Your Customer.
Business
Customers
It's Time To Stop Complying With The System And Draw Your Own Map. Stop Settling For What's Good Enough And Start Creating Art That Matters.
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Creating
Maps
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
As Long As You Want To Please Everyone, You Won't Please Anyone.
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Please
We Notice What We Choose To Notice.
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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.
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Long
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In Other Words, If You Don't Take Action, You Won't Get Any Results You Are Not Your Resume, You Are Your Work
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Resumes
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.
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Way
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.
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Persistence Isn't Using The Same Tactics Over And Over. Persistence Is Having The Same Goal Over And Over.
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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.
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Entertainment Has Seduced Us Into Believing That We Have A Chance To Live The Life They Live In The Movies. Even The People In The Movies Don't Live That Life. It Doesn't Take 135 Minutes To Make A Life, It Takes Almost A Century. Everything Doesn't Depend On What Happens In The Next Ninety Seconds. Ever.
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Live Life
People
I Think The Most Productive Thing To Do During Times Of Change Is To Be Your Best Self, Not The Best Version Of Someone Else.
Thinking
Self
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One Way To Work The System Is To Work The System. The Other Way Is To Refuse To Work It.
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Working It
Refuse
The Status Quo Is Leaving The Building, And Quickly.
Leaving
Mediocrity
Building
You Don't Need A New Plan For Next Year. You Need A Commitment.
Commitment
Years
Needs
People Rarely Buy What They Need. They Buy What They Want.
Business
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Entrepreneur
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
The Job Isn't To Catch Up To The Status Quo; The Job Is To Invent The Status Quo.
Jobs
Positivity
Status Quo
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
There Are Lots Of Good Reasons To Abandon A Project. Having A Little Competition Is Not One Of Them.
Competition
Littles
Reason
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.
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Inspiring
Leadership
In A Crowded Marketplace, Fitting In Is A Failure. In A Busy Marketplace, Not Standing Out Is The Same As Being Invisible.
Marketing
Busy
Invisible
It's Easy To Be Afraid Of Taking A Plunge, Because, After All, Plunging Is Dangerous. And The Fear Is A Safe Way To Do Nothing At All. Wading, On The Other Hand, Gets Under The Radar. It Gives You A Chance To Begin.
Hands
Giving
Safe
The People Who Are The Best In The World Specialize At Getting Really Good At The Questions They Don't Know.
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World
Knows
Make More Decisions. That's The Only Way To Get Better At It.
Decision
Get Better
Way
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
In A Long Distance Race, Everyone Gets Tired. The Winner Is The Runner Who Figures Out Where To Put The Tired, Figures Out How To Store It Away Until After The Race Is Over. Sure, He's Tired. Everyone Is. That's Not The Point. The Point Is To Run.
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Tired
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
Art Changes Posture And Posture Changes Innocent Bystanders.
Art
Bystanders
Innocent
When You Can Swim, Who Cares How Deep The Water Is?
Water
Swim
Who Cares
A Dialogue Leads To Connection, Which Leads To Trust Which Leads To Engagement
Connections
Engagement
Dialogue
We Need To Care Enough To Connect, To Put Ourselves At Emotional Risk And Play One Note Worth Hearing.
Emotional
Play
Risk
Don't Fix Me; Love Me For What's Broken.
Love
Motivational
Broken
Art Isn't Only A Painting; It's Anything That Changes Someone For The Better, Any Nonanonymous Interaction That Leads To A Human (not Simply A Commercial) Conclusion.
Art
Painting
Conclusion
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
Strategic Quitting Is The Secret Of Successful Organizations
Successful
Organization
Secret
Mass Marketing Means Appealing To The Masses Which Means Appealing To The Average.
Mean
Average
Marketing
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
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
It's Uncomfortable To Challenge The Status Quo.
Challenges
Mediocrity
Status Quo
Human Nature Is To Need A Map. If You’re Brave Enough To Draw One, People Will Follow.
People
Brave
Needs
While You May Have Made Money Doing Something A Certain Way Yesterday, There's No Reason To Believe You'll Succeed At It Tomorrow.
Believe
Yesterday
May
The Answer To The Question "where Do Good Ideas Come From" Is Always The Same, The Come From Bad Ideas. If You Come Up With 20 Bad Ideas You Get One Good One.
Ideas
Answers
Come Up
Two Elements Of Successful Leadership: A Willingness To Be Wrong And An Eagerness To Admit It.
Successful
Two
Elements
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
The Thing About Goals Is That Living Without Them Is A Lot More Fun, In The Short Run. It Seems To Me, Though, That The People Who Get Things Done, Who Lead, Who Grow And Who Make An Impact . . . Those People Have Goals.
Running
Fun
Impact
Learning Is Not Done To You, It Is Something You Choose To Do.
Done
You Choose
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 Don't Get It Built, The Work Doesn't Matter.
Matter
Built
Ifs
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
The Largest Enemy Of Change Isn't 'no', It's 'not Yet' - That Is The Easiest Way To Forestall Change.
Enemy
Way
Basically You Create Your Experience Through Your Beliefs About Yourself And The Nature Of Reality. Another Way To Understand This Is To Realize That You Create Your Experiences Through Your Expectations.
Nature
Reality
Expectations
The Future Of Marketing Is Leadership
Marketing
If You Can Raise Money, You're Never Going To Have Trouble Getting A Job.
Jobs
Trouble
Raises
The One Path That Never Works Is The Most Common One: Doing Nothing At All.
Doing Nothing
Path
Tribes
Don’t Be Different Just To Be Different. Be Different To Be Better.
Different
Genius Is The Act Of Solving A Problem In A Way No One Has Solved It Before.
Genius
Way
Problem
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
Dreams Are Difficult To Build And Easy To Destroy.
Dream
Easy
Difficult
The Rest Of The World Isn't Nearly As Important As The Few Who Are Here.
Life
Motivational
Work
In The Long Run, Doing Work That's Important Leads To More Happiness Than Doing Work That's Merely Profitable.
Running
Long
Important
Where Do You Go To Get Permission To Make A Dent In The Universe ? If You Think There's A Chance You Can Make A Dent, Go !
Thinking
Chance
Permission
Good Ideas Come From Bad Ideas, But Only If There Are Enough Of Them.
Ideas
Motivational Business
Enough
Who Gets To Decide What You Want?
Choices
Want
What You Want
Competence Is No Longer Scarce.
Competence
Scarce
The Person Who Fails The Most Wins.
Winning
Failing
Persons
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.
Needs
Demand
Way
An Organization Filled With Honest, Motivated, Connected, Eager, Learning, Experimenting, Ethical And Driven People Will Always Defeat The One That Merely Has Talent. Every Time.
Organization
People
Honest
The Reason They Want You To Fit In... Is That Once You Do, Then They Can Ignore You.
Mediocrity
Want
Fit
You Are Not Your Resume, You Are Your Work.
Motivational
Inspiring
Business
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
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
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 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
One Way To Think About Running A Successful Business Is To Figure Out What The Least You Can Do Is, And Do That.
Running
Business
Successful
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
Marketing Begins Before The Product Is Launched.
Inspiring
Business
Marketing
Everyone Picks The Best One When Given A Choice.
Choices
Given
Picks
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
I Define Anxiety As Experiencing Failure In Advance.
Anxiety
Challenges
You Have To Find A Group That Really Desperately Cares About What It Is You Have To Say. Talk To Them. They Have Something I Call Otaku. It's A Great Japanese Word. It Describes The Desire Of Someone Who's Obsessed To, Say, Drive Across Tokyo To Try A New Ramen Noodle Place 'cause That's What They Do, They Get Obsessed With It.
Desire
Trying
Care
Nine Years Of Experience Is Very Different From One Year Of Experience, Nine Times.
Years
Different
Nine
The Reason Social Media Is So Difficult For Most Organizations: It’s A Process, Not An Event.
Media
Organization
Events
What People Are Afraid Of Isn't Failure. It's Blame. Criticism.
People
Criticism
Blame
People Who Can Spread Ideas Regardless Of What Those Ideas Are, Win.
Winning
Ideas
People
The Application Process Changes The List Of Who Applies. Your Applicants Reflect Your Methods.
Business
Lists
Process
When The Legacy You Leave Behind Lasts For Hours, Days Or A Lifetime, You Matter.
Greatness
Legacy
Matter
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
I'm Not A Psychopath-i'm Wearing A Tie!
Ties
Psychopath
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
The Resistance Is Not Something To Be Avoided, It's Something To Seek Out.
Resistance
Avoided
The Internet Was Supposed To Homogenize Everyone By Connecting Us All. Instead What It's Allowed Is Silos Of Interest.
Internet
Interest
Connecting
I Think "creativity" Is Better Described As Failing Repeatedly Until You Get Something Right.
Creativity
Thinking
Failing
Not Changing Your Strategy Merely Because You're Used To The One You Have Now Is A Lousy Strategy.
Strategy
Used
You Can Be Right Or You Can Have Empathy. You Can't Do Both.
Relationship
Inspiring
Empathy
Books Work As An Art Form (and An Economic One) Because They Are Primarily The Work Of An Individual.
Art
Book
Writing
Defending Mediocrity Is Exhausting.
Mediocrity
Exhausting
If You Try To Delight The Undelightable, You've Made Yourself Miserable For No Reason.
Trying
Delight
Miserable
Selling To People Who Actually Want To Hear From You Is More Effective Than Interrupting Strangers Who Don't.
Motivation
People
Marketing
At The Age Of Four, You Were An Artist. And At Seven, You Were A Poet.
Artist
Age
Four
If It's Worth Doing, It's Worth Doing Well.
Best Effort
Worth Waiting For
Chinese Proverb
It's Pretty Easy To Decide To Roll With The Punches, To Look At The Enormity Of Natural Disaster And Choose To Hunker Down And Do Less. It's More Important Than Ever, I Think, To Persist And Make A Dent In The Universe Instead. We've All Been Offered Access To So Many Tools, So Many Valuable Connections, So Many Committed People. What An Opportunity.
Opportunity
Thinking
People
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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