It's Not About You, It's About The Next Person. The Single Best Use Of A Business Book Is To Help Someone Else. Sharing What You Read, Handing The Book To A Person Who Needs It... Pushing Those Around You To Get In Sync And To Take Action-that's The Main Reason It's A Book, Not A Video Or A Seminar. A Book Is A Souvenir And A Container And A Motivator And An Easily Leveraged Tool. Hoarding Books Makes Them Worth Less, Not More.

-Seth Godin

Please Wait....
Translating....

It's Not About You,

Seth Godin

Topic

Business

Book

More From Seth Godin

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

Giving Up

Believe

Realistic

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

Playing The Game Is A Form Of Winning The Game. In Those Competitions, We Win By Being Resilient.

Winning

Games

Competition

The Opposite Of Coherent Is Interesting.

Opposites

Interesting

Action Or Inaction Are Both Forms Of Leadership And Standard Setting.

Action

Form

Standards

Good Advice Is Priceless. Not What You Want To Hear, But What You Need To Hear. Not Imaginary, But Practical. Not Based On Fear, But On Possibility. Not Designed To Make You Feel Better, Designed To Make You Better. Seek It Out And Embrace The True Friends That Care Enough To Risk Sharing It. I'm Not Sure What Takes More Guts-giving It Or Getting It.

True Friend

Feel Better

Giving

Human Nature Is To Need A Map. If You’re Brave Enough To Draw One, People Will Follow.

People

Brave

Needs

Evolution Is The Most Popular Way We Have For Dealing With Change.

Way

Evolution

Remember The Bob Dylan Rule: It's Not Just A Record, It's A Movement.

Music

Powerful

Records

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

Waiting

Too Late

Ready

Practice Works Because Practice Gives Us A Chance To Relax Enough To Make Smart Choices.

Motivational

Sports

Smart

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

One Way To Sell A Consumer Something In The Future Is Simply To Get His Or Her Permission In Advance.

Marketing

Way

Permission

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

Motivational

Writing

Player

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

Believe

Ideas

Faults

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

People

Watches

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

People

Giving

Want

I Do Not Think You Can Get Rid Of The Fear... But You Can Dance With It.

Thinking

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

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

Years

Bread

Firsts

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

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

Sleep

Making Money

Innovators

Every Revolution Destroys The Average Middle First And Most Savagely.

Average

Firsts

Revolution

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

Confusion

Choices

Faces

At The Heart Of Art Is Learning To See

Art

Heart

Art Is

Most People With A Big Idea, Great Talent And/or Something To Say Don't Get Lucky At First. Or Second. Or Even Third. It's So Easy To Conclude That If You're Not Lucky, You're Not Good. So Persistence Becomes An Essential Element Of Good, Because Without Persistence, You Never Get A Chance To Get Lucky.

Encouraging

Persistence

Ideas

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

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

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

People Talking About You Is Far More Effective Than Talking About Yourself.

Talking

People

About Yourself

The Myth That The Ceo Is Going To Discover You And Nurture You And Ask You To Join Her For Lunch Is Just That, A Hollywood Myth.

Life

Work

Lunch

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

Mediocrity

Want

Fit

Not Only Are Bloggers Suckers For The Remarkable, So Are The People Who Read Blogs.

People

Marketing

Blogging

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

Risking The Appearance Of Weakness Takes Strength. And The Market Knows It.

Weakness

Appearance

Knows

A Bully Is Playing A Game, One That He Or She Enjoys And Needs. You're Welcome To Play This Game If It Makes You Happy, But For Most People, It Will Make You Miserable.

Bullying

Games

Play

You Want It To Be Hard. If It's Hard, Then That Means Others Can't Do It Easily And You Can Charge For That Value.

Mean

Want

Hard

You Don't Make Art After You Become An Artist. You Become An Artist By Ceaselessly Making Art.

Life

Motivational

Art

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

Two

Brave

Kind

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

Understanding The Mythology Of Your Partner, Your Customer And Your Audience Is Far More Important Than Watching The Instant Replay Of What Actually Happened.

Understanding

Important

Instant Replay

Leadership, On The Other Hand, Is About Creating Change You Believe In.

Leadership

Believe

Hands

When We Think Of Design, We Usually Imagine Things That Are Chosen Because They Are Designed. Vases Or Comic Books Or Architecture... It Turns Out, Though, That Most Of What We Make Or Design Is Actually Aimed At A Public That Is There For Something Else. The Design Is Important, But The Design Is Not The Point. Call It "public Design"... Public Design Is For Individuals Who Have To Fill Out Our Tax Form, Interact With Our Website Or Check Into Our Hotel Room Despite The Way It's Designed, Not Because Of It.

Book

Thinking

Design

Measurement Is Fabulous. Unless You're Busy Measuring What's Easy To Measure As Opposed To What's Important

Important

Fabulous

Measurement

But This Is A Remarkable Egg, An Egg Worth Talking About, An Egg Worth Crossing The Street For, An Egg Worth Writing About.

Writing

Talking

Eggs

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

Art

Passion

Ideas

But If The Cow Is Purple, You'd Notice It, Ok? The Thing That's Going To Decide What Gets Talked About, What Gets Done, What Gets Changed, What Gets Purchased, What Gets Built Is, Is It Remarkable? And Remarkable's A Really Cool Word 'cause We Think It Just Means Neat, But It Also Means Worth Making A Remark About, And That Is The Essence Of Where Idea Diffusion Is Going.

Mean

Thinking

Essence

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

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

Way

Very Good

Grows

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

Giving

Leader

Productive

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

Obvious Things

Choices

Littles

The Enemy Of Fear Is Creativity.

Creativity

Enemy

The Less People Know, The More They Yell.

Communication

People

Knows

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

World

Might

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.

Purpose

Want

Elevators

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

People

Path

Easy

Saying No To Loud People Gives You The Resources To Say Yes To Important Opportunities.

Business

Opportunity

People

Competence Is The Enemy Of Change!

Change

Enemy

Competence

If There's Time For An Emergency, Why Isn't There Time For Brilliance, Generosity Or Learning?

Generosity

Choices

Emergencies

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

Art

Book

Writing

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

Motivational

Art

Business

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.

Book

Independent

Player

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

Greatness

Legacy

Matter

What Marketers Used To Do Is Make Average Products For Average People. That's What Mass Marketing Is. They Would Ignore The Geeks, And - God Forbid - The Laggards. It Was All About Going For The Center. I Don't Think That's The Strategy We Want To Use Anymore.

Thinking

Average

People

The Status Quo Is Leaving The Building, And Quickly.

Leaving

Mediocrity

Building

Set A Goal, And In Small, Consistent Steps, Work To Reach It. Get Support From Your Peers When You Start Flagging. Repeat. You Will Change.

Inspirational

Goal

Support

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're Going To Invest A Valuable Asset (like Time), Go Ahead And Make It Productive. Use A Postit Or Two, Or Some Index Cards Or A Highlighter. Not To Write Down Stuff So You Can Forget It Later, But To Create Marching Orders. It's Simple: If Three Weeks Go By And You Haven't Taken Action On What You've Written Down, You Wasted Your Time.

Business

Taken

Writing

The Only Thing Worse Than Starting Something And Failing... Is Not Starting Something.

Inspirational

Motivational

Inspiring

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

Leadership

Trying

Cost

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

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

Appreciation

Culture

Employee Engagement

You Can Use Social Media To Turn Strangers Into Friends, Friends Into Customers And Customers Into Salespeople.

Media

Use

Stranger

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

... 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

Success Brings With It The Fear Of Blowing It. With More To Lose, There's More Pressure Not To Lose It.

Pressure

Blowing It

Loses

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

Tasks

Difficult

Difficult Tasks

Mostly, The Best Way To Be The Next Mark Zuckerberg Is To Make Difficult Choices.

Zuckerberg

Difficult Choices

Way

If Your Organization Requires Success Before Commitment, It Will Never Have Either.

Business

Commitment

Organization

I Learned That A Long Walk And Calm Conversation Are An Incredible Combination If You Want To Build A Bridge.

Long Walks

Bridges

Want

Pain S The Truth Of Art. Art Is Not A Hobby Or A Pastime. It Is The Result Of An Internal Battle Royal, One Between The Quest For Safety And The Desire To Matter.

Art

Pain

Safety

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

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

Business

Smart

Way

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.

Asking Why

Proud

Ships

Change Isn't Made By Asking Permission. Change Is Made By Asking Forgiveness, Later.

Change

Asking Permission

Asking For Forgiveness

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

Go Do Something Interesting. Ask If You Need Help.

Interesting

Needs

Helping

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

Keys

Acting

Reputation

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

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

Inspirational

Philosophical

Bravery

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

Greatness

Justice

Tasks

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

Connections

Engagement

Dialogue

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

Art

Alive

Art Is

If You Are Deliberately Trying To Create A Future That Feels Safe, You Will Willfully Ignore The Future That Is Likely.

Inspirational

Business

Trying

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

Art

Talking

Free Things

It Takes Confidence And Guts To Intentionally Create Tension.

Tension

Guts

Teaching Young People To Sell Is A Priceless Gift.

Teaching

People

Priceless

When Your Art Fails, Make Better Art.

Art

Deception

Failing

Strategic Quitting Is The Secret Of Successful Organizations

Successful

Organization

Secret

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

Opposites

Overcoming

Helping

Attention Is A Bit Like Real Estate, In That They're Not Making Any More Of It. Unlike Real Estate, Though, It Keeps Going Up In Value.

Real

Attention

Estates

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

Successful

Effort

Shortcuts

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

Needs

Analogies

Steps

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

Art

Willing

The Goal Has Never Been To Always Succeed. The Goal Is To Be Allowed To Keep Initiating.

Goal

Succeed

The Opportunity Of A Lifetime Is To Pick Yourself. Quit Waiting To Get Picked; Quit Waiting For Someone To Give You Permission; Quit Waiting For Someone To Say You Are Officially Qualified... And Pick Yourself.

Opportunity

Giving

Waiting

Think Big. Start Small.

Thinking

Think Big

Bigs

The Desire That We Have To Do Something That’s Never Been Done Before Means That The People Who Are Around You Generally Will Not Encourage You To Do It…if They Were Encouraging You To Do It, Then Other People Would Be Doing It Already And It Wouldn’t Be Unique.

Mean

Unique

People

Without People Pushing Against Your Quest To Do Something Worth Talking About, It's Unlikely To Be Worth The Journey. Persist.

Journey

Talking

People

The Joy Of Art Is Particularly Sweet, Though, Because It Carries With It The Threat Of Rejection, Of Failure, And Of Missed Connections. It's Precisely The High-wire Act Of "this Might Not Work" That Makes Original Art Worth Doing.

Life

Sweet

Art

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

Different

Everyone Is Not Your Customer.

Business

Customers

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

Entrepreneur

Innovation

Management

Our Job As Marketers And Leaders, Is To Create Vibrant Pockets, Not To Hunt For Mass.

Jobs

Leader

Pockets

We're Often In A Hurry To Finish. Or In A Hurry To Close A Sale. What Happens When We Adopt The Posture Of Being In A Hurry To Be Generous? With Resources Or Insight Or Access Or Kindness... It's An Interesting Sort Of Impatience.

Kindness

Interesting

Impatience

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

Heart

Journey

Challenges

Marketing Isn't Done By Computers, It's Done By People. And People Who Sense Opportunity And Have The Confidence To Be Remarkable Will Always Defeat Defensive Actions By People Who Have Given Up.

Opportunity

People

Marketing

All The Creativity Books In The World Aren’t Going To Help You If You’re Unwilling To Have Lousy, Lame, And Even Dangerously Bad Ideas.

Book

Creativity

Ideas

The Digital Asset That Matters Is Trust. Awareness First, Then Interaction, And Maybe A Habit, But All Three Mean Nothing If They Don't Lead To Permission And Trust. The Privilege Of Connection. Everything Else Is Slippery.

Mean

Firsts

Privilege

The Easier It Is To Quantify, The Less It's Worth.

Easier

The First Step Toward Becoming Extraordinary Is, Of Course, To Stop Being Ordinary.

Ordinary

Firsts

Becoming

The One Path That Never Works Is The Most Common One: Doing Nothing At All.

Doing Nothing

Path

Tribes

You Cannot Buy Your Way To Share Of Voice Today; You Cannot Buy Attention Anymore.

Voice

Attention

Today

Make Enough Mole Hills, And Eventually You Will Build A Mountain.

Mountain

Moles

Hills

Excellence Isn’t About Meeting The Spec, It’s About Setting The Spec. It Defines What The Consumer Sees As Quality Right This Minute, And Tomorrow, If You’re Good, You’ll Reset That Expectation Again

Expectations

Excellence

Quality

I Don't Like Offending People, And It's Easy To Offend People When You Don't Know As Much As They Do. This Group Knows More About What It Takes To Lead In This Way Than I Ever Will. My Goal Is To Push People, But I Need To Do It From A Place Of Respect.

Humility

Offending

People

Art Is A Personal Act Of Courage, Something One Human Does That Creates Change In Another.

Change

Courage

Art

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

Hands

Problem

Grudge

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

Artist

Skills

Able

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

Responsibility

People

Survivor

Leaders Have Followers, Managers Have Employees. Managers Make Widgets, Leaders Make Change.

Leader

Followers

Employee

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

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

Real

Talking

Marketing

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

Would Be

Lists

Remarkable

You Market When You Hire And When You Fire. You Market When You Call Tech Support, And You Market Every Time You Send A Memo.

Fire

Support

Marketing

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

Art Is A Personal Gift That Changes The Recipient. The Medium Doesn't Matter. The Intent Does.

Art

Matter

Doe

The World Is Begging For You To Lead.

World

Begging

Average Feels Safe But It's Not. It's Invisible.

Average

Safe

Invisible

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

Looks

Detours

Shortcuts

People Rarely Buy What They Need. They Buy What They Want.

Business

People

Entrepreneur

No More Than Six Words On A Slide. Ever. There Is No Presentation So Complex That This Rule Needs To Be Broken.

Broken

Needs

Slides

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

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

Creativity

Artist

Might

Go Ahead And Act As If Your Decisions Are Temporary. Because They Are. Be Bold, Make Mistakes, Learn A Lesson, And Fix What Doesn't Work. No Sweat, No Need To Hyperventilate.

Mistake

Sweat

Decision

I Think "creativity" Is Better Described As Failing Repeatedly Until You Get Something Right.

Creativity

Thinking

Failing

Good Marketers Measure.

Business

Marketing

Marketers

Set Up A Life You Don't Need To Escape From.

Inspirational

Work

Needs

If You Think Cat Food Is For Cats, How Come It Doesn't Come In Mouse Flavor?

Cat

Thinking

Flavor

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

Marketing

Junk

Doe

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

Real

Done

Want

If You Wait Until There Is Another Case Study In Your Industry, You Will Be Too Late!

Success

Waiting

Marketing

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

Believe

Choices

Balance

It Turns Out That The People Who Like Their Jobs The Most Are Also The Ones Who Are Doing The Best Work, Making The Greatest Impact, And Changing The Most.

Motivational

Jobs

Work

Fear For A Linchpin Is A Clue That You're Getting Close To Doing Something Important.

Important

Clue

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

Motivational

Leadership

Trying

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

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

Games

Play

Different

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

Motivational

Business

Loyal Customers

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

Motivational

Success

Reading

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

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

Copy, Not From Your Industry, From Others. You Have To Go Where There Is No Competition.

Competition

Copies

Industry

Leadership Is Scarce Because Few People Are Willing To Go Through The Discomfort Required To Lead.

Leadership

People

Management

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

Listen To Your Fear But Don't Obey It.

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

Life

Motivational

Jobs

Your Biggest Failure Is The Thing You Dreamed Of Contributing But Didn't Find The Guts To Do.

Guts

Contributing

Speak Up. Not Just Tomorrow, But Every Day.

Tomorrow

Speak

Persistent People Are Able To Visualize The Idea Of Light At The End Of The Tunnel When Others Can't See It

Tunnels

Light

Ideas

Your Art Is The Act Of Taking Personal Responsibility, Challenging The Status Quo, And Changing People.

Art

Responsibility

People

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 Generosity Is More Important Than Your Perfection.

Humor

Generosity

Perfection

You Don't Launch A Popular Blog, You Build One.

Blogs

There's No Life-work Balance. I Think You Have To Have The Discipline To Have The Life You Want To Have. And If You Are Stealing From One Part Of Your Life In Order To Make The Other Part Work, You Are Going To Pay For It.

Thinking

Order

Discipline

Nobody Says, 'yeah, I'd Like To Set Myself Up For Some Serious Criticism!' And Yet, The Only Way To Be Remarkable Is To Do Just That.

Criticism

Way

Serious

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

Thinking

World

Way

Connect, Create Meaning, Make A Difference, Matter, Be Missed.

Differences

Marketing

Making A Difference

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

Zero

Marketing

Followers

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

Trust Is Precious And Easily Wasted, And Guessing Is A Lousy Foundation For Future Progress.

Progress

Foundation

Guessing

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

Stop Trying To Find The Formula That Will Instantly Make Your Idea Into A Winner. Instead Of Being Scientists, The Best Marketers Are Artists. They Realize That Whatever Is Being Sold Is Being Purchased, Because It Creates An Emotional Want, Not Because It Fills A Simple Need.

Artist

Simple

Emotional

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

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

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

It's Uncomfortable To Resist The Urge To Settle.

Mediocrity

Settling

Status Quo

We Notice What We Choose To Notice.

Choices

Go Ahead, Fail. Try To Avoid Mistakes, Though.

Mistake

Trying

Failing

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

Art

Mean

Art Is

It's Entirely Possible That There Won't Be A Standing Ovation At The End Of Your Journey. That's Okay. At Least You Lived.

Life

Work

Journey

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

Thinking

Way

Knows

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

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

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

Choices

Way

Talent

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

Marketing

Way

Commodity

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

Generous

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

Creative

Littles

Born

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

Mirrors

Important

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

Ideas

World

Care

Understanding Quotes: Their Essence and Application

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

1. Defining Quotes

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

2. The Importance of Quotes

2.1. Enhancing Credibility

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

2.2. Providing Evidence

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

2.3. Conveying Emotions and Perspectives

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

3. Types of Quotes

3.1. Direct Quotes

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

3.2. Indirect Quotes (Paraphrasing)

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

3.3. Block Quotes

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

4. Proper Usage of Quotes

4.1. Contextual Relevance

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

4.2. Integration into Your Writing

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

4.3. Attribution and Citation

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

5. Common Mistakes to Avoid

5.1. Overusing Quotes

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

5.2. Lack of Analysis

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

5.3. Misquoting or Taking Out of Context

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

6. Quotes in Different Contexts

6.1. Academic Writing

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

6.2. Journalism

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

6.3. Literature and Creative Writing

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

7. Punctuation and Formatting

Understanding the correct punctuation and formatting of quotes is essential:

Quotation Marks: Always enclose direct quotes within quotation marks.

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

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

8. Ethical Considerations

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

9. Tools for Managing Quotes

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

Conclusion

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

Trending Author