Seth Godin famous quotes

You can listen to what people say, sure. But you will be far more effective if you listen to what people do.
-- Seth Godin

#People

Will you succeed because you are more well-rounded than others? Because you fit in better than everyone else? Bloody unlikely. We succeed when we are trusted to be the best at what we do.
-- Seth Godin

#Succeed #Fit #Being The Best

The job isn't to catch up to the status quo; the job is to invent the status quo.
-- Seth Godin

#Jobs #Positivity #Status Quo

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!
-- Seth Godin

#Dark #Done #Boxes

Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.
-- Seth Godin

#Leadership #Art #Ideas

If you can raise money, you're never going to have trouble getting a job.
-- Seth Godin

#Jobs #Trouble #Raises

Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don't need to escape from.
-- Seth Godin

#Inspirational #Change #Inspiring

The only reason to buy a paper book any longer is to own it and cherish it and remember it and tell a story about it.
-- Seth Godin

#Book #Stories #Paper

Fitting in is a short-term strategy that gets you nowhere. Standing out is a long-term strategy that takes guts and produces results.
-- Seth Godin

#Positivity #Long #Strategy

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.
-- Seth Godin

#Thinking #Order #Discipline

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.
-- Seth Godin

#Mistake #Sweat #Decision

There's a huge difference between being a replaceable cog on the assembly line and being the one who is missed, the one with a unique contribution, the one who made a difference.
-- Seth Godin

#Unique #Differences #Lines

Forgive yourself for not being the richest, the thinnest, the tallest, the one with the best hair. Forgive yourself for not being the most successful, the cutest or the one with the fastest time. Forgive yourself for not winning every round. Forgive yourself for being afraid. But don’t let yourself off the hook, never forgive yourself, for not caring or not trying.
-- Seth Godin

#Successful #Caring #Winning

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.
-- Seth Godin

#Responsibility #People #Survivor

I define anxiety as experiencing failure in advance.
-- Seth Godin

#Anxiety #Challenges

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.
-- Seth Godin

#Expectations #People #Giving

Ideas in secret die. They need light and air or they starve to death.
-- Seth Godin

#Business #Air #Ideas

The only long-term motivation is self motivation. So hire people who are self motivated and get out of their way.
-- Seth Godin

#Motivation #Self #Long

Instead of working so hard to prove the skeptics wrong, it makes a lot more sense to delight the true believers. They deserve it, after all, and they're the ones that are going to spread the word for you.
-- Seth Godin

#Delight #Skeptic #Believer

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.
-- Seth Godin

#Average #People #Care

The challenge with being an initiator of projects is that you are never, ever done.
-- Seth Godin

#Business #Challenges #Blogging

I feel like I'm treating people as I'd like to be treated.
-- Seth Godin

#People #Feels #Treated

Quality is not an absolute measure. It doesn't mean 'deluxeness' or 'perfection'. It means keeping the promise the customer wants you to make.
-- Seth Godin

#Mean #Perfection #Promise

Fitting in is a short-term strategy, standing out pays off in the long run.
-- Seth Godin

#Motivational #Leadership #Running

Loving what you do is almost as important as doing what you love, especially if you need to make a living at it.
-- Seth Godin

#Doing What You Love #Important #Needs

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.
-- Seth Godin

#Real #Done #Want

I've found that giving gifts is transformative. It makes me better. It clarifies my thinking and allows me to do better work.
-- Seth Godin

#Thinking #Giving #Found

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.
-- Seth Godin

#Teacher #Data #Clerks

Gifts are not favors. If you expect something in return, it's not a gift.
-- Seth Godin

#Favors #Return

You have everything you need to build something far bigger than yourself.
-- Seth Godin

#Inspirational #Needs #Bigger

Own your dreams. There is no better way to make them happen.
-- Seth Godin

#Dream #Way

The problem with taking offense is that it's really hard to figure out what to do with it after you're done using it. Better to just leave it on the table and walk away. Umbrage untaken quietly disappears.
-- Seth Godin

#Done #Tables #Problem

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.
-- Seth Godin

#Business #Believe #People

Change is not a threat, it's an opportunity. Survival is not the goal, transformative success is.
-- Seth Godin

#Business #Opportunity #Goal

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.
-- Seth Godin

#Positive #Ideas #Optimism

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.
-- Seth Godin

#Hands #People #Bird

Finding new ways, more clever ways to interrupt people doesn't work.
-- Seth Godin

#Clever #People #Way

In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is a failure. In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.
-- Seth Godin

#Marketing #Busy #Invisible

Our job is to make change. Our job is to connect to people, to interact with them in a way that leaves them better than we found them, more able to get where they'd like to go. Every time we waste that opportunity, every page or sentence that doesn't do enough to advance the cause is waste.
-- Seth Godin

#Jobs #Opportunity #People

Effort is its own reward if you allow it to be.
-- Seth Godin

#Effort #Rewards

The definition of a revolution: it destroys the perfect and enables the impossible.
-- Seth Godin

#Perfect #Definitions #Revolution

You have brilliance in you, your contribution is valuable, and the art you create is precious. Only you can do, and you must.
-- Seth Godin

#Art #Marketing #Valuable

Transformation al leaders don't start by denying the world around them. Instead, they describe a future they'd like to create instead.
-- Seth Godin

#Leader #Als #World

If you are wiling to do something that might not work, you are closer to being an artist.
-- Seth Godin

#Creativity #Artist #Might

Don’t do it because it’s your job, do it because you can.
-- Seth Godin

#Jobs

The art of good decision making is looking forward to and celebrating the tradeoffs, not pretending they don't exist.
-- Seth Godin

#Art #Decision #Looking Forward

Change isn't made by asking permission. Change is made by asking forgiveness, later.
-- Seth Godin

#Change #Asking #Permission

Go ahead, do something impossible.
-- Seth Godin

#Greatness #Impossible

Leaders have followers, managers have employees. Managers make widgets, leaders make change.
-- Seth Godin

#Leader #Followers #Employee

Kings fear change. Leaders crave it.
-- Seth Godin

#Kings #Leader

Playing safe is very risky.
-- Seth Godin

#Business #Safe

Life is like skiing. Just like skiing, the goal is not to get to the bottom of the hill. It's to have a bunch of good runs before the sun sets.
-- Seth Godin

#Inspirational #Running #Goal

People that take responsibility are often given responsibility!
-- Seth Godin

#Responsibility #People #Taking Responsibility

Remarkable work often comes from making choices when everyone else feels as though there is no choice.
-- Seth Godin

#Choices #Making Choices #Remarkable

The best way to be missed when you're gone, Is to stand for something when you're here
-- Seth Godin

#Gone #Way

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.
-- Seth Godin

#Dream #Circles #Outcomes

Take the long way. Do the hard work, consistently and with generosity and transparency. And then you won't waste time doing it over.
-- Seth Godin

#Hard Work #Generosity #Long

Art is what we do when we're truly alive.
-- Seth Godin

#Art #Alive #Art Is

The universal truth is beyond question-the only people who excel are those who have decided to do so.
-- Seth Godin

#People #Truth Is #Universal Truth

The only way to consistently grow in B2B is to be better than very good.
-- Seth Godin

#Way #Very Good #Grows

The problem with putting it all on the line is that it might not work out. The problem with not putting it all on the line is that it will never (ever) change things for the better. Not much of a choice, I think.
-- Seth Godin

#Thinking #Work Out #Choices

A big part of doing your work is defending your time and your attention so you can do your work.
-- Seth Godin

#Attention #Bigs

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.
-- Seth Godin

#Failing #Missions #Plans

The only thing worse than starting something and failing... is not starting something.
-- Seth Godin

#Business #Failing #Starting

Good marketers measure.
-- Seth Godin

#Marketing #Marketers

If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try.
-- Seth Godin

#Inspirational #Trying #Scare

As you've probably discovered, great work makes us uncomfortable.
-- Seth Godin

#Great Work #Uncomfortable

Don’t be different just to be different. Be different to be better.
-- Seth Godin

#Different

Today, not starting is far, far worse than being wrong. If you start, you've got a shot at evolving and adjusting to turn your wrong into a right. But if you don't start, you never get a chance.
-- Seth Godin

#Adjusting #Today #Chance

Persistent people are able to visualize the idea of light at the end of the tunnel when others can't see it
-- Seth Godin

#Light #Ideas #Tunnels

Being an artist isn't a genetic disposition or a specific talent. It's an attitude we can all adopt. It's a hunger to seize new ground, make connections, and work without a map. If you do those things, you're an artist.
-- Seth Godin

#Attitude #Inspirational Life #Artist

Being aware of your fear is smart. Overcoming it is the mark of a successful person.
-- Seth Godin

#Inspirational #Fear #Smart

An artist is someone who uses bravery, insight, creativity, and boldness to challenge the status quo. And an artist takes it personally.
-- Seth Godin

#Art #Business #Creativity

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.
-- Seth Godin

#People #Boss #Safe

Don't find customers for your products, find products for your customers.
-- Seth Godin

#Motivational #Business #Design

If you can’t state your position in eight words, you don’t have a position.
-- Seth Godin

#Eight #States #Position

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.
-- Seth Godin

#Failure #Secret #Realizing

Change almost never fails because it's too early. It almost always fails because it's too late.
-- Seth Godin

#Inspirational #Change #Too Late

The problem with competition is that it takes away the requirement to set your own path, to invent your own method, to find a new way.
-- Seth Godin

#Competition #Requirements #Way

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." -
-- Seth Godin

#Leadership #Business #Winning

Perhaps your challenge isn't finding a better project or a better boss. Perhaps you need to get in touch with what it means to feel passionate. People with passion look for ways to make things happen.
-- Seth Godin

#Mean #Passion #People

Transferring your passion to your job is far easier than finding a job that happens to match your passion.
-- Seth Godin

#Peace #Jobs #Passion

It's never too late to start heading in the right direction.
-- Seth Godin

#Too Late #Headings

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.
-- Seth Godin

#Catchy #Aim #Bother

Defending mediocrity is exhausting.
-- Seth Godin

#Mediocrity

If you need to conceal your true nature to get in the door, understand that you'll probably have to conceal your true nature to keep that job.
-- Seth Godin

#Jobs #Doors #Needs

You cannot create a piece of art merely for money. Doing it as part of commerce so denudes art of wonder that it ceases to be art.
-- Seth Godin

#Art #Pieces #Wonder

Just imagine how much you'd get done if you stopped actively sabotaging your own work.
-- Seth Godin

#Done #Imagine

I do not think you can get rid of the fear... but you can dance with it.
-- Seth Godin

#Thinking

If you want to be a leader, go lead
-- Seth Godin

#Leader #Want

If you try to delight the undelightable, you've made yourself miserable for no reason.
-- Seth Godin

#Trying #Delight #Miserable

Art isn't only a painting. Art is anything that is creative, passionate and personal. Art is the unique work of a human being created to touch another. Art is created to have an impact, to change someone else.
-- Seth Godin

#Art #Unique #Impact

For most modern marketers, quantity isn't the point. What matters is to matter. Lives changed. Work that made an actual difference. Connection.
-- Seth Godin

#Life Changing #Differences #What Matters

The question is not Will you succeed? but rather, Will you matter?
-- Seth Godin

#Matter #Succeed

A brand that stands for what all brands stand for stands for nothing much.
-- Seth Godin

#Brands

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.
-- Seth Godin

#People #Done #Problem

You can't win by being more average than average.
-- Seth Godin

#Winning #Average

Every great company, brand, career has been built in exactly the same way: bit by bit, step by step, little by little.
-- Seth Godin

#Careers #Littles #Way

We're all born creative, it takes a little while to become afraid.
-- Seth Godin

#Creative #Littles #Born

'Good enough' stopped being good enough a long time ago. so why not be great?
-- Seth Godin

#Long #Why Not #Mediocrity