Monday, February 01, 2010

Seth Godin on dealing with ideas

One blogger I read every day (mainly because he sends me a copy of his posts via email - much the best way to get read!) is Seth Godin. I may have mentioned him once or twice before in this blog(!)

Today he has three posts on the go, but the one that really appealed (mainly to my artist-struggling-to-market-his-product-type-person) was the one that starts in this way.

If you've got an idea worth spreading, I hope you'll consider this random assortment of rules. Like all rules, some are made to be broken, but still...

I won't include all the rules here, but here are some of my favourites.

  • Waiting for inspiration is another way of saying that you're stalling. You don't wait for inspiration, you command it to appear.
  • Don't poll your friends. It's your art, not an election.
  • The hard part is finishing, so enjoy the starting part.
  • Figure out how long your idea will take to spread, and multiply by 4.
  • Think big. Bigger than that.
  • Try not to confuse confidence with delusion.
  • Surround yourself with encouraging voices and incisive critics. It's okay if they're not the same people. Ignore both camps on occasion.
  • Be grateful.

3 comments:

ben said...

How funny, I've just started reading Seth's blog during this past week. He comes highly recommended by another blogger I follow (Merlin Mann). I listened to a discussion they had on the lizard brain, which is part of the topic of his new book 'linchpin'. If you buy it. I'd love to read it :)

Mike Crowl said...

Probably won't be buying it. Sorry! :)

Seth's full of ideas and lots of advice...some of it full on, some of it just advice, but he's pretty much an original, and that makes him interesting.

Mike Crowl said...

My pleasure.