I highly recommend this week’s excellent episode of Akimbo about Difficult Conversations. Here’s my summary: There are lots of conversations that we think of as “difficult”: telling someone you manage that you’re not happy with their performance; complaining about customer service; asking a friend to change their behaviour. We often find having these conversations hard and even avoid having them…
Tag: Seth Godin
There’s a great collection of old Seth Godin articles for Fast Company magazine. Here’s an extract from one I wish I’d successfully inhabited in 2019: If It’s Urgent, Ignore It
By famous, I means admired, trusted, given the benefit of the doubt. By famous, I mean seen as irreplaceable or best in the world. Here’s how to tell if you’re famous: If I ask someone in your community to name the person who is known for X, will they name you? If I ask about which store or freelancer is…
I think of the business model as the enabling “wrapper” around the “technical” solution you make happen. If you’re a plumber, it’s all the business stuff. If you’re a teacher, it might be the whole infrastructure of a school. In a non-profit, it’s the rest of the “onion” around the thing you want to do that actually makes a difference…
This is true all the time, but it’s more relevant than ever in months like the one we’re having, and probably for several months ahead: it matters which voices you listen to. Here are two recent quotes from Seth Godin about this – the first about who shouts loudest, who we listen to, and our choice to lead instead of…
Every successful business has a monopoly—a monopoly on what it makes that someone else can’t make the way they make it. That leaves out commodity businesses—people who bring coal out of the ground. I don’t think of those businesses as particularly successful. I think of them as useful. I’m glad if I need a bag of coal someone’s doing it,…
The second group of you – and I can see it in your eyes – is saying: “Ah, it’s possible to build the perfect entrepreneurial project. [But] I can’t, because I don’t see it.” And you have to start before you see the end. There’s no way to do this without starting before you see the end. You build the…
Now we get to my favourite sneak question… What does perfect look like? I would like you to list, when your project is working perfectly, exactly what is it? – What kind of profit does it have? – Who loves it? – What shape is it? – What colour is it? – What do the reviews say? Whatever is important…
I feel that [responsibility to say something worth saying] all the time.…I won the lottery. I wasn’t born in 1880, and I wasn’t born building pyramids somewhere and I wasn’t born with some heart defect. What are you going to do with that? What are you going to with you were born in the right place at the right time…
The question is, what are you going to do tomorrow that’s going to make you more connected, in a more important way [or doing more important work?] than what you did today? And if every day you weave a better net of connection that matters – not the trading up, “I’ll lunch with you if you lunch with me,” thing,…