Seth Godin

Creating ideas that spread and connecting the disconnected are the two pillars of our new society, and both of them require the posture of the artist.

It’s impossible to create work that both matters and pleases everyone.

Our economy now rewards artists far more than any other economy in history ever has.

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.

The same is true for learning. True learning (as opposed to education) is a voluntary experience that requires tension and discomfort (the persistent feeling of incompetence as we get better at a skill).

There’s not a lot to say about the Cul-de-Sac except to realize that it exists and to embrace the fact that when you find one, you need to get off it, fast. That’s because a dead end is keeping you from doing something else. The opportunity cost of investing your life in something that’s not going to get better is just too high.

Managers manage a process they’ve seen before, and they react to the outside world, striving to make that process as fast and as cheap as possible. Leadership, on the other hand, is about creating change that you believe in.

There are two ways to grow: by stealing from the competition or by growing the market. The first path is slow and painful and difficult. The second path is where the magic of fast growth kicks in.

If it wasn’t a mystery, it would be easy. If it were easy, it wouldn’t be worth much.

In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is failing. In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.

Frequency led to awareness, awareness to familiarity, and familiarity to trust. And trust, almost without exception, leads to profit.

Don’t be different just to be different. Be different to be better.

As our society gets more complex and our people get more complacent, the role of the jester is more vital than ever before. Please stop sitting around. We need you to make a ruckus.

"The Cul-de-Sac ( French for "dead end" ) ... is a situation where you work and work and work and nothing much changes"

What They Should Teach in School Only two things: 1. Solve interesting problems 2. Lead SOLVE