Seth Godin People Quotations

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.

When enough people care about autism or diabetes or global warming, it helps everyone, even if only a tiny fraction actively participate.

Normal is fading away. Governments and industries and schools like normal, because it's easier, it scales and it's profitable. But people don't like it - we want to be who we are, not who some marketer tells us to be.

And it turns out that tribes, not money, not factories, that can change our world, that can change politics, that can align large numbers of people. Not because you force them to do something against their will. But because they wanted to connect.

If you're going to build a lean enterprise, you can test and measure how often the company ships iterations, how often it fails, how often it is putting things in front of people that don't work.

One reason I encourage people to blog is that the act of doing it stretches your available vocabulary and hones a new voice.

If a product's future is unlikely to be remarkable - if you can't imagine a future in which people are once again fascinated by your product - it's time to realize that the game has changed. Instead of investing in a dying product, take profits and reinvest them in building something new.

Do you know what people want more than anything? They want to be missed. They want to be missed the day they don't show up. They want to be missed when they're gone.

The thing about information is that information is more valuable when people know it. There's an exception for business information and super timely information, but in all other cases, ideas that spread win.

No offense intended...Most people online are gorillas. When a gorilla walks into an experiment, what they say is 'What do I do now? Where's the banana?'

We've had people who were yoga instructors. ... We have a former marine, and we have everything in between,

The most popular TV show in America is a game show, ... People have been playing our games for years and are playing more and more games. The relationship they build is similar to a magazine that has a subscription base or a newspaper with home delivery customers.

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

If not enough people doubt you, you're not making a difference.

Leadership is scarce because few people are willing to go through the discomfort required to lead. This scarcity makes leadership valuable...It's uncomfortable to stand up in front of strangers. It's uncomfortable to propose an idea that might fail. It's uncomfortable to challenge the status quo. It's uncomfortable to resist the urge to settle...If you're not uncomfortable in your work as a leader, it's almost certain you're not reaching your potential as a leader.

I see things differently when I'm focused on opening doors for other people, and more often than not, my doors are opened as well.

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.

One theory says that if you treat people well, you're more likely to encourage them to do what you want, making all the effort pay off. Do this, get that. Another one, which I prefer, is that you might consider treating people with kindness merely because you can. Regardless of what they choose to do in response, this is what you choose to do. Because you can.

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.

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

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.

Figure out the people part and the technology gets a whole lot simpler.

People who can spread ideas regardless of what those ideas are, win.

People are not afraid of failure, they're afraid of blame.

Your art is the act of taking personal responsibility, challenging the status quo, and changing people.

Not only are bloggers suckers for the remarkable, so are the people who read blogs.

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

People get good gigs because they stand up....You don't get picked. Reject the tyranny of picked. Pick yourself.

People that take responsibility are often given responsibility!

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.

You're competing against people in a state of flow, people who are truly committed, people who care deeply about the outcome. You can't merely wing it and expect to keep up with them. Setting aside all the safety valves and pleasant distractions is the first way to send yourself the message that you're playing for keeps

The only way to get what you're worth is to stand out, to exert emotional labor, to be seen as indispensable, and to produce interactions that organizations and people care deeply about.

People who make a difference never wait for just the right time. They know that it will never arrive.

If you speak up online and your ideas have currency, people are going to show up and want to connect with you. What we need more of are people with the guts and emotional labour to do this. The greatest shortage in today's society is an instinct to produce.

If it were any other way, it would be easy. And if it were any other way, everyone would do it and your work would ultimately be devalued. The yin and yang are clear: without people pushing against your quest to do something worth talking about, it's unlikely it would be worth the journey. Persist.

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.

Most people have been brainwashed into believing that their job is to copyedit the world, not to design it.

The only thing all successful people have in common is that they're successful, so don't waste your time copying "the successful strategies" of others.

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.

Most people are searching for a path to success that is both easy and certain. Most paths are neither.

Selling to people who actually want to hear from you is more effective than interrupting strangers who don't.

The less people know, the more they yell.

Fire the committee. No great website in history has been conceived of by more than three people. Not one. This is a deal breaker.

People rarely buy what they need. They buy what they want.

Successful people are the ones who are breaking the rules.

Marketing is a contest for people's attention.

The fatigue was there, but some people understood that putting it aside was the single most important factor in succeeding.

The people who are the best in the world specialize at getting really good at the questions they don't know.

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.

Art is when we do work that matters in a creative way, in a way that touches (people) and changes them for the better.

That's why there's lots and lots and lots of kinds of hot sauces and not so many kinds of mustard. Not 'cause it's hard to make interesting mustard - you can make interesting mustard. But people don't because no one's obsessed with it, and thus no one tells their friends.

Developing expertise or assets that are not easily copied is essential; otherwise you’re just a middleman. “ “Don’t try to be the ‘next’. Instead, try to be the other, the changer, the new. “ “Everyone is not your customer. “ “Fire the committee. No great website in history has been conceived of by more than three people. Not one. This is a deal breaker.

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.

In fact, most of the time, people with similar information, similar beliefs and similar apparent choices will choose similar actions. So if you want to know why someone does what they do, start with what they know, what they believe and where they came from. Dismissing actions we don't admire merely because we don't care enough to have empathy is rarely going to help us make the change we seek. It doesn't help us understand, and it creates a gulf that drives us apart.

No, the only way to know what people think is to watch what they do, not what they say. Do they come back for more? Do you cause them to change their behavior? Can you make them smile?

The easiest way to thrive as an outlier is to avoid being one. At least among your most treasured peers. Surround yourself with people in at least as much of a hurry, at least as inquisitive, at least as focused as you are.

The only people who get paid what they're worth are people who don't follow the instruction book, who create art, who are innovative, who work without a map.

You don't become indispensable merely because you are different. But the only way to become indispensable is to be different. That's because if you're the same, so are plenty of other people.

Are you copying others? People won't pay extra for that. You won't be followed for that.

More and more people now have jobs that require them to confront the risk of appearing stupid on a regular basis.

Too often, we don't give people the opportunity to fill in the blanks.

Laptop computers dramatically increased the time people spend doing work. (The internet dramatically decreased it, so we're even).

If you're different somehow and have made yourself unique, people will find you and pay you more.

Don't create for the masses. Create for the people who are your kind of weird.

It's pretty easy to decide to roll with the punches, to look at the enormity of natural disaster and choose to hunker down and do less. It's more important than ever, I think, to persist and make a dent in the universe instead. We've all been offered access to so many tools, so many valuable connections, so many committed people. What an opportunity.

The real power of tribes has nothing to do with the Internet and everything to do with people.

Human nature is to need a map. If you’re brave enough to draw one, people will follow.

An organization filled with honest, motivated, connected, eager, learning, experimenting, ethical and driven people will always defeat the one that merely has talent. Every time.

Many people believe that great designers get great clients. It's the other way around.

You can't control other people, and giving them the power to decide if you will continue to produce good work is foolish.

Without people pushing against your quest to do something worth talking about, it's unlikely to be worth the journey. Persist.

Successful people fail often, and, worth noting, learn more from that failure than everyone else.

Great leaders create movements by empowering the tribe to communicate. They establish the foundation for people to make connections, as opposed to commanding people to follow them.

Instead of focusing on arguing with people who say no, it might be easier to get near the people who like to say yes.

Competent people are the most resistant to change

The people that are doing work that matters aren't doing work thats popular. They're just doing work that changes some people.

Giving people what they want isn't always what they want.

If you're remarkable, then it's likely that some people won't like you. That's part of the definition of remarkable. Nobody gets unanimous praise - ever. The best the timid can hope for is to be unnoticed. Criticism comes to those who stand out. Playing it safe. Following the rules. They seem like the best ways to avoid failure. Alas, that pattern is awfully dangerous. The current marketing “rules” will ultimately lead to failure. In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is failing. In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.

Confusion sets in when you're not sure if your product or service is bought or sold, or worse, if you are a salesperson just waiting for people to buy.

Networking that matters is helping people achieve their goals.

People talking about you is far more effective than talking about yourself.

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.

Authenticy in marketing is telling a story people want to hear.

Emotions are far more contagious than any disease. A smile or a panic will spread through a group of people far faster than any virus ever could. When you walk into the office or a negotiation, then, wash your bad mood away before you see us. Don't cough on us, don't sneeze on us, sure, but don't bring your grouchiness, your skepticism or your fear in here either. It might spread.

The notion that I do my work here, now, like this, even when I do not feel like it, and especially when I do not feel like it, is very important. Because lots and lots of people are creative when they feel like it, but you are only going to become a professional if you do it when you don't feel like it. And that emotional waiver is why this is your work and not your hobby.

What people are afraid of isn't failure. It's blame. Criticism.

People are buying only one thing from you: the way the engagement (hiring you, working with you, dating you, using your product or service, learning from you) makes them feel.

The organizations of the future are filled with smart, fast, flexible people on a mission

Marketing is the way your people answer the phone, the typesetting on your bills and your return policy.

Great stories agree with our worldview. The best stories don't teach people anything new. Instead the best stories agree with what the audience already believes and makes the members of the audience feel smart and secure when reminded how right they were in the thirst place.

Every day I meet people who have so much to give but have been...frighten ed enough to hold it back. It's time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map. You have brilliance in you, your contribution is essential, and the art you create is precious. Only you can do it, and you must.

People watch what you do more than listen to what you say.

The goal, then, isn't to draw some positioning charts and announce that you have differentiated your product. No, the opportunity is to actually create something that people choose to talk about, regardless of what the competition is doing.

You dont need to convince everyone. All you need to do is motivate people who choose to follow you.

No organization ever created an innovation. People innovate, not companies.

Social Networking that matters is helping people archive their goals. Doing it reliably and repeatability so that over time people have an interest in helping you achieve your goals.

You can't fool all the people, not even most of the time. And people, once unfooled, talk about the experience.

I think art is the ability to change people with your work, to see things as they are and then create stories, images, and interactions that change the marketplace.

All good ideas are terrible... Until people realize they are obvious. If you're not willing to live through the terrible stage, you'll never get to the obvious part.

If we can fall in love with serving people, creating value, solving problems, building valuable connections and doing work that matters, it makes it far more likely we're going to do important work