Seth Godin can do no wrong

Just finished Small is the New Big.  I've always felt like such a cog in the machine. I'm using 5% of my brain and 1% of my creativity at work. I was meant for something more, something bigger, more meaningful.

I've been feeling it's too late for me and putting my hopes on my children, but maybe just maybe there's time for me yet. I need to get off this cubicle train.

Here are the notes, quotes that resonate for me from the Godin's book. I've read about four or five of his books and he's not written at bad book yet. He's one of my gurus/mentors.

• Aretha was right. Respect is the secret to success in dealing with people.
• Do something that matters.
• Markets engage in conversations, but marketing often doesn't. The reality is that most brands are actually monologues, not dialogues. A conversation might create a better, more robust, more useful brand but, alas, most organizations can't handle that truth. So they do their best to do it the old way.
• A true brand is something where the self-esteem value far exceeds the utility.
• Hard work is where our future job security, our financial profit, and our future joy lie.
• Working hard is about taking apparent risk. ... far more conservative than sticking with the status quo.
• Hard work is about risk ... dealing with things that you'd rather not deal with: fear of failure, fear of standing out, fear of rejection. 
• Purple cow = remarkable. It's just something worth talking about. 
• Marketing is a show. Designed to satisfy wants, not needs. Take it less seriously. 
• Competence is the enemy of change. Competent people resist change. "Competence" is too often  another word for "bad attitude."
• Marketing is stories.
• Sorry: most of the time, most of your customers will cut you slack if you just acknowledge that the outcome isn't the one they (they they) deserve. Most people have a hard time saying they're sorry. They don't want to acknowledge the feelings of the other side. 
• Example apology: "You must feel terrible about what happened. I know I do. If there were any way I could figure out how to make this better for you, I'd do it."
• You're free to pick the projects that make you happy.
• Do it for the learning, not for the grades. 
• 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. 
• Feedback. The first rule of feedback is this: No one cares about your opinion. What i want instead of your opinion is your analysis. Accurate analysis is a lot harder than opinion because everyone is entitled to his or her own tastes. The second rule? Say the right thing at the right time.  Try to figure out what sort of feedback will have the most positive effect on the final outcome, and contribute it now. Third rule? If you have something nice to say, please say it. Last rule: Give feedback, no matter what.
• Marketing/Selling by Flipping the Funnel: a) Turn strangers into friends; b) Turn friends into customers; c) And then ... do the most important job: Turn your customers into salespeople. 
• Give your fan club a megaphone and get out of the way.
• They don't care (they don't have to). Most of your friends and customers don't talk about you. It's because they're unimpressed. 
• You need to give your fan club some leverage, an amplifier -- a megaphone.
• Be authentic. Create products that are genuinely worth talking about. 
• Interactions are a million times more powerful than interruptions (the more traditional form of marketing.)
• The reason for a lawn? To demonstrate wastefulness. 
• What makes you remarkable is being amazing, outstanding, surprising, elegant, and noteworthy.
• How to sell or change minds. 1. Sell to people who are already in the mood to flip. 2. Start a cascade of small flips. Being right, being persuasive, and being with the right person when that person is predisposed to change their mind -- that's when things happen. 
• Local Max. Most people get stuck at the Local Max because changing strategy in any direction leads to poorer results. The problem is that to get to the Big Max, you need to get past point C, which is a horrible and scary place to be. 
• Local Max, mistakes. There are two mistakes that satisfied Local Max folks make: 1. Believing that they can get to the next Max in a linear, pain-free way; 2. Believing that the best way to get there is with brute force (more products, more salespeople, more ads...). In fact, the opposite is true.

-- To be continued.