Seth Godin
Seth is someone who first came across my radar in the mid 1990s when he worked in Irvington, NY at the company he founded: Yoyodyne, which was a tip-of-the-spear online advertising start-up. My mother was his contract bookkeeper. I shed a tear when he sold his company to Yahoo without her along for the ride. But I digress…
If you haven’t heard of Seth, I encourage you to check out his body of work.
I haven’t actively followed him in the recent past but I came across a fun interview he did with Tim Ferris in October 2020 about his book The Practice: Shipping Creative Work
Give it a listen.
I found the following themes particularly insightful:
Authenticity vs. Consistency
Be your authentic self 🤮
How many times have you heard that over the past decade?
Seth says, “Authenticity is a crock.” It is an inherently selfish position that is often intertwined with self-absorption. Maintaining the privilege of authenticity gives us license to say whatever we want whenever we want. And as humans we trend towards inconsistency.
Instead make consistent promises. 🤝
If we put ourselves in an other-centered mindset then we realize that other people prefer us to be consistent rather than authentic. Being consistent is hard work. Ask your partner which they prefer of you and get back to me.
The way we act determines how we feel
much more than
the way we feel determines how we act.
Quality
People and especially “perfectionists” hide behind quality. Nobody wants to be an enemy of quality. So when you say that something is not ready yet because it is not good enough you are making an excuse that nobody wants to call you out on. Seth warns us not to conflate quality with perfection. The latter is entirely subjective but the former can be objective by setting goals and honoring them.
Quality is better seen as something that meets specifications.
Seth says to merely do the work. Don’t catastrophise or dramatize all the potential pitfalls of what may happen if something not good enough is shipped.
What to Build
The following sense checks are agnostic towards whatever you may build but serve to remind you what you are capable of and what you want to achieve:
Resources: be honest about what financial and skill-based capabilities (including the ability to attract others) you have and how many of these resources you are prepared to deploy on your idea / business. Be realistic about what you want to achieve based on this resource allocation.
Customers: be honest about who you want to serve? If you hate your customers or the type of customers your business attracts then you will end up hating your business.
WIIFM: be honest about What is in it for Me? And by me I mean you in this case. What do you want to get out of your initiative? Are you doing x y z because you are excited by the ongoing ups and downs of whatever it may entail or is your mind focused on a binary outcome, which if unachieved will make you miserable?
Professionals produce with intent.
David Goggins
Are you in a rut? Do you need some extra motivation right now? If yes, then read Can’t Hurt Me. David is the only man in history to complete the training requirements for the Navy SEALs, Army Rangers and Air Force Tactical Air Control! He actually completed three “hell weeks” for the SEALs before being confirmed. 👀
I’ll be honest that the writing in this book isn’t top notch but David’s story is inspirational. He was a victim of abuse as a child and an obese adult who decided to change his life around by tackling some of the most difficult organized human challenges known to man. And he succeeded!
Most of us tap into only 40% of our capabilities - David Goggins
Song of the Week - Dat $tick by Rich Brian
This tune is 6 years old but recently found its way back to me. While he might have other good music, for me he is a one-hit-wonder. I’ll always love Dat $tick because Rich Brian fka Rich Chigga 🧐 was (is?) a genre-non-conforming artist that immediately gained the respect of legends who dubbed him “hardest of all time” (he is not but it’s a nice compliment).
Note: he was 16 when he dropped this.
Legend alert: Brian caught the attention of Camron, Ghostface and 21 Savage too. 👇🏽
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