Seth Godin on ResistingThe Forces of Mediocrity
'There's a myth that all you need to do is outline your vision and prove it's right, and then quite suddenly, people will line up and support you. In fact, the opposite is true. Remarkable vision and genuine insight are always met with resistance. And when you start to make progress, your efforts are met with even more resistance. Products, services, career paths--whatever it is, the forces for mediocrity will align to stop you, forgiving no errors and never backing down until it's over. 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 to be worth the journey. Persist.'
--from Tribes--We Need You to Lead Us, by Seth Godin.
11 Comments:
This is brilliant.
Synchronistically, I just wrote about the same thing, with regard to reading a book about Newman's Own, a genuinely insightful company along the lines of what Godin is talking about.
Good timing.
Good timing, indeed. Glad it resonated with you, Art. But then, you're pretty fertile intellectual soil.
I ran across this today, and it seemed pertinent to Godin's point, which strikes me as being about quality-of-life, not just marketing. It's a genuinely good idea:
The Slow Blog Manifesto
Wow, great stuff. Thanks for pointing to this, Art.
So, I should ignore all these people who tell me I am a sh*tbag?
Yes, by all means.
While no one could argue with the thoughts beautifully articulated in the post Art so kindly shared, I love the raw marketplace of ideas that is blogdom. It is a place where the intimacy of gestating thoughts is nurtured for all to see; it is a place I go to meet friends whose typos I mind less than I would disingenuousity. As passions fly, new dimensions of issues are revealed and we are richer for the discussion. The ideas emerge polished in other venues at other times. Please do not think I devalue excellence, but sometimes a small gem will get lost until it finds a setting in a pertinent discussion. Conversely, sometimes I find my gems are merely paste in the loop judged by people whose opinions I respect.
And then, Erin, there are some people whose writing is very polished but is so passionate it has immediacy of raw writing.
So very true, anon--although sometimes I wonder if I'm polishing or rubbing the fur off the ball!
Back in the day, the nuns would have called you potty mouth if you had attended Catholic grade school, Erin (I know, not very imaginative, but there it is). I've been meaning to ask you if you ever had the dubious pleasure of that formative experience.
Seth continues to inspire me. I have been hearing good things about this Tribes. Godin started a Ning group as the experiment for the book. My friend showed me the jacket and it's an awesome wall of Ning avatars.
Marc, how very cool to see the name of my favorite techie/DJ in the comments. Godin is a special writer. He gets to the heart of things and has an eye for the crucial detail like few (if any) who write about these areas. I've lost count of all the times I've mentioned him here over five and a half years. I was going to link to them, but there are just too many. Anyway, thanks again for visiting, and especially for joining the conversation. I hope readers will follow your link to your Leading Hands blog, which is always interesting.
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