Creating and Shipping: Seth Godin

We read Seth Godin's Blog this this morning, though it to be pertinent since Grace Skis created and is now shipping

The alternative to failure

“What would you have me do instead?”

To the critic who decries a project as a worthless folly, something that didn’t work out, something that challenged the status quo and failed, the artist might ask,

“Is it better to do nothing?”

To the critic who hasn’t shipped, who hasn’t created his art, anything less than better-than-what-I -have-now appears to be a waste. To this critic, progress should only occur in leaps, in which a fully functioning, perfected new device/book/project/process/system appears and instantly and perfectly replaces the current model.

We don’t need your sharp wit or enmity, please. Our culture needs your support instead.

Each step by any (and every) one who ships moves us. It might show us what won’t work, it might advance the state of the art or it might merely encourage others to give it a try as well.

To those who feel that they have no choice but to create, thank you.

Living with Doubt

"Living with doubt ... is almost always more profitable than living with certainty.People don't like doubt, so they pay money and give up opportunities to avoid it. Entrepreneurship is largely about living with doubt, as is creating just about any sort of art.If you need reassurance, you're giving up quite a bit to get it.On the other hand, if you can get in the habit of seeking out uncertainty, you'll have developed a great instinct".

Seth Godin

Seth Godin's Blog today

Seth Godin's blog
Deliberately uninformed, relentlessly so [a rant] Many people in the United States purchase one or fewer books every year.Many of those people have seen every single episode of American Idol. There is clearly a correlation here.Access to knowledge, for the first time in history, is largely unimpeded for the middle class. Without effort or expense, it's possible to become informed if you choose. For less than your cable TV bill, you can buy and read an important book every week. Share the buying with six friends and it costs far less than coffee.Or you can watch TV.The thing is, watching TV has its benefits. It excuses you from the responsibility of having an informed opinion about things that matter. It gives you shallow opinions or false 'facts' that you can easily parrot to others that watch what you watch. It rarely unsettles our carefully self-induced calm and isolation from the world.I got a note from someone the other day, in which she made it clear that she doesn't read non-fiction books or blogs related to her industry. And she seemed proud of this.I was roped into an argument with someone who was sure that ear candling was a useful treatment. Had he read any medical articles on the topic? No. But he knew. Or said he did.You see a lot of ostensibly smart people in airports, and it always surprises me how few of them use this downtime to actually become more informed. It's clearly a deliberate act--in our infoculture, it takes work not to expose yourself to interesting ideas, facts, news and points of view. Hal Varian at Google reports that the average person online spends seventy seconds a day reading online news. Ouch.Not all books are correct or useful. Not all accepted science is correct. The conventional wisdom might just be wrong. But ignoring all of it because the truth is now fashionably situational and in the eye of the beholder is a lame alternative.I know this rant is nothing new. In fact, people have been complaining about widespread willful ignorance since Brutus or Caesar or whoever invented the salad... the difference now is this: more people than ever are creators. More people than ever go to work to use their minds, not just their hands. And more people than ever have a platform to share their point of view. I think that raises the bar for our understanding of how the world works.Let's assert for the moment that you get paid to create, manipulate or spread ideas. That you don't get paid to lift bricks or hammer steel. If you're in the idea business, what's going to improve your career, get you a better job, more respect or a happier day? Forgive me for suggesting (to those not curious enough to read this blog and others) that it might be reading blogs, books or even watching TED talks.As for the deliberately uninformed, we can ignore them or we can reach out to them and hopefully start a pattern of people thinking for themselves...

Business thought

Some industries (My example: Surley at REI, the call will ruin their brand) believe that they best serve their audience when the product is available everywhere. It's pretty rare to find a book that's only available in one chain of bookstores, or a pain reliever that's only in one sort of drugstore.
The thing is, scarcity creates value. You can't get a Pepsi at McDonald's. You can't buy Hermes at Target. By limiting choice, you can create value. Exclusivity is often underrated.

Seth Godin

Grace-full ideas moving forward

As we think about this business so many ideas flood our gates. We continually look to Seth Godin and his thoughts as a leader in marketing. The guy hits the right cords and we enjoy his insights. We hope to capitalize on his thoughts as we read them everyday. We took in his words and RE-created the list below. http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/08/foundation-elements-for-modern-businesses.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2Fsethsmainblog+%28Seth%27s+Blog%29

1. Build in virality. Or a viral phenomenon, that is, an object or pattern that is able to induce some agents to replicate it, (rep program) resulting in many copies being produced and spread around.
2. Don't sell skis that can be purchased cheaper at Amazon. Sell more then a ski, sell the Tribe.

3. Subscriptions beat one-off sales. (build community)The asset of the future is the embrace of a tribe, not a cheaper ski.
4.Try to create an environment where your customers are happier when there are other customers doing business with you (see #1).(team with respectful partners, Marker,Flylow etc)
5. Treat different customers differently. Gracefully listen to people, everyone.
6. Generate joy, don't just satisfy a need for a commodity.
7. Rely on unique individuals, not an easily copyable system.
8. Plan on remarkable experiences, not remarkable ads.
9. Don't build a fortress of secrets, bet on open. Invite everyone in, have a party.
10. Match expenses and time frame to cash flow--don't run out of money. Be patient
11. Create scarcity but act with abundance. (the line theory at the Rio) Free samples create demand for the valuable (but not unlimited) Respectfully offer. Give more take less.
12. Tell a story, erect a mythology, walk the walk, be real. (community)
13. Plan on obsolescence of our product don't expect home runs every at bat, but keep swinging. Never let your customers become obsolete
14. The best people to fund our growth are the customers.(no investors unless we need a major upgrade in production due to a solid demand)
13. When the marginal cost of an interaction approaches zero, we benefit by creating plenty of them. (community)

The concept that keeps coming to the front of our thoughts is the building of a Community or Tribe. The agents involved in building this Community will be vast and diverse. Nothing can exist without Community.