Seth Godin is often known as a marketing guru, but that’s a very narrow light to view him in. He’s a changemaker, to me. He’s someone who knows how to bring a story that moves people, not just emotionally and intellectually, but also (if this a word) entrepreneurially. Inspiring people is fantastic, yet getting them to act is amazing. And Seth knows how to. He makes people feel empowered to make a change and build their dreams.
Plus, he walks his talk.
Here’s just one example: he ships every single day. By ‘shipping’, he means that people shouldn’t just dream about things, or try to achieve a perfect version of their idea. He means they should make sure they ‘ship’: release the product, share the idea, tell the story, show the work. So, he himself has been shipping for ages, not just in terms of books, keynote speeches, online community building, trainings & workshops, … but also in his daily blog. Every single day, for years, he’s been shipping.
And here’s a gem I wanted to share – because it relates so much to my role in my work with my clients and business partners:
In an expert-run industrialized economy, there’s a lot of pressure to be the one who’s sure, the person with all the answers.
Far more valuable is someone who has all the questions. The ability to figure out what hasn’t been figured out and see what hasn’t been seen is a significant advantage.
Rarest of all is the person with the humility (and confidence) to realize that even the list of questions can remain elusive. Finding the right questions might be the very thing we need to do.
This is also how I view my work.
What could that mean for you? Maybe you are not a marketing guru, or a production quality guru, or an international sales guru. You don’t need to be. You are more than that. Maybe your current expertise has become too narrow a light to view yourself in.
Instead, maybe it’s time you ask yourself whether the most valuable contribution you could make in a particular conversation is to offer your expertise, or, instead, to use your expertise to ask the questions that matter?
P.S.: Interested to read more about this? A similar topic is explored in David Epsteins’ book “Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World”
