Seth Godin has impressed me enough with his ideas that I’m willing to wake up at 6:30am to hear him speak. About 150 other people joined me at Maggiano’s this morning to hear about his new book, The Dip. I’ll recap:
If the goal that you’ve set for yourself is not one that you can be the best in the world at, stop wasting your time. Pick another goal.
Identify all the projects you have on your plate, and cancel all of them that aren’t getting any better. Free up your resources to pursue the one you can be the best at.
That’s my summary, not a quote. He said a lot of things that didn’t tie together coherently, but this point is valuable enough it’s worth highlighting (it’s articulated much better in the book Now, Discover Your Strengths).
The point for entrepreneurs: if your business cannot be #1 in the category you’re competing in, pick a new business OR re-define the category. The first person to fly across the Atlantic Ocean solo: Charles Lindbergh. Who is the second? No one remembers. But the first woman to fly across the Atlantic solo: Amelia Earhart. That is an example from The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing (cheesy title, but great book!)
The challenge is creating a category that is meaningful to your customers.
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