Poke the Box – Seth Godin

A quick read from the master of marketing – Seth Godin
Guaranteed to get you out of funks, blocks, procrastinatory type situations.

“The job isn’t to catch up to status quo it’s to INVENT the status quo”
What a perfect way to start a book like this.

It’s no secret I’m a fan of Seth Godin,
recently I met a marketing guy
who says he’s a guru and has never read Seth
– that’s like the Pope saying
“Jesus who? Nevah hoid of him”
( I may be thinking of Groucho Marx but I digress )

This book exists to in the same way
you carry kitty-litter in your truck during the winter,
when you get stuck, use it for traction.

“When was the last time you did something for the first time?”

For established successful professionals, that answer may be, “not in a long time” – When was the last time you scared yourself?

In his chapter the seven imperatives of explosive business success Seth hits home that 99% is common but the one uncommon spark is ‘initiative’ the gumption to just bloody START something.

He builds on his message from his last book “Linchpin” with the question for you to ask yourself, how do you respond when people ask “what do you do here?” – A very Robin Sharma “Lead without title”concept

His basic push to start, do, act is motivating and helpful. The difference between saying at an event “let’s do lunch I’ll send you an email” to “we’re holding our mobile devices with schedules in our hands – let’s book this meeting right now!!”

Isaac Asimov the amazing Sci-fi writer wrote 400 books! It was his drive and commitment to start, go, do, finish…great chapter on this

A helpful chapter on how to make team meetings and accountability meaningful and helpful to productivity – pick this book up if you’d like to boost that.

Another great note on the concept of mistakes and failure – I too am so tired of the culture of succeed or die, so inauthentic – I recently read a quote that said the world’s greatest discoveries weren’t made shouting “Eureka” it was when a lab person said “huh, that’s funny“

For those who want to improve HOW they work I loved his line that “juggling is not just the art of catching, it’s the art of throwing better“
For the business professional,
the time crunched creator
this is a very quick read but a value read.

Pick it up
Poke the box

Paul