I had the opportunity to interview Seth Godin, author of “Linchpin”, “Purple Cow”, “Tribes” and nine other books, at the World Innovation Forum 2010 in New York, NY.
On stage, Seth Godin presented mostly a fusion of content from “Tribes” and “Linchpin”. He started by defining innovation as doing ‘stuff’ that’s impossible, otherwise someone would already be doing it.
Seth spent a good deal of time talking about the importance of movements and the failings of traditional marketing and advertising. One of the examples he used was that of the Candy Shoppe, along a highway somewhere in America, right next to a store that offered gas, donuts, burgers, fries, etc. The Candy Shoppe was so successful that it built a second identical store directly across the street so that people going the other direction didn’t have to try and make a left turn or a u-turn to visit them. A very powerful example of the power of doing one thing really well. There were lots of great quotes including:
- “No one joins a boring movement. I know this is obvious but I don’t think we take this into consideration enough.”
- “The Beatles did not invent teenagers; they just showed up to lead them.”
- “A genius is a human being who brings his real self to bring change.”
- “The biggest revolution of our time is that all of the value goes to artists – Art is more than paintings…”
- “Businesses have become Candy Land for Dummies – the rules? – pick a card and do what it says”
- “The more work is about following instructions, the less you get paid – the real value is in the insights”
- “Too often we promote those that are good at organizing compliance – organizing innovation & insight is a different skill”
- “Where do you put the fear when you choose to innovate? The fear is there, but you have to find a place to put it.”
Will Seth write any more traditional books? Seth answers that question in the video, but you’ll have to watch it find out the answer.
I’d like to share a video interview I did with Seth during the event about innovation, education, failure, and more:
