What tribes are, is a very simple concept that goes back 50 million years. It’s about leading and connecting people and ideas. And it’s something that people have wanted forever.
The thing is, the future happens. Every single day, like it or not. Sure, tomorrow is risky, frightening and in some way represents one step closer to the end. But it also brings with it the possibility of better and the chance to do something that matters.
If you demand that everything that happens be something you are adequately prepared for, I wonder if you’ve chosen never to leap in ways that we need you to leap. Once we embrace this chasm, then for the things for which we can never be prepared, we are of course, always prepared.
Marketing isn’t done by computers, it’s done by people. And people who sense opportunity and have the confidence to be remarkable will always defeat defensive actions by people who have given up.
It’s almost impossible to have fun playing ping pong with someone who doesn’t care, won’t try or isn’t any good.
Your history of work is as important as the work you’ll do tomorrow.
Here’s the fascinating part, call it the golden shoulder: We have no idea in advance who the great contributors are going to be. We know that there’s a huge cohort of people struggling outside the boundaries of the curated, selected few, but we don’t know who they are.
One reason people who spend a lot of time thinking about and working on a problem or a craft seem to find breakthroughs more often than everyone else is that they’ve failed more often than everyone else.
I think that the economics of book publishing favor hits with long book runs. You make all your money on the last bunch of books, not the first.
The future of publishing is about having connections to readers and the knowledge of what those readers want.
Way more productive, I think, to push yourself to be more in the world, not to encourage yourself to hide.
The internet has opened the door for millions of businesses to do things differently, because there are other assets now, assets that can transcend location. Your permission to talk to customers, your reputation, your unique products-you can build a business around them online.
This might end up in crying. If you’re not prepared to cry about it, I’m not sure you’re making art. And if you’re not prepared to dance in anticipation, you’re definitely not making art.
You market when you hire and when you fire. You market when you call tech support, and you market every time you send a memo.
You can game the social media in the short run, but not for long.
Anticipated, personal, and relevant advertising always does better than unsolicited junk.
Art is the act of doing work that matters while dancing with the voice in your head that screams for you to stop.
The resistance is not something to be avoided, it’s something to seek out.
We’ve been trained to prefer being right to learning something, to prefer passing the test to making a difference, and most of all, to prefer fitting in with the right people, the people with economic power. Now it’s your turn to stand up and stand out.
We’re going to spend our entire future living in tomorrow-investing now, when it’s difficult, is the single best moment.