Why do we value leadership, connection and grace? Because it’s scarce, and that scacity creates value.
What if getting bigger isn’t the point? What if you merely got better?
Go ahead and make something for the elites. Not the elites of class or wealth, but the elites of curiosity, passion and taste. Every great thing ever created was created by and for this group.
If you can’t sell to 1 in 1000, why market to a million?
Flexible in the face of change, resilient in the face of confusion. All of these attributes are choices, not talents, and all of them are available to you.
When your art fails, make better art.
Low price is a great way to sell a commodity. That’s not marketing though, that’s efficiency.
I find that I have about six bloggable ideas a day. I also find that writing twice as long a post doesn’t increase communication, it usually decreases it. And finally, I found that people get antsy if there are unread posts in their queue.
The best experiences and the biggest ideas don’t fit into a category. They change it.
The reason business writing is horrible is that people are afraid. Afraid to say what they mean, because they might be criticized for it. Afraid to be misunderstood, to be accused of saying what they didn’t mean, because they might be criticized for it.
Artists are people with a genius for finding a new answer, a new connection, or a new way of getting things done.
It’s easy to be afraid of taking a plunge, because, after all, plunging is dangerous. And the fear is a safe way to do nothing at all. Wading, on the other hand, gets under the radar. It gives you a chance to begin.
We are leaving the industrial economy and entering the connection economy.
You cannot buy your way to share of voice today; you cannot buy attention anymore.
If you’re in the idea business, it doesn’t matter where you’re from. It matters if we care about the change you’re making.
The combination of passion and art is what makes someone a linchpin.
Popular is not the same important, or often, not the same as good.
And it turns out that tribes, not money, not factories, that can change our world, that can change politics, that can align large numbers of people. Not because you force them to do something against their will. But because they wanted to connect.
The way to work with a bully is to take the ball and go home. First time, every time. When there’s no ball, there’s no game. Bullies hate that. So they’ll either behave so they can play with you or they’ll go bully someone else.
Acknowledge to yourself that the factory job is dead. Having a factory job is not a natural state. It wasn’t at the heart of being human until very recently. We’ve been culturally brainwashed.