

How Seth Godin became a speaker, writer, and blogger in demand  - hhm
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/sep2008/id20080924_140114.htm?chan=innovation_innovation+%2B+design_top+stories

======
fallentimes
Unalone had a great quote regarding Seth Godin's popularity on this thread:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=305741>.

 _"It's [his popularity is] because he writes short articles that usually make
sense on the surface and so people read him because they think it will make
them rich."_

~~~
greyman
I tend to agree. What he says usually lack substance, I can't help. Don't want
to be harsh, but sometimes I consider it just a distraction.

~~~
unalone
I think that a lot of the time, it is. He's got one or two nicely-written
articles and a lot of noise that sounds excellent.

------
wallflower
Seth is a free thinker. I may not always agree with what he says.

During the Q&A session at a Seth Godin lecture I attended, a parent asked him
a question about how he taught his kids. He answered with a story about how
the school his children attended was doing a play. Seth suggested that instead
of having one kid play the lead role for the entire play that they rotate it -
so that every kid could get the chance to be the star/be the main role. The
kids loved it, most parents loved it.

~~~
river_styx
This is just more of the every-child-is-special bullcrap that we fill our
kids' heads with these days. Come on, people. Some kids are just lousy actors.
Why should they get a chance to be in the main role? The real world doesn't
work that way. When these same kids grow up, they will be so badly calibrated
that they'll have trouble functioning.

What's wrong with telling a kid he's bad at something, and should move on to
try other things?

~~~
bokonist
When I was in middle school, I badly wanted a guitar for my birthday. My mom
had delayed for more than a year, and at last gave me a talk about how I was
tone deaf, and would have a lot of problems playing guitar. I told her I
didn't care, I wanted the guitar anyway. Turns out, I was able to teach myself
tones and pitches, and I ended up being quite good at guitar.

At a young age, the point is just to give exposure to many experiences, so
that they can learn what they love and what they might like to be good at.

~~~
river_styx
Your mother's doubt, and you subsequently proving it wrong... don't you think
that prepared you for when you inevitably met those kind of doubts again in
real life?

My point is that the world we present to children should be more
representative of the real world. I think your mom was doing the right thing
by giving you that honest evaluation, even though it was obviously wrong.

~~~
bokonist
_My point is that the world we present to children should be more
representative of the real world._

I agree with that. I just think it's very difficult to tell if a child is
innately bad at something and should try something else, or if they are bad it
but could greatly improve with practice.

------
fallentimes
_"Since then, through trial and error, he has developed a winning formula:
brief, simple books with eye-catching covers and provocative titles—and no
business-speak. Tribes, for example, is a 147-page, anecdote-filled call to
readers to become leaders of a movement, or "tribe."_

Instead he just makes up or misuses words, which is often just as bad or worse
than "business-speak."

------
coglethorpe
I'm not sure how well Godin's strategies work for people, but he is an
absolute master at marketing one thing: himself.

~~~
Alex3917
That's an easy thing to say, but it's just not true. Seth hates promoting
himself, it makes him uncomfortable, and he goes out of his way to avoid ever
mentioning his own books or his startup on his blog. When he releases a new
book he'll usually post a couple paragraphs from it on the blog, and that's
about it. In the three years since Squidoo went into private beta he's
promoted it maybe three or four times on his blog and probably mentioned it
less than ten times total.

~~~
npk
Alex3917 - I don't disagree. But, isn't Godin's approach still masterful self
marketing? Being self-referential is tacky. So, justifiably, he avoids it.

My point: the fact that you know his style of promotion means he's self
promoting. :)

------
enra
_Patrick Barwise, a London School of Business professor of management and
marketing, tut-tuts that while Godin's writing is "very readable with lots of
examples, it's not grounded in research. His arguments are oversimplified and
overstated."_

Sounds lot like academic marketing aswell. It's not that rare that highly
regarded authors suggest different views or even complitely contradict views
and solutions to same problems.

Its not like actual science, you know.

