Godin Seth - V is for vulnerable: life outside the comfort zone

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First published in the United States of America by Portfolio/Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. 2012
First published in Great Britain as an electronic edition by Portfolio Penguin 2012

Copyright Do You Zoom, Inc., 2012
Illustrations copyright Gapingvoid Ltd., 2012

Illustrated by Hugh MacLeod

All rights reserved

The moral right of the author and of the illustrator has been asserted

ISBN: 978-0-67-092305-2

SETH GODIN is the author of The Icarus Deception and more than a dozen other books. Hes also the founder of two successful Internet companies, a popular speaker, and a part-time instructor of style canoeing. The best way to keep up with his ideas is to read his blog (visit sethgodin.com and click on his head). His favorite picture book is Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb.

HUGH MACLEOD worked as an advertising copywriter for more than a decade while developing his skills as a cartoonist and pundit. He sells limited edition art and gives away cartoons and ideas at gapingvoid.com. More than four million people have downloaded the original post, How to Be Creative, which inspired the bestselling book Ignore Everybody. He also lectures and consults on Web 2.0 and how it helps a businesss purpose and culture. His latest book is Freedom Is Blogging in Your Underwear.

ALSO BY SETH GODIN

The Icarus Deception

Whatcha Gonna Do with That Duck?

Linchpin

Tribes

Meatball Sundae

All Marketers Are Liars

The Dip

Free Prize Inside

Purple Cow

Survival Is Not Enough

Unleashing the Ideavirus

Permission Marketing

Big Red Fez

The Big Moo

Small Is the New Big

Poke the Box

We Are All Weird

In memory of my mom, in honor of my dad, and for my kids

Seth Godin

These drawings are dedicated to my nephews and nieces, all five of them. May these words resonate with you one day, and God forbid that they never do. Lots of Love from Uncle Hugh :)

Hugh MacLeod

SEE THE WORLD THE WAY AN ARTIST DOES.

The Lorax makes me cry. Every time.

Dr. Seuss made me giggle when I was three. He taught me how to read when I was five. Today, he reminds me of how important our future is, whether or not we have kids.

Every one of his books is incredibly simple, some with just three hundred words inside. But the ideas stick with us, and even more powerfully, push us to take action, to embrace opportunity, not to merely watch and wait.

Im hoping that this book I created with Hugh MacLeod will help you choose to see the world differently. Radically differently. Im hoping that instead of asking, How can this book help me do a better job to keep the world as it is? perhaps you can momentarily choose to see the world as a different place altogether.

Im trying to get under your skin. Im trying to get you to stop being a spectator and a pawn in the industrial system that raised us, and maybe, just maybe, to stand up and do something that scares you. I want you to do what youre meant to do, what were all meant to do, which is the hard work of creating art.

The artist wonders, How can I break this? and Is it interesting?

Go break something.

Seth Godin

P.S. Read this book out loud to someone you care about.

A NXIETY is experiencing failure in advance. Tell yourself enough vivid stories about the worst possible outcome of your work and youll soon come to believe them. Worry is not preparation, and anxiety doesnt make you better.

B IRL that log. Find your balance by losing it, and commit to feet in motion until youre birling and the log is spinning. The log isnt going to spin itself, you know. A spinning log is stable for a while, but not forever. Thats why birling is worth watching.

C OMMITMENT is the only thing that gets you through the chasm. Commitment takes you from thats a fine idea to its done. Commitment is risky, because if you fail, its on you. On the other hand, without commitment, you will fail, because art unshipped isnt art.

D ANCE with fear. Dance with done. Dance with the resistance. Dance with each other. Dance with art.

E FFORT isnt the point, impact is. If you solve the problem in three seconds but have the guts to share it with me, its still art. And if you move ten thousand pounds of granite but the result doesnt connect with me, Im sorry for your calluses, but you havent made art, at least not art for me.

F EEDBACK is either a crutch or a weapon. Use feedback to make your work smaller, safer, and more likely to please everyone (and fail in the long run). Or use it as a lever, to further push you to embrace what you fear (and what youre capable of).