Seth Godin - The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?

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Find them all at sethgodin.com

The

ICARUS DECEPTION

How High Will You Fly?

SETH GODIN

PORTFOLIO / PENGUIN

PORTFOLIO / PENGUIN

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Group (Australia), 707 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3008 Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi 110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa), Rosebank Office Park, 181 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parktown North 2193, South Africa Penguin China, B7 Jiaming Center, 27 East Third Ring Road North, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100020, China

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices:

80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

First published in 2012 by Portfolio / Penguin,

a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Copyright Do You Zoom, Inc., 2012

All rights reserved

Excerpt from when god decided to invent from Complete Poems: 1904-1962 by E. E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage. Copyright 1944, 1972, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.

Le Saut dans le vide (Leap into the Void) by Yves Klein. Yves Klein, ADAGP, Paris (for the work). Photo: Harry Shunk-John Kender. Shunk-Kender Roy Lichtenstein Foundation.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA

Godin, Seth.

The Icarus deception : how high will you fly? / Seth Godin.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-101-61230-9

1. Success in business. 2. Creative thinking. I. Title.

HF5386.G552 2012

650.1dc23 2012035390

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

Dedicated to Tom Peters, Hugh MacLeod, Walter Dean Myers, Dan Pink, Sarah Kay, Kevin Kelly, Cory Doctorow, Susan Piver, Steven Pressfield, Pema Chdron, Zig Ziglar, Jay Levinson, Amanda Palmer, Neil Gaiman, Bren Brown, and all the fellow travelers who cared enough to stand up and say, here.

Art is the truly human act of creating something new that matters to another person. The only refuge left, the only safe path, is to be the one who makes art.

The industrial age had little use for art because it decreased productivity for the organized factory. That age is ending, and we need to clean out the cruft it leaves behind and build something more valuable in its place.

The gods are us, yet weve been fooled into thinking we have no right to act as they do.

The path available to us is to gum up the works, stand firm, and pick ourselves.

Of course its difficult and frightening. When we do art, we put ourselves at risk, because risk is part of what makes it art.

More than eighty-seven ideas to chew on.

Could be you.

An alphabet for artists.

How Long Are You Going to Wait?

They told you to get your rsum in order, to punch your ticket, to fit in, and to follow instructions.

They told you to swallow your pride, not to follow your dream.

They promised trinkets and prizes and possibly riches if you would just suck it up and be part of the system, if you would merely do what you were told and conform.

They sold you debt and self-storage and reality TV shows. They sold your daughters and sons, too.

All in exchange for what would happen later, when it was your turn.

Its your turn.

You Are Not Your Career

Your ability to follow instructions is not the secret to your success.

You are hiding your best work, your best insight, and your best self from us every day.

We know how much you care, and its a shame that the system works overtime to push you away from the people and the projects you care about.

The world does not owe you a living, but just when you needed it, a door was opened for you to make a difference.

Its too bad that so much time has been wasted, but it would be unforgivable to wait any longer. You have the ability to contribute so much. We need you, now.

Does Anyone Have Any Suggestions?

Weve all heard this request at the end of a meeting. Sometimes the moderator even means it. Sometimes the moderator, the boss, the person with a problem, actually wants to know if the group has an untried concept or an insight to share.

And the response is always the same. Silence. Sidelong glances, perhaps some shuffling of papers, but still, silence.

Really?

All these highly trained, well-paid, and respected people in a room and not one person has something to contribute? I doubt it.

Stick around for a few minutes, and if the moderator has earned any trust at all, someone speaks up. And if that person isnt summarily executed, someone else speaks up. And then more people. Until finally, the room is filled with energy, a buzz that you can feel. Finally, were permitted to be human, to end the silence, to share our best work.

Amazingly, everyone in the room is capable of seeing and analyzing and solving. Everyone in the room is capable of passion. Everyone in the room can care enough to do somethingif they can overthrow the self-induced, systemically amplified censor that keeps them in line.

Why didnt anyone speak up earlier? Why did we have to wait until the meeting was over? Where does the strained silence come from?

This isnt a book for other people. This is a book for you. Its a book for anyone who has been overlooked or brainwashed or seduced into being invisible.

A revolution is here, our revolution, and it is shining a light on what weve known deep down for a long timeyou are capable of making a difference, of being bold, and of changing more than you are willing to admit. You are capable of making art.

Green Eggs and Ham

This might not work.

This book might not hit its mark, or it might not be direct enough (or it might be too direct). Ive gone outside my comfort zone in writing and publishing it, and Im hoping youll go out of your comfort zone in reading it.

Im trying to help you see something thats all around but that you may have missed, something you may be intentionally ignoring. Im working to get more people to taste something they havent wanted to taste, to experience a different way of working and thinking about the work they do.

Its so tempting for me to smooth out the edges, to make this work safe and obvious and comforting. I wish I could make the book easy and guaranteed and reach everyone I want to reach. I cant do that, though.

This revolution is too important to allow me to water down this project. Thank you for letting me take the risk of writing this book, and thank you for taking the risk of giving it a try.