Poke the Box by Godin Seth
Author:Godin, Seth [Godin, Seth]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00
What could you build?
So many doors are open; so much leverage is available. If you could build anything (and you can), what would you build?
An institution
A religion
An idea that spreads
A relationship
A reputation
Cash
A practice
A job
Art
Tools
A legacy
Change that matters
If the only reason you’re not initiating a quest for any of these goals is that you’re afraid to start, perhaps you ought to think careful y about what’s at stake. Have you ful y understood the cost of not starting?
Poking Twitter
It’s fun to watch a peer start using Facebook or Twitter for the first time. He opens an account, says something fairly inane, and then watches the world poke back.
Wow! I just heard from Lisa…how did she find me so soon?
Hey! I’m tweeting on-board an airplane, and people are tweeting back!
This is an addictive pastime. You take no real risk, touch the world, and it responds. Repeat.
But that’s not the starting I’m talking about. It’s not a real poke, or real shipping, or real change. It’s a zipless version of it, without any opportunity for success or growth.
If you can’t fail, it doesn’t count.
Initiating is an intentional act
No one answers the phone accidental y. We don’t often stumble into a meeting by mistake, or read an e-mail message by chance. Most of what we
do at work we do intentional y, with preparation or at least a bit of direct effort.
Starting is like that.
We can schedule for it. Thursday, April 3rd, 3:05…start something.
We can train for it, plan for it, announce it, and even hire for it. If initiating is as essential to the modern organization as it appears, we better be doing al of that and more.
It’s not unusual to hear someone say that he is here to help us plan or analyze or review or even fix. We regularly hire people to optimize and
synchronize and organize.
So why not invest in starting?
When public school forbids the act of starting
It’s not in the curriculum, is it?
How much time do we spend chal enging our kids to initiate?
From the high school footbal team that prohibits the quarterback from cal ing his own plays, to the jazz band that reads music instead of playing solos, even the extracurricular activities are programmed.
I often encourage kids to start their own clubs, organize their own extracurricular groups. They never do. It’s not supposed to be that way, they say.
Is it any wonder we teach this mindset? Factories and managers don’t want spunk, or even innovation. They general y seek compliance.
We rely on the disobedient few for innovation, but today, innovation is our only option.
The expensive act of planning on late
When you’re late, there’s not a lot of room for choice or decision or initiative. When you’re late, the path is wel lit, and the choices are clear. Run!
Run down the path you’ve run down before.
Late is a tool for people unable to find the guts to stand for their acts. Late gives us cover; it permits us to trample forward, without creativity or panache. “Can’t you see I’m late!” we shout, as we do what we have to do, without even pausing to think about what we could do instead.
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