Seth Godin – Who he?
Who is Seth Godin? Apparently, and that word is laced with good old British cynicism he is ‘legend’ (sneer here) among the ‘marketing’ elite publishing best selling books and revered ‘copy’ all over the world. Possibly. I don’t know him from Adam (as the saying goes) but I do know GL Hoffman, at least in the online sense I do and clever GL invited Seth to close a month of ‘sharing the podium’ on What Would Dad Say dot com without resorting to blackmail, threats or bribery. Usually at this point you’d hear me yawn ‘so what’, but some of my work recently has been working with people attempting to get a foot in the door of the creative industries here in the UK at the most challenging time you could imagine and ‘WWDS’, as I’ve come to fondly know it, has been a source of sound advice and inspiration, especially during ‘share the podium’. So I felt I owed it to GL to at least read what this Seth bloke had to say.
I may have to eat my hat (perish the thought – I’ve done this before and unwashed knitted products are very hard to swallow) Seth has some really very simple, very wise, very salient advice for those of you looking for work, or new direction or a change. It really is well worth the read here’s the link http://www.whatwoulddadsay.com and here’s a taster of what you can expect when the article goes live midday March 31st -(US time)
“DON’T TRY TO GET A JOB
Don’t you dare.” Seth Godin, March 2009.
As a dog owner I was also particularly drawn to his suggestion that I could start a ‘dog –poop shovelling business’ – is there art in this somewhere I find myself wondering?
Anyway don’t take my word for it, read it for yourself. In fact, don’t stop there, fish around for a bit, find Dave Sniadak’s Vlog on being a creative worker in a non-creative environment, enjoy and take comfort in the fact that other people know what it’s like. You can also read my guest article on Sunscreen and DNA if you really have to but if you don’t have time just play the ‘Wear Sunscreen’ song embedded at the top of the article – I won’t hold it against you, I’ll be somewhere humming along with you in spirit (Baz Luhrmann is the Man).
Simple, plain speaking advice that’s what we need, no frills, no false hopes, good old common sense with just a dash of something ‘special’ as ex theatre-designer Mary Robson might say. Just remember, you saw it here first. And should you already be ‘living’ the Seth Godin maxim then well done you. I know one or two that are and they currently ride the reccession very comfortably because every day is a new challenge to relish and conquer, because they are reaping the fruits of their labours and enjoying the labour as much as the fruitfulness. So maybe, just maybe, this Seth bloke really does know what he’s talking about.
But… you might like to read this response before you make your mind up http://blueskyresumes.com/blog/seth-godin-wrong/comment-page-1/#comment-1037 oh and then this http://corcodilos.com/blog/456/create-your-own-job