Author: Seth Godin

Jumping on a new Seth Godin book is almost a mandate in my world today, as he was the seed that originally inspired my own (almost) daily writing on this site. It’s the little tidbits of his work that stand out and get me back in the chair and thinking about how I can serve others through my own gifts and talents.

While people look at him with guidance in marketing, popularizing terms such as “The Dip,” “Tribes,” and “Purple Cow,” I look at other phrases he brings up:

“Drip, drip, drip.” (Slowly dripping your work out into the world until it breaks down barriers)

“Show up, create art, ship it.” (I’m paraphrasing here)

Knowing he was releasing an entire book purely on the practice of creating and shipping art excited me. It didn’t take long to get through this one and to my regret, I went through it too fast.

One thing to understand is this book isn’t written as a cohesive narrative that builds off of, or leading up to, a grand point, which is the typical structure of a non-fiction book. Instead, it’s a series of smaller entries, each one getting you to think about the bigger picture.

There were several notes I made throughout the book and ideas that both resonated with me and challenged me. There were also points that had me questioning and putting on the brakes, wanting to dialogue with him further on the point.

In particular, there’s a section on being an inauthentic artist. I’m going to come back to it later, but I’ve spoken about it a few times on this side with regards to magic (the audience doesn’t care, they just want a show) and I touch upon it in Teaching Outside the Curriculum. I think we have different ideas of what authenticity means and how it functions.

However, one thing it was successful in doing is reminding me to get my butt back to work and stop making excuses.

It’s just worth nothing that if you are going to pick this up, take it in small sips rather than giant gulps.