Seth Godin's Blog, page 65

Money for nothing

A friend asked me for some ways to make money. (All direct quotes).

"Can I do okay taking those surveys where they pay me?" 

"What about buying or trading shirts from Supreme and then selling them?"

"Do you think I can get paid $50 an hour to be a dog walker?"

The thing is, almost all the easy shortcuts are taken. And the problem is that the ones that aren't taken are hiding really well among a forest of scams and ripoffs.

Or how about,

"How can I get an agent for my screenplay," or

"Where do I find a publisher who will pay me a big advance for my first novel?"

Your best work isn't nothing, it's the heart of what you have to offer. Finding the long, difficult way is worth the journey, because it's the best way to get what you deserve.

            

Important, popular or viral

Important work is easily dismissed by the audience. It involves change and risk and thought.

Popular work resonates with the people who already like what you do.

Viral work is what happens when the audience can't stop talking about what you did.

Every once in awhile, all three things will co-exist, but odds are, you're going to need to choose.

            

Reverso g-h-o-s-t (off topic)

This is my favorite game.

It doesn't involve a board, there are no cards and it's free to play. It works for two to six players. You can do it in a car or a plane, it works great for two, and if you're kind, you can play it with someone less skilled than you. The more you play, the deeper and more fun the strategies go. 

I thought I'd share the rules here, because more g-h-o-s-t is good g-h-o-s-t.

Summary: Go around the circle of players and each person adds a letter to a spoken string, striving to not be the person who actually makes the string of letters into a word.

Players go one at a time, in order. Of course, you can sit anywhere you like. When each player has taken his or her turn, begin again with the first player.

To play a round, someone says a letter. The next person in the order has to add a letter to the first, beginning a word. For example, the first person might begin by saying, "y" and then, the next person could say, "o". The third could say "u" because three letters don't count as a word.

Beginning with the fourth letter, the goal is to not complete the word. So, if the letters are y-o-u from the first three players, the fourth player shouldn't say "r" because that would make a word. But it's fine to say "t".

If, on your turn, you are stuck and there's no choice but to say a letter that completes a word (in this case, "h"), you lose the round. Every time you lose a round, you get stuck with another letter in the word 'ghost', hence the name of the game. If you lose five rounds, you're out of the game. The last person left, wins.

If you lose a round, it's your turn to start the next round by picking a new letter.

Okay, three simple complications:

The letter you say has to create a possible word. So if the string is, "y-o-u", you can't say, "x". (Unless you're bluffing, see rule 2).
If the person before you says a letter that you believe is impossible, you can challenge their play. If they can respond with a legal word, you lose the round. If they can't, because they were bluffing or in error, they lose the round.
No proper nouns, no contractions, no hyphens, no acronyms, no abbreviations. These words don't exist in the game.

And the big complication, the one that changes everything and makes this a game for the ages:

Once you get the hang of it, the group can play reverso. This means that when it's your turn, you're allowed to add a letter before the string, if you choose, instead of after. So now, words can be built in either direction, and game becomes magical. 

'y-o-u' can now become 'a-y-o-u' and then 'b-a-y-o-u'.

'r-d-s-c-r' for example, isn't worth challenging, because 'hardscrabble' is a word.

If you want to play reverso g-h-o-s-t as a finite game, with thrown elbows and strategy, it makes a terrific two-player game.

If you want to play it as an infinite game, setting up friends and family to do ever better, a game that never ends and has wordcraft and humor to it, you can do that as well.

[A suggestion from Jim F.: "I would offer an amendment to the game of Ghost as we play it in my family. When a player receives their fifth letter, they are no longer part of the spelling, but they remain in the game by becoming a “ghost”. Any active player who speaks to a Ghost receives an additional letter each time they speak to a Ghost. Ghosts are motivated to get active players to speak to them, and thus are not eliminated but adopt a new role."]

Have fun.

            

Degrees of freedom

All you have to do is look around to realize just how many choices we still have. What to eat, who to speak to, what to do for a living, what to learn, what to say, who to contribute to, how we interact, what we stand for...

The safe and comfortable path is to pretend that we're blocked at every turn.

But most of the turns, we don't even see. We've trained ourselves to ignore them.

A habit is not the same as no choice. And a choice isn't often easy. In fact, the best ones rarely are.

But we can still choose to make one. 

            

Date certain

Some work is best shipped when it's done.

Most of the time, though, we produce useful, important work on time. When it's due.

If you're having trouble shipping, it might because you've hesitated to put a date on it. "Soon" is a very different concept than, "11:00 am".

If it's important enough to spend your day on, to pin your dreams on, to promise to yourself and others, it's probably important enough to guarantee a ship date.

            

Stuntvertising

The math has changed.

It used to be, you paid money to run an ad. A little piece of media, bought and paid for. The audience came with the slot.

Today, of course, the ad is free to run. Post your post, upload your video. Free.

What to measure, then?

Well, one thing to measure is attention. How many likes or shares or views did it get?

But if you're going to optimize for attention, not trust or results or contribution, then you're on a very dangerous road.

It's pretty easy to get attention by running down the street naked (until everyone else does it). But that's not going to accomplish your goals.

When Oreo gets attention for a tweet or Halotop for a horrible ad, they're pulling a stunt, not contributing to their mission.

Yes, the alternative is more difficult. It doesn't come with a quick hit or big numbers. But it understands what it's for. An effective ad is far more valuable than a much-noticed one.

            

Decision making, after the fact

Critics are eager to pick apart complex decisions made by others.

Prime Ministers, CEOs, even football coaches are apparently serially incompetent. If they had only listened to folks who knew precisely what they should have done, they would have been far better off.

Of course, these critics have a great deal of trouble making less-complex decisions in their own lives. They carry the wrong credit cards, buy the wrong stocks, invest in the wrong piece of real estate.

Some of them even have trouble deciding what to eat for dinner.

Complex decision making is a skill—it can be learned, and some people are significantly better at it than others. It involves instinct, without a doubt, but also the ability to gather information that seems irrelevant, to ignore information that seems urgent, to patiently consider not just the short term but the long term implications.

The loudest critics have poor track records in every one of these areas.

Mostly, making good decisions involves beginning with a commitment to make a decision. That's the hard part. Choosing the best possible path is only possible after you've established that you've got the guts and the commitment to make a decision.

            

What will you do with your surplus?

If you have a safe place to sleep, reasonable health and food in the fridge, you're probably living with surplus. You have enough breathing room to devote an hour to watching TV, or having an argument you don't need to have, or simply messing around online. You have time and leverage and technology and trust.

For many people, this surplus is bigger than any human on Earth could have imagined just a hundred years ago.

What will you spend it on?

If you're not drowning, you're a lifeguard.

            

A publishing master class

Announcing a two-day workshop in my office for 8 people.

I define publishing as the work of investing in intellectual property and monetizing it by bringing it to people who want to pay for it. The world of publishing is changing fast, and I'd like to help a few publishers make a difference.

Publishing can include music, books, conferences and other experiences and content. The ideas may change, but the work of publishing at scale has much in common across all fields.

The form to apply, with dates and details, is right here.

Here's a quick FAQ:

Who's it for? Thoughtful leaders who are committed to publishing in a new way, making a difference and contributing to our culture by bringing out work that matters (and supporting those who make it). We're particularly looking for a mix of people with experiences and dreams that fall outside the mainstream in terms of background, posture or credentials. I think publishing is a profession, and I'd like to help others that do as well.

How much does it cost? I'm not charging a fee. Running a workshop is a powerful exercise, and I'll probably learn as much as you will. You'll need to pay your way here and find a place to stay, so I figure you'll have some skin in the game. Not everything is about making a profit. Maybe we'll even change a few lives.

Can you do it remotely, or turn it into something bigger? Not right now, sorry.

What do you know about publishing? Well, I've been publishing books, software, music, courses and even action figures for more than thirty years. Here are some highlights. This seminar follows on from the SAMBA, the FeMBA, the Agenda session and other intensives I've hosted over the years.

If you're interested, please apply right away. The deadline is really soon, and we never admit the last four people who apply to anything we do.

            

Processing negative reviews

Assumption: Some people love what you do. They love your product, your service, the way you do your work (if that's not true, this post isn't for you. You have a more significant problem to work on first).

So, how to understand it when someone hates what you do? When they post a one-star review, or cross the street to avoid your shop, or generally are unhappy with the very same thing that other people love?

It's not for them.

They want something you don't offer. Or they want to buy it from someone who isn't you. Or they don't understand what it's for or how or why you do it.

Some of these things you can address by telling a story more clearly, some you can't.

Either way, right now, they're telling you one thing: It's not for them.

Okay, thanks for letting us know.