Q&A with Seth Godin - What it takes to start a new project

hey thank you for coming it's Seth Godin here with you on Facebook live and I will confess that I had so much fun last time that we pushed this one up so I could do another one today we're going to talk about starting projects we're going to also answer your questions about the Alta MBA and before I do that I want to take a couple minutes to talk about projects and starting them a leading nonprofit did a survey of their employees and asked them what's your favorite part of projects is it starting projects is it being in the middle of projects or is it finishing projects and I think you will not be surprised to hear that most people said they like starting projects except and it's a really big except most people don't actually start projects we don't start projects because we're confused about the difference between being reckless and being impulsive that if you are the initiator the person who starts a project you're gonna have to tell other people maybe you'll have to tell people you work with maybe you'll have to tell your boss maybe you'll have to tell your spouse maybe you'll have to tell your co-workers or customers or the outside world but there is this moment when you need to say to somebody yeah I'm starting blank and in that moment it is impossible for you to be sure it's gonna work that what we hear the most when people talk to us about being in the alt MPA is it they began to see that you cannot do anything that matters anything creative anything human if you wait until you're sure it's going to work but I like to point out that Henry Ford launched the car not Henry Ford started called but Karl Daimler at Daimler Benz the guy who invented the carbon mercedes-benz he launched the car when it was against the law to drive a car when there were no roads and there were no gas stations this was a stupid time to launch the car he should have waited until after it was all in place that Johannes Gutenberg launched the book when there were no bookstores he launched the book when 93% of the people in Europe he was trying to sell to were illiterate they didn't know how to read this seems like a really dumb time to launch the book not only that 15 or 20% of his base needed reading glasses in order to be able to read the letters and reading glasses hadn't been invented yet he should have waited so what we find is a huge chasm it is the chasm between when we need to launch it in order for it to matter and when we're sure it's going to work and over and over again people wait until they're sure it's going to work and then they are too late so they end up just being a copycat and not being able to effectively make change happen so a minute ago I talked about the difference between reckless and impulsive reckless means you're doing stuff you shouldn't do without regard for the consequences that you are driving 95 in a school zone that reckless means that you are not being thoughtful about the fact that you might get to do this again impulsive on the other hand is the only way I know of to get over the leap of it's too soon that we sooner or later do it on impulse we announced to ourselves we're going to launch a project which project should we launch ah now the tricky part we have to pick but we can't pick the perfect one because there isn't a perfect one we can't pick the one that's going to work for sure because we don't know which one's gonna work for sure all we can do is pick the one that works for us the best right now on impulse and so I would like to think of myself 30 years of projects later as impulsive I wait until I got no choice but to launch something because I'm going crazy with boredom or I'm going crazy because I'm not contributing and then I launch and I don't launch recklessly because the launch recklessly means you might not get to launch again you might not to get to play again you might not to get get and why am I having trouble with a sentence you might not be able to make another shot at it so yes we're trying to avoid being reckless we're trying to embrace the idea that we can be impulsive that we can say it out loud that we can sketch it out that we can begin because it turns out that when you practice you get better and better at beginning that the act of speaking up helps you speak up it helps you connect so the last riff on this and then I'm going to talk about different ways that we work through the project life cycle is the game pictionary now if you've ever played pictionary you know how it works you get a word that you have to communicate to someone else but instead of acting it out like charades you have to draw pictures and you're not allowed to draw letters of the alphabet because you could just write the word you have drop pictures here is how most people play Pictionary they play Pictionary by thinking very hard about what they want to draw then they draw the best version of what they know how to draw and then they wait for the other person to guess it here's how I play Pictionary I immediately begin drawing even when I don't know what to draw and I listen to the person I'm drawing for as they get closer to what I want I do more of that I engage with them in a dialogue when I'm on the other side the moment someone picks up the pencil it's a boat it's a plane it's star it's a listen to this isn't this because it's free it's free to keep guessing so as you guess you're engaging with the drawer and progress is being made it's an impulsive way to play the game but it is not reckless okay so the rest of the riff here the middle of the project that's another word for doing your job and the end of the project the part that comes after the dip that's the hard part because when we do a project sooner or later we went into the part that's hard because if it was easy we wouldn't need to do the project someone would have done it already so on Tim Ferriss is podcast last week I talked about this about getting stuck in the dip and understanding the difference between a dip and a dead-end so we're not here go to that too much but that's my riff today on starting on impulsiveness and on leaning into it and one of the things we do a lot in the alt NBA is create a safe environment for you to practice generous impulsive behavior because I think that's in short supply and I'm guessing that you're capable of more of it so Sam did everyone turn off or do we have any questions from the crowd all right questions from Sam and I also have Maya on the board Kelly is up in Toronto and we say hi to Marie and everybody else thanks for tuning in go ahead so thank you for the direct question so isn't impulse bad and what's edition impulse and reckless here's what I'm trying to say its impulsiveness that gets us to do something it's our insight that gets us to do the best available option but we need to do something so there are plenty of people watching this or people you know who have never initiated a project or haven't initiated a project in a week or a month or a year and I view that as a waste because if you are waiting for the magic moment I can assure you it has come and it has go God that you are capable of initiating an unbelievable birthday party for your five-year-old not to do a birthday party like everybody else has but to do a project that leads to an amazing birthday party what's the worst that could happen is their reckless behavior in deciding to do a crazy birthday party instead of a normal boring one of course not because what's the worst thing could happen but first we need the impulse we need this sense that we're leaning in leaning in to what might be where it becomes reckless is if you mortgage your house so that the birthday party is amazing where it becomes reckless is if you think that the birthday party is going to turn around and pay dividends for years to come because it's not that part's reckless it's reckless to put too many chips on the table to have too big a bet to imagine that you're gonna cut through the world like a thresher through a wheat field like a hot knife through butter that's probably not gonna happen but the way you're gonna learn that is by small bets generous bets generous connection and it's the impulse to do that that we need so this tiniest example you went to a conference last week or a convention some people at that conference or convention met 18 new people they learned about those 18 people they viewed it as a project and some people went hoping someone would come over to them and say hi some people went and said I don't want to do a reckless thing so I'm not gonna talk to anyone I don't know hello the only reason you go is to talk to people you don't know because if you want to talk to people you know stay home because that's where the people you know are alright I'm ranting sorry back to you Sam frequency and consistency versus impulsive projects so again obviously I've touched a nerve with this word impulsive and I probably need a better word for it so if Sam ramaya has a better word for impulsive I'm happy to hear it I'm using it from Star Trek they had two ways to move the ship around warp drive and the impulse engines the impulse engines were the ones that got the thing moving it wasn't scary it wasn't risky but if you want the ship to move you got to use impulse power yes what we seek to do is serve an audience what we seek to do is connect the tribe what we seek to do is lead people in a small cohort and we must bring to those people consistency and frequency but and it's a huge but the thing you did seven years ago is not enough it doesn't mean that just because Disney World opened in 1980 whatever that Disney World shouldn't change they're still seeking to dance with and delight seven-year-olds and their parents but what it takes to do that now is different than what it took to do it thirty years ago so should they build a new thing there should they have new interactions with the guests of course they should how did those projects begin they began because one human being not the CEO one human being not Robert Iger said I'm gonna try to launch something new that does mean it gets all the way to the end and you spend 40 million dollars on it it means you started and that's today's agenda starting projects somebody probably not the senior vice president of new projects at Disney World somebody said I have this impulse to move forward and then you've got a shot to see if it works and then you can do it with frequency and then you can do it with consistency to serve the audience you seek to serve Mike wants to know my advice on starting a new project with a family member or close friend you shouldn't because you're a professional and professionals understand that they need to have transactions with people who are going to tell them the truth people that they can learn to trust who have one agenda which is to make the change you seek to make in the world and the problem is as soon as you complicated by working with your spouse or your close friend or your next-door neighbor is the truth goes out the window because there's something else going on at the same time are there exceptions of course there are exceptions and I adore the exceptions I think that is magical to be able to have that work the best partnership I ever had was with Steve Dennis he and I co-founded with a couple other people's a largest student-run business in the country when we were in college well Steve and I met the very first day of work they were supposed to hire one person that hired the two of us they said here take over they gave us the keys and they left that mattered because Steve and I had one thing connecting us which was the project and if we could be clear with each other about the project then we could make things move forward so sure if you can make it work please prove me wrong but I'd rather see you be a successful project leader and initiator and also have good friends and family members I'm not sure why you need to do both at the same time I know I think producing is more important than content I don't and I think that research is fabulous when it helps you now let me be really clear here the number of people who can write is very large the number of people who have the guts to start a blog is much smaller the number of people have the guts to start a blog and turn it into a business is smaller still so if you are one of those people you can hire folks who couldn't make your content even better and I have never suggested that you make junky stuff what I'm saying is the scarce resource is the act of beginning of raising your hand I'm saying here I made this this is what's scarce it's even more scarce in countries that aren't in North America because culturally we've been told we need to wait for somebody else to tell us to go and the shift in our economy in the last 20 years is primarily about the fact that they gave every single person a keyboard that's connected to a billion other people they gave everybody a microphone they said do not wait for Don Hammond from Columbia Records to call you if you want to sing sing do not wait for Sonny Mehta at Knopf to call you if you want to write write if you want to launch launch if you want to answer customer service emails for your company for an hour to find out what the customers think go ahead and do that that we can launch if we choose that's in short supply does research matter of course my blog posts today is about doing your homework about doing the research about not being dumb or impulsive or at worst of all kalimba yeah you need to do that but it's an and it's not an ork so Angus asks a question I get asked a lot for which I do not have a glib answer here we go that's the Hastings fire department serving our people thank you I can't give you a map but I hope I can give you a compass what's it I've seen a dip and a dead end how do you know if it's worth persisting so we're not talking about launching anymore we're talking about when you should quit because they're different for me the simple answer is this has anyone else in history ever gotten food to the other side of this particular dip now it's possible that you will be the first one right so when the Beatles came along no group had sold a hundred million records now if that was why they were doing it I would have said well if that's why you're doing it that's a really big long shot maybe you should do something else but they ended up becoming the first one now I don't think John Paul George and Ringo set out to get through that part of the dip but it was seemingly impossible it's way more likely though that if you're working hard in organic chemistry and you say to me is it worth pushing through this on my path to be a doctor I could say yeah because almost everybody who pushes through organic chemistry that really wants to be a doctor can get to the other side it's a dip it's on purpose there's a path to it so you've got a look at what's coming before you who's traveling next to you are you completely unique again if you are completely unique and you succeed I applaud you but if you're completely unique and you're asking for a guarantee or even a promise I don't have one for you because getting through a dead-end and turning it into a dip for the first time ever is quite a challenge so Bella is asking a great question about the alt MBA thank you which is the alto is a four-week workshop and the question is can you produce anything of value in four weeks I guess the question is really what does it mean for something to be of value what we seek to do in the alt MBA is change your mind change the way you see the world change how you stand change your posture change your default responses and the way we are able to do that is with projects projects and the projects and the projects and them projects done in a group done in semi-public in a safe environment where you can engage with other people and what our students tell us is that they have given more feedback in those 30 days than they've given in years of their life that they have gotten more feedback in those 30 days that was valuable than in their whole life put together that the idea that someone who cares about you will look you in the eye and give you insight and then you get to do it again tomorrow that's scarce and it's a profound shift so I am really confident in telling you that 30 days is enough time that acting as if over and over and over again for 30 days creates a new habit if brainwashes you into a person that you seek to become somebody who realizes that you don't need to be perfect but you do need to matter that's what we're trying to help people do the although gates elves a pretty meaning project challenges so what were the greatest challenges of the alt NBA so again back to this idea of reckless versus impulsive one day I decided this needed to be done I didn't know how to do it but I began anyway isn't that the way every single project begins you're not sure how to do it but you begin anyway and so it took more than six months of thinking and prototyping and revising and repeating and you know I would bring stuff to West ko and she would give me feedback in the night cycle and then I put it in front of other people and there would get for you and it was a project and the hardest part was digging deep into what does it really mean to help make change happen not what's already working on the web not what's already popular but if I could do anything using the tools that are available how would I help people level up always coming back to that first principle trusting my audience trusting the students that if I built something that really worked they would show up because I can tell you there was a lot of pressure to build something it was popular a lot of pressure to build something that would be easy to talk about there's so many things we do in the Alton ba that are difficult to talk about that we do things like have you fill out an application if we got rid of the application a lot more people would come because let's face it you're wondering will you get in but we left it there for a reason lots of things we do we put in for a reason and then after we launch the first one went after 13th one over and over again every single time working with Kelly and her team we deconstruct what happened we fix things we add things we improve things and we cycle because we're in it for the long haul it's not a fast internet thing a long time commitment and all of it began because one day to an years ago I asked myself a what-if question and then I answered it with the passionate impulsive thought of let me see and I could have quit at any time and I gotta tell you I start lots of projects you've never heard about because I could quit at any time but the idea of beginning going down the road that's important how we doing on time Sam okay Mohammed wants to know are there any projects I'm really excited about now I tend to become most excited about other people's projects there's a lot more people in the world than there is of me and when I see human beings who say follow me when I see you mean being saying I'm starting this while I'm doing that I'm over the hump on this that's thrilling to me and so I can't wait to hear what you guys are up to feel free to put it in the comments and other people can hear about it too so George wants to know about purple cows and how to engineer one so I wrote a book uh here it is Sam's gonna hand it to me I'm gonna show you that way it came yep did a milk carton you can't get this anymore this was a limited edition but trust me there's a book inside a purple cow is something worth talking about now the key word there is worth who gets to decide if it's remarkable I'll give you a hint it's not you the person who made it doesn't get to decide if it's remarkable the person who bought it who touches it who finds out about it they get to decide if it's remarkable so the challenge we have is to build something with empathy so the person that we seek to serve chooses to tell other people why would they do that how would they do that well that's got to be built into what you do so think about Twitter or Facebook Twitter and Facebook grew without any advertising at all how did they grow well it's simple because they work better if your friends use it to Twitter works better if people follow you Facebook works better if your friends are on it so you told other people because there was something in it for you or consider the second most popular music video of all time from psy Gangnam style barely in English how did it get 2.7 billion views well people who shared it there wasn't something directly in it for them they didn't get a check the video doesn't work better but it felt good to share it it made you feel like a leader like an opinion maker like you had discovered something made you part of something so this act of engineering a purple cow begins with intent do I even want to do that where am I just solving a problem people need a knot in a bolt I make nuts and bolts that used to work great doesn't work great anymore now what we do is we build things that people will choose to talk about and I can't tell you in one sentence how to find the empathy to do that the marketing seminar is about that a lot but essentially what I wrote about in Purple Cow is that we can do it on purpose so you can't see my socks but I'll talk about them because I've been wearing them not the same pair of course for 14 years since the book came out little company in Mamaroneck New York decides to make socks and the thing about socks the socks are boring no one talks about socks they decide to make socks for twelve-year-old girls a very specific market not all 12 year old girls just 12 year old girls with a fashion problem that subset has a problem and their problem is they don't have enough to talk about they can't buy a new dress every day so what does little mismatch do they make socks in 133 styles and none of them match none of them so when you three it's you get three pair three socks no three pairs three socks $10 when you go to school you say to your friends hey you want to see my socks because your socks work better if other people see how cool your socks are and so the word spreads because they built it into the product last time I checked they had done 40 million dollars in revenue selling socks and gloves to 12 yo girls and one marketing author oh it's a multiple-choice question what is the most important thing to deciding if a project is successful all right well so as we began every project every single project that does not start is a failure everyone so we must begin by beginning but then we have to acknowledge that most projects that start don't succeed why is that I would say it's a combination of two things one empathy you're building it for yourself not for the person who's going to use it and to the persistence and resources to get through the dip when you hit the hard part the part where everyone stumbles do you have a committed team do you have the money in the bank do you have the time to get through the dip because that moment is what separates the things that get finished and work from the things that get abandoned let's do one or two more ready Dan wants to know why don't we show people the projects that we do in the old NBA so here's a way of thinking about it if I said to you hey Dan I'm going to a nudist colony next week do you want to come you could say well show me some pictures of what it's like at the nudist colony and then I'll decide but the thing you have to understand is going to a nudist colony isn't about seeing other people naked it's about other people seeing you and looking at a picture will not help you understand that and the same thing is true about the projects in the alt NBA I could tell you what they are and then I have to invent new ones but I can tell you what they are and you would get nothing out of it because the act of knowing what the projects are doesn't help you experience what it is to be seen what it is to do the work what it is to launch what it is to get feedback it's a process it's an experience it's not a textbook I know how to make a textbook I know how to make a medium post and a blog post and a video and if I could change you and teach you and inspire you with that alone I would that's why I'm here today to help a little but the alt NBA special because the all-time BA is something I can't make digital because the all-time ba something that just showing you the map does not help you explore the territory the map and the territory are different one is just an approximation of the other so I got lots of stuff you can do for free I got lots of stuff you can read for $9 it's great if you don't want to take the alt NBA that's what we say all the time I am NOT in it there is no magic connection to Seth there are no videos from me teaching you things it's not what it's for if I could do that in the outside world and I can then I will this is different this is experiential and it's designed to change you at a totally different level Sam's happy Maya are you happy okay thanks tell the others

Channel: altMBA

Views: 12,856

Rating: 4.9400001 out of 5

Keywords: altmba, seth godin

Id: EWoKx6Ljgg8

Length: 30min 17sec (1817 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 17 2019