I had the incredible opportunity to spend the day with Seth Godin on his DC RoadTrip – Fight the Lizard 2010 this past Thursday. After spending eight hours with Seth and other followers and marketers, he did not disappoint and so you’ll likely be hearing me repeat some of the messages he drove home that day.
I had the incredible opportunity to spend the day with Seth Godin on his DC RoadTrip – Fight the Lizard 2010 this past Thursday. After spending eight hours with Seth and other followers and marketers, he did not disappoint and so you’ll likely be hearing me repeat some of the messages he drove home that day.
It’s so easy for us to go to the Lizard brain, the one that likes safety, self-sabotage and comfort and that doesn’t require thinking, speaking up or leaving the norm. If we speak up we might find ourselves without work and homeless on the street. I’m over-simplifying but if you read Linchpin (and I recommend you do), it will all make sense in the context of fear and how it paralyzes us. We all have fears and it can be difficult to leave our comfort zones, particularly at work (especially if we’re not the boss) but I’m inspired by Seth and his gift to move us toward the thinking of an artist and dare I say, even a genius.
There is no better time in history to face fears, take chances and walk through the world with a different posture. Seth explains we all feel alone and therefore seek out others who are like us to form tribes. A small tribe can gain momentum and turn into a movement and even a revolution. The magic of the world now is that failure is cheap. I love that thinking! When I worked for a start up company that closed its doors in less than two years back in 2000, I had a friend tell me that my “dot.com” failure on my resume was en vogue and respected by others. What a way to look at those years! I’ll never forget those two years as the experience I gained from perceived failure during that experience could never have been achieved in ten or more years of success at any company. Seth’s message to us isn’t much different. Don’t be afraid to fail. This is not a blanket endorsement of taking miscalculated risks but a challenge to what’s keeping you in your current thinking.
So I’m going to give it a try. I’m going to Fight the Lizard. Care to join me?