Seth Godin is skilled at asking the uncomfortable questions, at demolishing our excuses, at getting us to look at age-old things in a new light. In short, he’s really good at poking the box. Poke The Box is an attempt to shake up the status quo, and wake us up to the value of starting something fresh and new.
On the opening page Seth says, “The job isn’t to catch up to the status quo; the job is to invent the status quo.” Indeed, this is what Poke The Box addresses head-on. Why do we accept the status quo? Why don’t we initiate something new? What fears are holding us back? What might happen if we try and fail?
Poke The Box is written in a similar style to Seth’s popular blog. In fact, the book itself is “poking the box” of the typical, tried-and-true publishing style. Instead of chapters organized around a particular thought, the whole book is one big chapter, with the constant theme of challenging the just-sit-there-and-do-the-usual-thing attitude.
I loved it!
If you are ready to shake some things up, Poke The Box might be the nudge you need. Seth closes the book with this word of encouragement—
“Speaking up is not safe. People might be offended. Innovation is not safe. You’ll fail. Perhaps badly. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, what are you going to do about it? Hide? Crouch in a corner and work as hard as you can to fit in? That’s not safe, either. Might as well do something that matters instead.”
Craig T. Owens 