Craig T. Owens

Seth Godin really shakes up the status quo in his book Poke The Box. I loved it! You can read my full book review by clicking here. Below are some quotes I especially liked.

“The job isn’t to catch up to the status quo; the job is to invent the status quo.”

“Imagine that the world had no middlemen, no publishers, no bosses, no HR folks, no one telling you what you couldn’t do. If you lived in that world, what would you do? Go. Do that.”

“Creative people or those with something to say believe that they have to wait to be chosen. … ‘Pick me, pick me’ acknowledges the power of the system and passes responsibility to someone else to initiate. Even better, ‘pick me, pick me’ moves the blame from you to them. If you don’t get picked, it’s their fault, not yours. If you do get picked, well, they said you were good, right? Not your fault anymore. Reject the tyranny of picked. Pick yourself.”

“The fact that it doesn’t work every time should give you confidence, because it means you’re doing something that frightens others.”

“Poking successfully also requires tact. You are trying to change things, not have people recoil in anger or fear from your poking.”

“Excellence isn’t about working extra hard to do what you’re told. It’s about taking the initiative to do work you decide is worth doing. … It’s a personal, urgent, this-is-my-call/this-is-my-calling way to do your job.”

“Not-allowed lists exist in school, in relationships, and in jobs. The park near my house doesn’t allow dogs, non-residents, or birthday parties. It’s interesting that the allowed list is harder to remember and to write down. I think we might be afraid of how much freedom we actually have, and how much we’re expected to do with that freedom. It’s comforting to live with a list of what’s not allowed. We remember it, we push against it, but ultimately we enjoy the confinement that the limits bring us. When revolutions appear, when the list gets much shorter, it’s surprising how long it takes for us to take action.”

“‘This might not work.’ Is it okay to say these four words? Is your work so serious and flawless and urgent that each thing you do, every day, must work? Change is powerful, but change always comes with failure as its partner. ‘This might not work’ isn’t merely something to be tolerated; it something you should seek out. … Try is the opposite of hiding.”

“Starting means you’re going to finish. … To merely start without finishing is just boasting, or stalling, or a waste of time. … If you don’t finish, it doesn’t really count as starting, and if you don’t start, you’re not poking.”

“Starting something is not an event; it’s a series of events. … Keep starting until you finish. … Today, not starting is far, far worse than being wrong. If you start, you’ve got a shot at evolving and adjusting to turn your wrong into a right. But if you don’t start, you never get a chance.”

“I believe that if you’ve got the platform and the ability to make a difference, then this goes beyond ‘should’ and reaches the level of ‘must.’ You must make a difference or you squander the opportunity. Wasting the opportunity both degrades your own ability to contribute and, more urgently, takes something away from the rest of us. … To do less is to steal from them.”

“Failure is an event, though, and with rare exceptions, is not fatal. The process of starting, regularly, and of seeking out opportunities to do it more often, is never a failure. The process is now essential for those who seek to succeed.”