Friday, February 5, 2010

Slogging Through the Seth Speak

If you're trying to stay up to speed on marketing trends in 2010, it's impossible to skip over Seth Godin. The guy is a publishing powerhouse with a handful of bestsellers to his name and a new book, Linchpins, that after just one week is already on the NY Times bestseller list.

The guy obviously knows his stuff.

So why, then, as I try to read Linchpins does my mind keep wandering back to that story I read when I was a kid called The Emperor's New Clothes?

(If you never read the fairy tale, it's about a clothes hound of an emperor who lets two con men scam him into thinking they're making him a suit from fabric so fine that only the savviest of people can see it. He can't see the suit himself, but to admit that would mean that he's unfit for his position, so the emperor parades through town buck naked pretending to be decked out in his finest. It takes a child in the crowd to point out the obvious -- but once the cat's out of the bag the rest of the town follows suit. As for the emperor, he just keeps on walking ... hopefully to the nearest tailor who can fit him with some real clothes worthy of his regalness.)

OK, back to the new Seth Godin book. It's earned stellar praise from everybody who's everybody in marketing. The blogosphere touts it. Traditional publications too. It's utterly the finest marketing book available today. So I've got to have it right? I pick up Linchpins the day it comes out, ready to be wowed. This is where the slogging begins.

The basic premise of the book -- at least the first quarter or so I've managed to get through -- is that the world is changing, it's no longer enough just to do your job, and you better be exceptional if you want to make it in today's scary world of downsizing, outsourcing and job eradication. Be an artist at whatever it is you do. Ignore the part of your brain that's afraid to do anything fantastic. Stop trying to fit in and start finding ways to stand out.

That's it. That's the words of wisdom that everyone's going gaga over. Really? Quick! Somebody put their hand over my mouth before I blurt out something stupid, like "No kidding? You have to do go above and beyond to set yourself apart from the crowd? Why didn't anyone think of this before!"

Surely there's more to the book than this. Any page now I'm going to be barraged with insights and elucidation that'll make my head spin. And once it's done spinning I'll hang it in shame for ever doubting the master of 21st century marketing is anything but that.

Meanwhile, I gotta stop thinking about that naked emperor. The guy's really starting to creep me out.

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