I am a genius.
At least that is what Seth Godin told me. He let us know that “…a genius looks at something that others are stuck on and gets the world unstuck.” - from his new book Linchpin.
So who am I to argue?
Recently at a fundraising event hosted by Bryan Elliot of LinkedOC Seth shared insights and ideas from his new book “Linchpin.”
During that time many ideas came up for me, but here are 3 I thought you might be interested to know.
1. Seth Godin wears little girls socks.
Yes, you read that correctly.
Seth wears socks from a very creative company called Little Miss Matched and they have a Purple Cow style business of only selling brightly colored socks, targeted to young girls, in pairs of three…so there is never a match.
Seth says he wears them as a reminder that ”Doing what everyone has done for years isn’t necessarily the right answer.”
If you like, you can watch the entire video interview of him with Bryan here.
2. You don’t want to get good at bowling.
While the number 300 may make for a perfect score in bowling, it is also a limit for your talent and the best you will ever do. In bowling you can never do better than 300 – there is nothing higher and so there is no progression.
As you look to create value in the world and share your gifts with others be sure to watch out that you are not using them in a ‘game of bowling’ – where there is a limit to how good you can do. Discover and apply your gifts to areas where you can continually learn, create new value, and get better and better.
300 is only the beginning.
3. Acknowledge the Lizard
Irrationality. Self-sabotage. Not following through when you need to do so.
This is what Seth calls the Lizard Brain, and you’ve been in battle with it your whole life.
Acknowledging its existence. Knowing and giving a name to this enemy and making the invisible visible gives you the power to beat it. To win.
The next time you are faced with a deadline and find yourself getting distracted… The next time you say you would like to achieve this person goal or create something new and exciting in your business – acknowledge the Lizard Brain. Because if you don’t, and pretend that you aren’t going to meet with any resistance (as Steven Pressfield calls it), then you will lose. Underestimate your enemy and it will take you down hard. Know who you are dealing with, and how to overcome it and you can win.
While there were many other things I learned and saw these three stood out.
You can see some more photos of the event on my Facebook page here.
P.S. If you haven’t already you can also download a copy of Seth’s ebook “Brainwashed: Seven Ways to Reinvent Yourself”. Enjoy.
Photos courtesy of Chris Lorenz and Rich Van Every.
