Dave Haynes

I read Seth Godin’s wisdoms every day at his particularly excellent blog. He gives these wisdoms for free. There’s payback though, I’ve also bought some of his books. And although I got a freebie the last time I saw him speak (pictured in the cheesy snap!) I would probably pay to see him again next time he’s in London. Seth is definitely a source of constant inspiration and guidance.

So my first piece of advice is that you should stick his blog in your feed reader.

My second piece of advice is that you should wait until his new book Linchpin comes out in January, buy it, and add some other titles like ‘Tribes’ or ‘Purple Cow’ at the same time.

My third piece of advice is to go and download this amazing free e-book that he’s compiled called ‘What Matters Now’ and then go and tell your best friends and colleagues to do the same. Here’s an extract that struck a particular chord with me. Hopefully I’ve done a reasonably good job in 2009 of sticking to advice like this and will get even better in 2010:

When the economy tanks, it’s natural to think of yourself first. You have a family to feed a mortgage to pay. Getting more appears to be the order of business. It turns out that the connected economy doesn’t respect this natural instinct. Instead, we’re rewarded for being generous. Generous with our time and money but most important generous with our art. If you make a difference, people will gravitate to you. They want to engage, to interact and to get you more involved. If you make a difference, you also make a connection. You interact with people who want to be interacted with and you make changes that people respect and yearn for. Art can’t happen without someone who seeks to make a difference. This is your art, it’s what you do. You touch people or projects and change them for the better. This year, you’ll certainly find that the more you give the more you get. - Seth Godin ‘What Matters Now’