Review: Seth Godin. Are you afraid to truly make an impact

Notes:


Wisdom of Selling a "Traditional" Software Product

• Who can i reach
• Will they talk about it with their peers?
• Can I earn and maintain permission to continue talking to them
• Will they pay for it after they learn of its values

Wisdom of Selling a "Connection" Software

• Does the connections create demonstrable values
• Is there an easy and obvious for someone who benefits to recruit someones else to join
• Is it open enough to be easy to use but closed enough to avoid becoming a zero-cost commodity

Stuff

• People like to do what others are doing.
• People are waiting to be led.
• Marketing = Tribal Leadership, create a Tribe of followers
• Connecting People: Connect users to one another
• Creating & Inventing something Interesting
• FREE is a marketing tool (marginal ZERO cost production) to get connections, leads to perception of a better services and end up paying for it
• Customer paying to be connected?

Review:

Seth Gordin is a famous Sales & Marketing Guru, but he is not my favorite. He is a believer that Marketing/Business triumph, not technology/technical skill. On the surface, I do agree with him that pure technology or technical competency is not enough to prosper in the market in most cases, but neither pure Marketing/Business is sufficient to bring success to tech companies. There need to be a balance, combining Technical brilliance with Marketing brilliance. But it's true that sometimes coders over emphasize on the coding side that they end up with a great product which no one use. 

Nowadays, a coder (especially founders) didn't just code, we innovate and create something new (or disruptive); we are an inventor/designer/artist, who happens to be the implementer/manufacturer/coder as well. Why do we need to code? Because it's difficult for another coder to realize our creation. Can someone draw on behalf of Picasso? Do we admire his painting skill, or we admire his creativity?

What did I learn from Seth? Spreading of Ideas, Connecting People, Building a Tribe and Create something Interesting.